He was arrested on the 24th of July--exactly a week from the day
on which he had seen her die. He had powerful friends, and they
exerted themselves to obtain for him a promise of pardon and
release if he would publicly retract what he had written. But he
laughed the proposal to scorn, ardently resolved to follow into
death the woman who had aroused the hopeless, immaterial love
that made his present torment.
Still his friends strove for him. His trial was put off. A doctor
named Wetekind was found to testify that Adam Lux was mad, that
the sight of Charlotte Corday had turned his head. He wrote a
paper on this plea, recommending that clemency be shown to the
young doctor on the score of his affliction, and that he should
be sent to a hospital or to America. Adam Lux was angry when he
heard of this, and protested indignantly against the allegations
of Dr. Wetekind. He wrote to the Journal de la Montagne, which
published his declaration on the 26th of September, to the effect
that he was not mad enough to desire to live, and that his
anxiety to meet death half-way was a crowning proof of his
sanity.
He languished on in the prison of La Force until the 10th of
October, when at last he was brought to trial.
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