the following are exerpts from Paulo Coelho's The Spy, based on the true life of Mata Hari who was executed for espionage in the early 1900's.
"'Zelle (Mata Hari) is the kind of dangerous woman we see nowadays. The ease with which she expresses herself in several languages- especially French- her numerous relations in all areas, her subtle was of woeming into social sircles, her elegance, her remarkable intelligence, her immorality, all this contributess to her being seen as a potential suspect."'
'Though today they laugh and shake hands with one another, the day will come when this entire farce is unmasked. Even if that never happens, they know they condemned an innocent person because they needed to distract the people, just the way our revolution, before bringing about equality, fraternity, and liberty, had to put the guillotine in the public square to provide bloody entertainment to those who still lacked bread. They tied one problem to another, thinking that would result in a solution, but all they did was create a heavy chain of indestructible steel, a chain they will have to drag for the rest of their lives.'
