not marked by any peculiar good fortune; for it was laughed at, as
every thing in France was except an order for deportation to the
colonies, or a march to the scaffold. The populace, fully admitting
the right of government to deal with kings and priests as it pleased,
regarded the interference with their pleasures as a breach of compact;
and the result was, that the populace had their Dimanche as well as
their Decadi, and that the grand experiment for wiping out the Sunday,
issued in giving them two holidays instead of one.

It was still early in the day when some bustle in the porch of the
prison turned all eyes towards it, and a new detachment of prisoners
was brought in. I shall say nothing of the scenes of wretchedness
which followed; the wild terrors of women on finding themselves in
this melancholy place, which looked, and was, scarcely more than a
vestibule to the tomb; the deep distress of parents, with their
children clinging round them, and the general despair--a despair which
was but too well founded. Yet the tumult of their settling and
distribution among the various quarters of the chapel had scarcely
subsided when another scene was at hand. The commissary of the
district came in, with a list of the prisoners who were summoned
before the tribunal. Our prison population was like the waters of a
bath, as one stream flowed in another flowed out; the level was
constantly sustained. With an instinctive pang I heard my name
pronounced among those unhappy objects of sanguinary rule. Cassini
approached me with a smile, which he evidently put on to conceal his
emotion.

"This is quick work, M. Marston," said he, taking my hand. "As the
ruffian in the school fable says, 'Hodie tibi, cras nihi'--twelve
hours will probably make all the difference between us."