e masses showed a dull satisfaction in the punishment
of the Combray ladies, saying "that neither rank nor riches had counted,
and that, guilty like the others, they were treated like the others,"
the bourgeois population of Rouen, still very indulgent to the
royalists, disapproved of the condemnation of the two women, who had
only been convicted of a crime by which neither of them had profited.
The reprieve granted to Mme. Acquet, "whose declaration had deceived no
one," seemed a good omen, indicating a commutation of her sentence. The
nine "brigands" condemned to death received no pity. Lefebre was not
known in Rouen, and his attitude during the trial had aroused no
sympathy; the others were but vulgar actors in the drama, and only
interested the populace hungry for a spectacle on the scaffold. The
executions would take place immediately, the judgments pronounced by the
special court being without appeal, like those of the former
revolutionary tribunals.

The nine condemned men were taken to the conciergerie. It was night when
their "toilet" was begun. The high-executioner, Charles-Andre Ferey, of
an old Norman family of executioners, had called on his cousins Joanne
and Desmarets to help him, and while the scaffold was being hastily
erected on the Place du Vieux-Marche, they made preparations in the
prison. In the anguish of this last hour on earth Flierle's courage
weakened. He sent a gaoler to the imperial procurer to ask "if a
reprieve would be granted to any one who would make important
revelations." On receiving a negative reply the German seemed to resign
himself to his fate. "Since that is the case," he said, "I will carry my
secret to the tomb with me."

The doors of the conciergerie did not open until seven in the evening.
By the light of torches the faces of the condemned were seen in the
cart, moving above the crowds thronging the narrow streets. The usual
route from the prison to the scaffold was by the Rue du Gros-Horloge,
and this funeral march by torchlight and execution at midnight in
December must have been a terrifying event. The crowd, kept at a
distance, probably saw nothing but the glimmering light of the torches
in the misty air, and the shadowy forms moving on the platform.
According to the _Journal de Rouen_ of the next day, Flierle mounted
first, then Harel, Grand-Charles, Fleur d'Epine and Le Hericey who took
part with him in the attack on June 7th. Lefebre "passed" sixth. The
knife struck