ion, by touching a cord that acts upon it.

Fresh bursts of laughter hailed this jest.

"And then Charlot opens the baker's (the devil's) door," continued the
Skeleton, still smoking his pipe.

"Ah, bah! Is there a devil?"

"You fool, I was only joking. There's a sharp blade, and they put a head
under it, and that's all. And now that I know my road, and must stay at
the abbey of _Mont-a-Regret_ (guillotine), I would rather go there
to-day than to-morrow," said the Skeleton, with savage excitement. "I
wish I was there now,--my blood comes into my mouth when I think what a
crowd there'll be to see me; there'll be, at least, I should say, from
four to five thousand who will push and squeeze to get good places, and
they'll hire seats and windows, as if for a grand procession. I hear 'em
now crying, 'Seats to let! Seats to let!' And then there'll be troops of
soldiers, cavalry and infantry, and all for me,--for the Skeleton!
That's enough to rouse a man if he was as big a coward as
Pique-Vinaigre, that would make you walk like a hero. All eyes on you,
and that makes a fellow pluck up; then--'tis but a moment--a fellow dies
game, and that annoys the big-wigs and curs, and gives the knowing ones
pluck to face the chopper."

"That's true, on Gospel!" added Barbillon, trying to imitate the fearful
audacity of the Skeleton; "they think to make us funky when they set
Charlot to work to get his shop open at our expense."

"Ah, bah!" said Nicholas, in his turn; "we laugh at Charlot and his
shop; it is like the prison or the galleys,--we laugh at them, too; and
so, that we may be all friends together, let's be jolly as long as we
can."

"The thing that would do us," said the shrill-voiced prisoner, "would be
to put us in solitary cells day and night. They do say they mean to do
so at last."

"In solitary cells!" exclaimed the Skeleton, with repressed rage; "don't
talk of it! Solitary cell--alone! Hold your tongue! I would rather have
my arms and legs cut off! Alone within four walls! Quite alone--without
having our pals to laugh with! Oh, that will never be! I like the
galleys a hundred times better than the central prison, because at the
galleys, instead of being shut up, one is out-of-doors, sees the world,
people going and coming, and has his jokes and fun. Well, I'd rather be
done for at once than be put in a solitary cell, if only for a year.
Yes, for at this moment I am sure to be guillotined--ain't I? Well, if
they s