You could put yourself into a pre-execution situation and try to imagine how you would thank a brave stranger who had held your hand in the tumbril. It might go something like this:
'What I have been thinking as we came along, and what I am still thinking now, as I look into your kind strong face which gives me so much support, is this:--if the Republic really does good to the poor, and they come to be less hungry, and in all ways to suffer less, she may live a long time: she may even live to be old.'
It's not a bad start.