her elderly, widowed mother. She returned to Compiègne four days before their execution and along with the rest of the sisters, was arrested. In August 1792, the government ordered all women's monasteries closed; the seizure and removal of the Compiègne convent's furnishings occurred on 12 September, and the sisters were forced to leave the convent and re-enter the world on 14 September, the end of their cloistered community. Mother Teresa made arrangements for the 20 sisters living in the convent at the time to hide in the city in four separate apartments and find civilian clothes for them to wear, since the wearing of habits and religious apparel had been outlawed. They were dependent on the charity of friends, and "courageously continued to practice community prayer", despite the government's orders. In 1794, after the Terror began, the government searched the sisters' apartments for two days; they found letters revealing their "crimes" against the Revolution, which included hostility to the Revolution, strong sympathies to the monarchy, and evidence that they continued to live as a community of consecrated Christian women. They also found two letters written by "the unfortunate" Mulot de la Ménardière to his cousin, Sister Euphrasia of the Immaculate Conception, containing unfavorable criticisms of the Revolution. Mulot was accused of helping them and of being a non-juring priest, even though he was married, and was arrested and imprisoned with the sisters. On 22 June, the sisters and Mulot were arrested and locked up in the former convent of the Visitation, an improvised jail for political prisoners in Compiègne. On 10 July 1794, they were transferred to the Conciergerie Prison in Paris to await trial. The sisters recanted their civic oath while in prison. During their trial on 17 July 1794, in which they received no legal counsel, Sister Mary-Henrietta tried to force the prosecutor to define the word "fanatic", one of the charges against them. She pretended she did not know what the word meant, thus getting him to admit their fanaticism was due to their religion, which made them "criminals and annihilators of public freedom". Mother Teresa claimed full responsibility for the charges of being counter-revolutionaries and religious fanatics, and defended and insisted on the others' innocence. All 16 sisters, along with Mulot, were sentenced to death. At one point, while waiting for the transportation from the Conciergerie to the site of their executions, one of the nuns,