3-034-839 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Students interceding with M. Thiers for the life of Rossel, 1871. 'Much interest was felt...in the fate of Rossel, and it was hoped that the Committee of Pardons...would grant a commutation of the [death] penalty...a deputation of eighty Parisian young men went to Versailles to ask the President of the Republic, M. Thiers, to intervene for this purpose. They carried with them an address...imploring M. Thiers to order the judgments of the Council of War and the Council of Revision...to be submitted to the Cour de Cassation. They declared that Rossel's youth and character, his ardent patriotism, and his talents had excited general sympathy...in the eyes of many fanatics he would be a martyr. His execution would provoke much grief and regret, possibly hatred. [They] told M. Thiers that they knew him personally to be an advocate of mercy...but M. Thiers, who...was in the act of effecting his escape when he met them as he was getting into his carriage, and referred them in a few kindly words to M. Barthélemy St. Hilaire. The President...did not see...a strong argument in its favour, and he hinted as much to the deputation as he got into his carriage and drove off, refusing even to listen to their address...M. St. Hilaire accepted their petition'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.