" he asked.

"No, no!" Sambuc shouted in reply; "he would be only too glad." And
turning to Goliah: "You are not a soldier; you are not worthy of the
honor of quitting the world with a bullet in your head. No, you shall
die the death of a spy and the dirty pig that you are."

He looked over his shoulder and politely said:

"Silvine, if it's not troubling you too much, I would like to have a
tub."

During the whole of the trial scene Silvine had not moved a muscle. She
had stood in an attitude of waiting, with drawn, rigid features, as if
mind and body had parted company, conscious of nothing but the one fixed
idea that had possessed her for the last two days. And when she was
asked for a tub she received the request as a matter of course and
proceeded at once to comply with it, disappearing into the adjoining
shed, whence she returned with the big tub in which she washed Charlot's
linen.

"Hold on a minute! place it under the table, close to the edge."

She placed the vessel as directed, and as she rose to her feet her eyes
again encountered Goliah's. In the look of the poor wretch was a supreme
prayer for mercy, the revolt of the man who cannot bear the thought of
being stricken down in the pride of his strength. But in that moment
there was nothing of the woman left in her; nothing but the fierce
desire for that death for which she had been waiting as a deliverance.
She retreated again to the buffet, where she remained standing in silent
expectation.

Sambuc opened the drawer of the table and took from it a large kitchen
knife, the one that the household employed to slice their bacon.

"So, then, as you are a pig, I am going to stick you like a pig."

He proceeded in a very leisurely manner, discussing with Cabasse, and
Ducat the proper method of conducting the operation. They even came near
quarreling, because Cabasse alleged that in Provence, the country he
came from, they hung pigs up by the heels to stick them, at which Ducat
expressed great indignation, declaring that the method was a barbarous
and inconvenient one.

"Bring him well forward to the edge of the table, his head over the tub,
so as to avoid soiling the floor."

They drew him forward, and Sambuc went about his task in a tranquil,
decent manner. With a single stroke of the keen knife he slit the throat
crosswise from ear to ear, and immediately the blood from the severed
carotid artery commenced to drip, drip into the tub with the gentle