. At Montmartre carriages were
requisitioned and taxi-cabs were at a premium. Women in gorgeous
toilets and sparkling with jewels streamed from the open doors into the
carriages which should bear them swiftly towards the Sante prison, and
the place of execution. In the faubourgs likewise, the bars were emptied
of their customers, and men and women, linked arm-in-arm, set forth on
foot, with songs and ribaldries upon their lips, for the spectacle of
blood and the boulevard Arago.

Around the Sante prison an atmosphere of pleasure reigned as the people,
massed together in tight ranks, produced bottles of wine, and ate
sausages, and gaily enjoyed an improvised supper in the open air, while
speculating about the details of the sight they had come to see. And so
the crowd amused itself, for Gurn's head was going to fall.

Worming his way through the crowd, Francois Bonbonne, the landlord of
the Saint-Anthony's Pig, led a little company of friends who took
advantage of his great stature to find the best path to take.

The landlord was half-drunk already in honour of the occasion.

"Come along, Billy Tom," he shouted. "Catch hold of the tail of my coat
and then you won't lose us. Where is Hogshead Geoffroy?"

"He's coming along with Bouzille."

"Good! Just fancy if Bouzille had tried to get through here with his
train! There are some people about, eh?"

Two men passed the landlord of the market inn just then.

"Come along," said one of them, and as the other caught him up, Juve
added: "Didn't you recognise those fellows?"

"No," said Fandor.

Juve told him the names of the men whom they had passed.

"You will understand that I don't want them to recognise me," he said,
and as Fandor smiled Juve went on: "It's a queer thing, but it is always
the future customers of the guillotine, apaches and fellows like that,
who make a point of seeing this ghastly spectacle." The detective
stopped and laid a hand upon the journalist's shoulder. "Wait," he said,
"we are right in front now: only the men who are holding the line are
ahead of us. If we want to get through and avoid the crush we must make
ourselves known at once. Here is your pass."

Jerome Fandor took the card which Juve held out to him, and had got for
him as a special favour.

"What do we do now?" he asked.

"Here come the municipal guards," Juve replied; "I can see their sabres
flashing. We will get behind the newspaper kiosks and let them drive the
crowd bac