tated with a perpetually renewing uneasiness, I would have destroyed all the population of the prisons and Bagnes, who, having been the means of casting me into the abyss of misery, had kept me there by their vile disclosures. It will not excite wonder, when I say that I ran with haste to the palace of justice to assure myself of the truth; it was not mid-day, and I had great trouble in reaching the grating, near which I fixed myself, waiting for the fatal moment.
At last four o'clock struck, and the wicket opened. A man appeared first on the sledge. It was Herbaux. His face was covered with a deadly paleness, whilst he affected a firmness which the convulsive workings of his features belied. He pretended to talk to his companion, who was already incapacitated from hearing him. At the signal of departure Herbaux, with a countenance into which he infused all the audacity he could force, gazed round on the crowd, and his eyes met mine. He started, and the blood rushed to his face. The procession passed on, and I remained as motionless as the bronze railings on which I was leaning; and I should probably have remained longer, if an inspector of the palace had not desired me to come away. Twenty minutes afterwards a car, laden with a red basket, and escorted by a gendarme, was hurried over the Pont-au-Change, going towards the burial-ground allotted for felons. Then, with an oppressed feeling at my heart, I went away, and regained my lodgings, full of sorrowful reflections.
I have since learnt, that, during his detention at the Bicêtre, Herbaux had expressed his regret at having been instrumental in getting me condemned, when innocent. The crime which had brought this wretch to the scaffold was a murder committed, in company with Saint Leger, on a lady of the Place Dauphine. These two villains had obtained access to their victim under pretence of giving her tidings of her son, whom they said they had seen in the army.
Although, in fact, Herbaux's execution could not
