, saying as he did
so: "Mademoiselle de Montrevel, forgive me for causing you so much pain,
but it is useless for you to go to Paris."

"Because the appeal has been rejected and the execution takes place
to-morrow, I suppose you mean," said Amelie.

The jailer in his astonishment stepped back a pace.

"I knew it, my friend," said Amelie. Then turning to Charlotte, she
said: "Take me to the nearest church and come for me to-morrow after all
is over."

The nearest church was not far off. It was that of Sainte-Claire. For
the last three months it had been opened for public worship under the
decree of the First Consul. As it was now nearly midnight, the doors
were closed; but Charlotte knew where the sexton lived and she went to
wake him. Amelie waited, leaning against the walls as motionless as the
marble figures that adorned its frontal.

The sexton arrived at the end of half an hour. During that time the girl
had seen a dreadful sight. Three men had passed her, dragging a cart,
which she saw by the light of the moon was painted red. Within this cart
she perceived shapeless objects, long planks and singular ladders,
all painted the same color. They were dragging it toward the bastion
Montrevel, the place used for the executions. Amelie divined what it
was, and, with a cry, she fell upon her knees.

At that cry the men in black turned round. They fancied for a moment
that one of the sculptured figures of the porch had descended from
its niche and was kneeling there. The one who seemed to be the leader
stepped close to the young girl.

"Don't come near me!" she cried. "Don't come near me!"

The man returned humbly to his place and continued on his way. The cart
disappeared round the corner of the Rue des Prisons; but the noise of
its wheels still sounded on the stones and echoed in the girl's heart.

When the sacristan and Charlotte returned they found the young girl on
her knees. The man raised some objections against opening the church
at that hour of the night; but a piece of gold and Mademoiselle de
Montrevel's name dispelled his scruples. A second gold piece decided him
to light a little chapel. It was the one in which Amelie had made her
first communion. There, kneeling before the altar, she implored them to
leave her alone.

Toward three in the morning she saw the colored window above the altar
of the Virgin begin to lighten. It looked to the east, so that the first
ray of light came direct to her eyes as