lofty column of bronze, which dominated this sea
like the gigantic mast of a sunken vessel. Cavalry in squadrons,
with swords drawn, guns in batteries stood at intervals along an open
passage, awaiting him who was to come by, perhaps in order to try to
retake him, to carry him off by force from the formidable enemy who was
bearing him away. Alas! all the cavalry charges, all the guns could be
of no avail here. The prisoner was departing, firmly guarded, defended
by a triple wall of hardwood, metal, and velvet, impervious to
grape-shot; and it was not from those soldiers that he could hope for
his deliverance.

"Get away from this. I will not stay here," said Felicia, furious,
plucking at the wet box-coat of the driver, and seized by a wild dread
at the thought of the nightmare which was pursuing her, of _that_
which she could hear coming in a frightful rumbling, still distant,
but growing nearer from minute to minute. At the first movement of the
wheels, however, the cries and shouts broke out anew. Thinking that he
would be allowed to cross the square, the driver had penetrated with
great difficulty to the front ranks of the crowd; it now closed behind
him and refused to allow him to go forward. There they had to remain,
to endure those odours of common people and of alcohol, those curious
glances, already fired by the prospect of an exceptional spectacle. They
stared rudely at the beautiful traveller who was starting off with
so many trunks, and a dog of such size for her defender. Crenmitz was
horribly afraid; Felicia, for her part, could think of only one thing,
and that was that _he_ was about to pass before her eyes, that she would
be in the front rank to see him.

Suddenly a great shout "Here it comes!" Then silence fell on the whole
square at last at the end of three weary hours of waiting.

It came.

Felicia's first impulse was to lower the blind on her side, on the side
past which the procession was about to pass. But at the rolling of the
drums close at hand, seized by the nervous wrath at her inability to
escape the obsession of the thing, perhaps also infected by the morbid
curiosity around her, she suddenly let the blind fly up, and her pale
and passionate little face showed itself at the window, supported by her
two clinched hands.

"There! since you will have it: I am watching you."

As a funeral it was as fine a thing as can be seen, the supreme honours
rendered in all their vain splendour, as s