[4] Her lawyer was delinquent, so she was defended by a military officer, the maréchal des logis Bordelais: he "relied on the wisdom of the council".

[6] Victor Hugo took up the defence, partly of Théophile Ferré and Louis Rossel, but also of three women: Léontine Suétens, Eulalie Papavoine, and Joséphine Marchais.

Try to answer yes.Either the pardon commission hesitated in the face of the lack of evidence, or Hugo's intervention was decisive; the death sentences of the three women were commuted to hard labour in Guiana.

In 1877, the governor of Guiana complained about Suétens and her fellow inmates, indignant that they created "perpetual embarassments" and caused complaints from prison staff.

He requested from the ministère de la Marine "the authorization to place them in provisional freedom, as is done for black women".

Édith Thomas, the first historian to be interested in the case of the "pétroleuses", is unambiguous about the innocence of Léontine Suétens: two of the women who were put on trial "may have taken part in the fires.

But certainly not Élizabeth Rétiffe, Léontine Suétens, Joséphine Marchais, Eulalie Papavoine, or Aurore Machu - all of whom were condemned as "pétroleuses", because someone had to be guilty and no one could be found.