feat_summary_path: finished_summaries/shmoop/The Red and the Black/section_70_part_0.txt
feat_book_id: The Red and the Black.part 2.chapter 41
feat_summary_id: part 2, chapter 41
feat_summary: {"name": "Part 2, Chapter 41", "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20200920104425/https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/red-and-the-black/summary/part-2-chapter-41", "summary": "The day of the trial arrives. Nearly the entire countryside has come out for the spectacle. The vicar-general assures Mathilde that there's no way Julien will get the death penalty. When it comes time for Julien to defend himself, though, he stands up and says all the same stuff he's been saying all along about wanting to kill Madame de Renal. And for good measure, he uses his moment in the spotlight to tell all the fashionable people of France just how superficial and empty their souls are. As you can imagine, this doesn't go over well with the jury.", "analysis": ""}
text: CHAPTER LXXI
  
  THE TRIAL
  
  
          The country will remember this celebrated case for
          a long time. The interest in the accused amounted
          to an agitation. The reason was that his crime was
          astonishing, and yet not atrocious. Even if it had been,
          this young man was so handsome. His brilliant career,
          that came to an end so early in his life, intensified
          the pathos. "Will they condemn him?" the women asked of
          the men of their acquaintance, and they could be seen to
          grow pale as they waited for the answer.--_Sainte Beuve_.
  
  
  The day that madame de Renal and Mathilde feared so much arrived at
  last.
  
  Their terror was intensified by the strange appearance of the town,
  which had its emotional effect even upon Fouque's sturdy soul. All the
  province had rushed to Besancon to see the trial of this romantic case.
  
  There had been no room left in the inns for some days. M. the president
  of the assizes, was besieged by requests for tickets; all the ladies
  in the town wanted to be present at the trial. Julien's portrait was
  hawked about the streets, etc., etc.
  
  Mathilde was keeping in reserve for this supreme moment a complete
  autograph letter from my lord, bishop of ----. This prelate, who
  governed the Church of France and created its bishops, was good enough
  to ask for Julien's acquittal. On the eve of the trial, Mathilde took
  this letter to the all-powerful grand vicar.
  
  When she was going away in tears at the end of the interview, M.
  de Frilair at last emerged from his diplomatic reserve and almost
  shewed some emotion himself. "I will be responsible for the jury's
  verdict," he said to her. "Out of the twelve persons charged with the
  investigation of whether your friend's crime is made out, and above
  all, whether there was premeditation, I can count six friends who are
  devoted to my fortunes, and I have given them to understand that they
  have it in their power to promote me to the episcopate. Baron Valenod,
  whom I have made mayor of Verrieres, can do just as he likes with two
  of his officials, MM. de Moirod, and de Cholin. As a matter of fact,
  fate has given us for this business two jurymen of extremely loose
  views; but, although ultra-Liberals, they are faithful to my orders on
  great occasions, and I have requested them to vote like M. Valenod.
  I have learnt that a sixth juryman, a manufacturer, who is immensely
  rich, and a garrulous Liberal into the bargain, has secret aspirations
  for a contract with the War Office, and doubtless he would not like to
  displease me. I have had him told that M. de Valenod knows my final
  injunctions."
  
  "And who is this M. Valenod?" said Mathilde, anxiously.
  
  "If you knew him, you could not doubt our success. He is an audacious
  speaker, coarse, impudent, with a natural gift for managing fools. 1814
  saw him in low water, and I am going to make a prefect of him. He is
  capable of beating the other jurymen if they do not vote his way."
  
  Mathilde felt a little reassured.
  
  Another discussion awaited her in the evening. To avoid the
  prolongation of an unpleasant scene, the result of which, in his view,
  was absolutely certain, Julien had resolved not to make a speech.
  
  "My advocate will speak," he said to Mathilde. "I shall figure too long
  anyway as a laughing-stock to all my enemies. These provincials have
  been shocked by the rapidity of my success, for which I have to thank
  you, and believe me, there is not one of them who does not desire my
  conviction, though he would be quite ready to cry like an idiot when I
  am taken to my death."
  
  "They desire to see you humiliated. That is only too true," answered
  Mathilde, "but I do not think they are at all cruel. My presence at
  Besancon, and the sight of my sufferings have interested all the women;
  your handsome face will do the rest. If you say a few words to your
  judges, the whole audience will be on your side, etc., etc."
  
  At nine o'clock on the following day, when Julien left his prison
  for the great hall of the Palais de Justice, the gendarmes had much
  difficulty in driving away the immense crowd that was packed in the
  courtyard. Julien had slept well. He was very calm, and experienced no
  other sentiment except a sense of philosophic pity towards that crowd
  of jealous creatures who were going to applaud his death sentence,
  though without cruelty. He was very surprised when, having been
  detained in the middle of the crowd more than a quarter of an hour,
  he was obliged to admit that his presence affected the public with
  a tender pity. He did not hear a single unpleasant remark. "These
  provincials are less evil than I thought," he said to himself.
  
