any were women and children. "Here they come!"
the mob yelled. "Down with the priests! shoot them! kill them!"
Paul preserved his composure, and looked on with a smile of serene
hope upon his face. "The scene was like that horror from which he
had prayed to be saved. His terror was gone. His prayer had been
answered."

The prisoners on reaching La Roquette were first passed into a
hall, where they found the archbishop and several priests. The
former was calm, but he was ill, and his features bore marks of
acute suffering. After an hour's delay the prisoners were locked
into separate cells, from which real malefactors had been removed
to make room for them.

In the next cell to Paul was the Abbe Planchet. By standing at
the window they could hear each other's voices. The abbe could
read Thomas a Kempis to his fellow prisoner, and they daily recited
together the litany for the dying.

One of the imprisoned priests was a missionary lately returned
from China; and when they met at the hours allowed for fresh air in
the courtyard, Paul was eager to hear his accounts of the martyrdom
and steadfastness of Chinese converts. "M. Paul," said an old soldier
who was one of the hostages, "seemed to look on martyrdom as a
privilege, regretting only the pain it would cause his family."

On Wednesday, May 24, the execution of the archbishop and five
others took place, Paul saw them pass by his window; one of the
escort shook his gun at him, and pointing it at the archbishop,
gave him to understand what they were going to do.

The next day, Thursday, May 25, the order came. "Citizens," said
the messenger who brought it, "pay attention, and answer when your
names are called. Fifteen of you are wanted." As each was named,
he stepped out of the ranks and took his place in the death-row.
Paul Seigneret was one of them. He seemed perfectly calm, and gently
pressed the hand of his Seminary friend who was not summoned.

In the courtyard they were joined by thirty-five ex-policemen,
so-called hostages like themselves. The execution was to take place
in the Rue Haxo, at the farthest extremity of Belleville, and the
march was made on foot, so that the victims were exposed to all the
insults of the populace. It has been said that when they reached
the Rue Haxo, where they were placed against a wall, Paul was thrown
down while attempting to defend an aged priest, and was maltreated
by the crowd; but this account was not confirmed when, four