I cannot imagine that this can be imputed to me as a crime." When asked whether she did not refer to her nephew as king, ignoring the fact that France was a republic, her reply: "I talked familiarly with the poor child, who was dear to me on more than one account; I therefore gave him the consolation which appeared to me capable of comforting him for the loss of those to whom he owed his being." This was interpreted as a sign that she "nourished the little Capet with the projects of vengeance which you and yours have not ceased to form against Liberty, and that you flattered yourself with the hope of raising again a broken throne by inundating it with the blood of patriots." Her defender Chauveau-Laofarde later recollected his speech in her defense: "I observed, that the Proces consisted of a list of banal accusations, without documents, without questions, without witnesses, and that, in consequence, where there existed no legal element of conviction there could be no legal conviction. I added that therefore they could only offer in opposition to the august accused, her replies to the questions they had made to her, as it was in these replies alone that the whole matter consisted; but that these answers themselves, far from condemning her, would, on the contrary, bring her honour in everyone's eyes, as they proved nothing but the goodness of her heart and the heroism of her friendship. Then, after developing these first ideas, I concluded by saying that instead of a Defence of Mme Elizabeth I had only to present her Apology, but that, In the impossibility of discovering one worthy of her, It only remained for me to make one remark, which was, that the Princess who in the Court of France had been the most perfect model of all virtues, could not be the enemy of the French." Dumas replied to her defender's "audacity to speak of what he called the pretended virtues of the Accused and to have thus corrupted public morality", and then held his speech to the Jury: "Plots and conspiracies have existed formed by Capet, his wife, his family, his agents, his accomplices, in consequence of which there have been provocations to war from the allied Tyrants abroad, and civil war at home. Succours in men and arms have been furnished to the enemy; troops have been