  As he entered the courtroom, he was struck by the elegance of the
  architecture. It was real Gothic, with a number of pretty little
  columns hewn out of stone with the utmost care. He thought himself in
  England.
  
  But his attention was soon engrossed by twelve or fifteen pretty
  women, who sat exactly opposite the prisoner's seat and filled the
  three balconies above the judges and the jury. As he turned round
  towards the public, he saw that the circular gallery that dominated the
  amphitheatre was filled with women, the majority were young and seemed
  very pretty, their eyes were shining and full of interest. The crowd
  was enormous throughout the rest of the room. People were knocking
  against the door, and the janitors could not obtain silence.
  
  When all the eyes that were looking for Julien observed where he was,
  and saw him occupying the slightly raised place which is reserved for
  the prisoner, he was greeted by a murmur of astonishment and tender
  interest.
  
  You would have taken him for under twenty on this day. He was dressed
  very simply, but with a perfect grace. His hair and his forehead were
  charming. Mathilde had insisted on officiating personally at his
  toilette. Julien's pallor was extreme. Scarcely was he seated in this
  place than he heard people say all over the room, "Great heavens! how
  young he is!... But he's quite a child!... He is much better than his
  portrait."
  
  "Prisoner," said the gendarme who was sitting on his right, "do you see
  those six ladies in that balcony?" The gendarme pointed out a little
  gallery that jutted out over the amphitheatre where the jury were
  placed. "That's madame, the prefect's wife," continued the gendarme.
  "Next to her, madame the marquise de M----. She likes you well: I have
  heard her speak to the judge of first instance. Next to her is madame
  Derville."
  
  "Madame Derville!" exclaimed Julien, and a vivid blush spread over his
  forehead. "When she leaves here," he thought, "she will write to madame
  de Renal." He was ignorant of madame de Renal's arrival at Besancon.
  The witnesses were quickly heard. After the first words of the opening
  of the prosecution by the advocate-general, two of the ladies in the
  little balcony just opposite Julien burst into tears. Julien noticed
  that madame Derville did not break down at all. He remarked, however,
  that she was very red.
  
  The advocate-general was indulging in melodrama in bad French over the
  barbarity of the crime that had been perpetrated. Julien noticed that
  madame Derville's neighbours seemed to manifest a keen disapproval.
  Several jurors, who were apparently acquainted with the ladies, spoke
  to them and seemed to reassure them. "So far as it goes, that is
  certainly a good omen," thought Julien.
  
  Up to the present, he had felt himself steeped in an unadulterated
  contempt for all the persons who were present at the trial. This
  sentiment of disgust was intensified by the stale eloquence of
  the advocate-general. But the coldness of Julien's soul gradually
  disappeared before the marks of interest of which he was evidently the
  object.
  
  He was satisfied with the sturdy demeanour of his advocate. "No
  phrases," he said to him in a whisper, as he was about to commence his
  speech.
  
  "All the bombast which our opponent has stolen from Bossuet and
  lavished upon you," said the advocate, "has done you good."
  
  As a matter of fact, he had scarcely spoken for five minutes before
  practically all the women had their handkerchiefs in their hands. The
  advocate was encouraged, and addressed some extremely strong remarks
  to the jury. Julien shuddered. He felt on the point of breaking into
  tears. "My God," he thought, "what would my enemies say?"
  
  He was on the point of succumbing to the emotion which was overcoming
  him, when, luckily for him, he surprised an insolent look from M. the
  baron de Valenod.
  
  "That rogue's eyes are gleaming," he said to himself "What a triumph
  for that base soul! If my crime had only produced this one result, it
  would be my duty to curse it. God knows what he will say about it to
  madame de Renal."
  
  This idea effaced all others. Shortly afterwards Julien was brought
  back to reality by the public's manifestation of applause. The advocate
  had just finished his speech. Julien remembered that it was good form
  to shake hands with him. The time had passed rapidly.
  
  They brought in refreshments for the advocate and the prisoner. It was
  only then that Julien was struck by the fact that none of the women had
  left the audience to go and get dinner.
  
  "Upon my word, I am dying of hunger," said the advocate. "And you?"
  
  "I, too," answered Julien.
  
  "See, there's madame, the prefect's wife, who is also getting her
  dinner," said the advocate, as he pointed out the little balcony. "Keep
  up your courage; everything is going all right." The court sat again.
  
  Midnight struck as the president was summing up. The president was
  obliged to pause in his remarks. Amid the silence and the anxiety of
  all present, the reverberation of the clock filled the hall.
  
