‘Citizeness Lightfoot’s story is not an exceptional one. You have heard that she is an Englishwoman, one of those many votaries of decadence who came here to feed like jackals upon the scraps thrown to her by the depraved sons of aristocracy. So notorious were the excesses of our princes and counts, so renowned were they for their depravity and their inability to resist the lures of the flesh, that they issued forth a stink like that of a rotting corpse. This foul smell drew all the world’s scavengers to our shores to feast. Since her arrival here, she has been known among the filles de joie of the highest order and, for some time, consorted with a Madame Elliot, a fellow countrywoman, until she found the politics of that lady repellent and was encouraged to break off the acquaintance by Citizen Égalité, whose particular friend she became. This, citizens, is to her credit, but does not explain why she chose to keep a memorandum of the days she passed in the company of Citizen Égalité and his household. Neither does there seem to be an answer as to why she chose to record her thoughts in a coded version of her native tongue. Nor does it forgive her for maintaining in her employment a traitoress, Thérèse-Marie Bertrand, who served as her housemaid and whose sole endeavour was to bring about the ruin of the Republic. Citizens, let it be known to you that Thérèse Bertrand was found guilty of the most heinous offences against the Republic; that of acting as an agent for the counter-revolution. She had been at the centre of correspondence with émigrés, including some of the most despised enemies of our Republic: the Comte d’Artois, the Duc and Duchesse de Polignac, the Duc de Noailles and the Prince de Condé, whose mistress she had once been while a maid in his household.’ Fouquier-Tinville paused in his oration to pat his forehead with his handkerchief. The entire courtroom remained silent as he performed this task. He then cleared his throat.

‘Prior to taking her place before the guillotine but a fortnight ago, Citizeness Bertrand offered her confession. In it, she described how she had received the communiqués of these émigrés. They were written in code. She was then charged with the task of deciphering them with the aid of a book of ciphers, before passing on the information through further coded letters to the parties concerned. The book containing her ciphers was retrieved upon her arrest by our brother patriots in Moselle.’