wn open, I was ordered to walk forth into the court of the prison.
Two squadrons of my own regiment, all who were not on duty, were
drawn up, dismounted, and without arms; beside them stood a company
of grenadiers and a half battalion of the line, the corps to which the
other two prisoners belonged, and who now came forward, in shirtsleeves
like myself, into the middle of the court.

One of my fellow-sufferers was a very old soldier, whose hair and
beard were white as snow; the other was a middle-aged man, of a dark and
forbidding aspect, who scowled at me angrily as I came up to his side,
and seemed as if he scorned the companionship. I returned a glance,
haughty and as full of defiance as his own, and never noticed him after.

The drum beat a roll, and the word was given for silence in the
ranks--an order so strictly obeyed, that even the clash of a weapon was
unheard, and, stepping in front of the line, the Auditeur Militaire read
out the sentences. As for me, I heard but the words '_Peine afflictive
et infamante'_; all the rest became confusion, shame, and terror
commingled; nor did I know that the ceremonial was over when the troops
began to defile, and we were marched back again to our prison quarters.

CHAPTER XIV. A SURPRISE AND AN ESCAPE

It is a very common subject of remark in newspapers, and as invariably
repeated with astonishment by the readers, how well and soundly such
a criminal slept on the night before his execution. It reads like a
wonderful evidence of composure, or some not less surprising proof of
apathy or indifference. I really believe it has as little relation to
one feeling as to the other, and is simply the natural consequence of
faculties overstrained, and a brain surcharged with blood; sleep being
induced by causes purely physical in their nature. For myself, I can say
that I was by no means indifferent to life, nor had I any contempt for
the form of death that awaited me. As localities which have failed to
inspire a strong attachment become endowed with a certain degree of
interest when we are about to part from them for ever, I never held
life so desirable as now that I was going to leave it; and yet, with all
this, I fell into a sleep so heavy and profound, that I never awoke
till late in the evening. Twice was I shaken by the shoulder ere I could
throw off the heavy weight of slumber; and even when I looked up, and
saw the armed figures around me, I could have lain down once mor