  "So my last day is now beginning," thought Julien. He soon felt
  inflamed by the idea of his duty. Up to the present he had controlled
  his emotion and had kept his resolution not to speak. When the
  president of the assizes asked him if he had anything to add, he got
  up. He saw in front of him the eyes of madame Derville, which seemed
  very brilliant in the artificial light. "Can she by any chance be
  crying?" he thought.
  
  "Gentlemen of the jury!
  
  "I am induced to speak by my fear of that contempt which I thought,
  at the very moment of my death, I should be able to defy. Gentlemen,
  I have not the honour of belonging to your class. You behold in me a
  peasant who has rebelled against the meanness of his fortune.
  
  "I do not ask you for any pardon," continued Julien, with a firmer
  note in his voice. "I am under no illusions. Death awaits me; it
  will be just. I have brought myself to make an attempt on the life
  of the woman who is most worthy of all reverence and all respect.
  Madame de Renal was a mother to me. My crime was atrocious, and it
  was premeditated. Consequently, I have deserved death, gentlemen of
  the jury. But even if I were not so guilty, I see among you men who,
  without a thought for any pity that may be due to my youth, would like
  to use me as a means for punishing and discouraging for ever that class
  of young man who, though born in an inferior class, and to some extent
  oppressed by poverty, have none the less been fortunate enough to
  obtain a good education, and bold enough to mix with what the pride of
  the rich calls Society.
  
  "That is my crime, gentlemen, and it will be punished with even more
  severity, inasmuch as, in fact, I am very far from being judged by my
  peers. I do not see on the jury benches any peasant who has made money,
  but only indignant bourgeois...."
  
  Julien talked in this strain for twenty minutes. He said everything
  he had on his mind. The advocate-general, who aspired to the favours
  of the aristocracy, writhed in his seat. But in spite of the somewhat
  abstract turn which Julien had given to his speech, all the women
  burst out into tears. Even madame Derville put her handkerchief to
  her eyes. Before finishing, Julien alluded again to the fact of his
  premeditation, to his repentance, and to the respect and unbounded
  filial admiration which, in happier days, he had entertained for madame
  de Renal.... Madame Derville gave a cry and fainted.
  
  One o'clock was striking when the jury retired to their room. None of
  the women had left their places; several men had tears in their eyes.
  The conversations were at first very animated, but, as there was a
  delay in the verdict of the jury, their general fatigue gradually began
  to invest the gathering with an atmosphere of calm. It was a solemn
  moment; the lights grew less brilliant. Julien, who was very tired,
  heard people around him debating the question of whether this delay was
  a good or a bad omen. He was pleased to see that all the wishes were
  for him. The jury did not come back, and yet not a woman left the court.
  
  When two o'clock had struck, a great movement was heard. The little
  door of the jury room opened. M. the baron de Valenod advanced with
  a slow and melodramatic step. He was followed by all the jurors. He
  coughed, and then declared on his soul and conscience that the jury's
  unanimous verdict was that Julien Sorel was guilty of murder, and of
  murder with premeditation. This verdict involved the death penalty,
  which was pronounced a moment afterwards. Julien looked at his watch,
  and remembered M. de Lavalette. It was a quarter past two. "To-day is
  Friday," he thought.
  
  "Yes, but this day is lucky for the Valenod who has got me
  convicted.... I am watched too well for Mathilde to manage to save me
  like madame de Lavalette saved her husband.... So in three days' time,
  at this very hour, I shall know what view to take about the great
  perhaps."
  
  At this moment he heard a cry and was called back to the things of this
  world. The women around him were sobbing: he saw that all faces were
  turned towards a little gallery built into the crowning of a Gothic
  pilaster. He knew later that Mathilde had concealed herself there. As
  the cry was not repeated, everybody began to look at Julien again, as
  the gendarmes were trying to get him through the crowd.
  
  "Let us try not to give that villain Valenod any chance of laughing
  at me," thought Julien. "With what a contrite sycophantic expression
  he pronounced the verdict which entails the death penalty, while that
  poor president of the assizes, although he has been a judge for years
  and years, had tears in his eyes as he sentenced me. What a joy the
  Valenod must find in revenging himself for our former rivalry for
  madame de Renal's favors! ... So I shall never see her again! The thing
  is finished.... A last good-bye between us is impossible--I feel it....
  How happy I should have been to have told her all the horror I feel for
  my crime!
  
  "Mere words. I consider myself justly convicted."
  
  
  
  
  
  
feat_summary_name: Part 2, Chapter 41
target: The day of the trial arrives. Nearly the entire countryside has come out for the spectacle. The vicar-general assures Mathilde that there's no way Julien will get the death penalty. When it comes time for Julien to defend himself, though, he stands up and says all the same stuff he's been saying all along about wanting to kill Madame de Renal. And for good measure, he uses his moment in the spotlight to tell all the fashionable people of France just how superficial and empty their souls are. As you can imagine, this doesn't go over well with the jury.