building of one story, with a great coach-door.

"Then there was a court, around which were stables, coach-houses,
offices.

"Then there was a house--a two-storied house, with a perron in front.

"Behind the house was a garden--a garden of two hundred and fifty French
feet in length.

"And as one hundred feet of France equal one hundred and six feet of
England, this garden, my friends, equalled exactly two hundred and
sixty-five feet of British measure.

"In the centre of the garden was a fountain and a statue--or, to speak
more correctly, two statues. One was recumbent,--a man. Over him, sabre
in hand, stood a woman.

"The man was Olofernes. The woman was Judith. From the head, from the
trunk, the water gushed. It was the taste of the doctor:--was it not a
droll of taste?

"At the end of the garden was the doctor's cabinet of study. My faith, a
singular cabinet, and singular pictures!--

"Decapitation of Charles Premier at Vitehall.

"Decapitation of Montrose at Edimbourg.

"Decapitation of Cinq Mars. When I tell you that he was a man of a
taste, charming!

"Through this garden, by these statues, up these stairs, went the pale
figure of him who, the porter said, knew the way of the house. He did.
Turning neither right nor left, he seemed to walk THROUGH the statues,
the obstacles, the flower-beds, the stairs, the door, the tables, the
chairs.

"In the corner of the room was THAT INSTRUMENT, which Guillotin had just
invented and perfected. One day he was to lay his own head under his own
axe. Peace be to his name! With him I deal not!

"In a frame of mahogany, neatly worked, was a board with a half-circle
in it, over which another board fitted. Above was a heavy axe, which
fell--you know how. It was held up by a rope, and when this rope was
untied, or cut, the steel fell.

"To the story which I now have to relate, you may give credence, or not,
as you will. The sleeping man went up to that instrument.

"He laid his head in it, asleep."

"Asleep?"

"He then took a little penknife out of the pocket of his white dimity
waistcoat.

"He cut the rope asleep.

"The axe descended on the head of the traitor and villain. The notch in
it was made by the steel buckle of his stock, which was cut through.

"A strange legend has got abroad that after the deed was done, the
figure rose, took the head from the basket, walked forth through the
garden, and by the screaming porters at the gate, and went and laid