My birth,' said he, 'and my opinions must ever render me inflexible on this point.'"-- "The firmness of his answers," continues Hullin, "reduced the judges to despair.

Ten times we gave him an opening to retract his declarations, but he persisted in them immovably.

'I see,' he said, 'the honourable intentions of the commissioners, but I cannot resort to the means of safety which they indicate.' Being informed that the military commission judged without appeal, 'I know it,' answered he, 'nor do I disguise to myself the danger which I incur.
My only desire is to have an interview with the First Consul.'" The irregularities of all this procedure were monstrous.

In the first place, the duke owed no allegiance to the existing government of France.
2ndly, The seizure of his person was wholly illegal; it took place by means of a violation of an independent territory: an outrage for which it is impossible to offer the smallest excuse.

3rdly, Had the arrest been ever so regular, the trial of a prisoner accused of a political conspiracy was totally beyond the jurisdiction of a court-martial.
4thly, It was against the laws of France to hold any trial at midnight.
5thly, The interrogatory was not read over to the prisoner, which the law imperatively demanded; and, 6thly, No defender was assigned to him--an indulgence which the French code refuses not to the meanest or most atrocious criminal, by what tribunal soever he may be tried.
But to proceed--The judges were moved by the conduct of the prisoner, and inclined to listen to his request of an audience of the Chief Consul.