Justice, on this occasion, was not delayed. The trial of the delinquents followed close upon the commission of the murder; no circumstance of mitigation could be pleaded in their behalf, and they were both condemned to be broken on the wheel. No sooner did the sentence become known than the whole of the aristocratical class in France, Flanders, and Germany, was in commotion. To subject a nobleman to such a degrading punishment was declared to be an unprecedented and abominable measure. The regent was beset on all sides by solicitations for a pardon, or, at least, for a change in the mode of executing the criminal. When the first of these boons was found to be hopeless, redoubled exertions were made to obtain the second. Among the arguments employed to move the regent, that of the culprit being related to him was strongly urged. But, though Philip of Orleans was stained by many vices, there were moments when his better nature prevailed, and he was capable of acting nobly. To the near relations of the count, who pressed him incessantly on the subject, he replied, “When I have impure blood in my veins, I have it drawn out.” Then, quoting the sentiment of Corneille, “’tis crime that brands with shame, and not the scaffold,” he added, “I must share in the disgrace of which you complain, and this ought to console the rest of his kindred.” It is said, however, that he was at length on the point of yielding so far as to commute the form of punishment for one less obnoxious; but that Mr. Law and the Abbé Dubois insisted on the absolute necessity of allowing justice to take its course. Popular indignation would, they justly remarked, be roused by any favour being shown to the perpetrator of such a heinous offence. The regent acquiesced in their opinion; and, that he might not be harassed by further appeals to his clemency, he went privately to St. Cloud, where he remained till the murderers were executed. Having lost all hope from the Regent, the Princes of Robecq and Isengheim, who were nearly allied to De Horn, tried a new method of evading the dreaded stigma. They gained admission to his prison, and exhorted him to escape the wheel, by taking poison, which they offered. But either religious scruples, or a lingering belief that he might yet be pardoned, induced him to decline acceding to their wishes. Finding that all their intreaties and remonstrances were unavailing, they quitted him in a rage, exclaiming, “Go, wretch! you are fit only to die by the hand of the executioner.”