"I do not recommend you, or any of those around you, to make the
experiment," was my indignant answer.

The bystanders gave a general laugh, in which even the guard joined.
To get the laugh against one, is the most unpardonable of all injuries
in France, and this answer roused up the whole tribunal. They scarcely
gave themselves the trouble of a moment's consultation. A few nods and
whispers settled the whole affair; and the chief, standing up and
drawing his sabre from its sheath--then the significant custom of
those places of butchery, pronounced the fatal words, "Guilty of
_incivisme_. Let the criminal be conducted _à la Force_," the
well-known phrase for immediate execution.

The door was opened from which none ever came back. Two torches were
seen glaring down the passage, and I was seized by the grim escort who
were to lead me to the axe.

The affectation of cowardice is as childish as the affectation of
courage; but I felt a sensation at that moment which took me by
surprise. I had been perfectly assured of my sentence from the first
glance at the judges. If ever there was a spot on earth which deserved
Dante's motto of Erebus--

"Voi qui entrate, lasciate agui speranza"--

it was the revolutionary tribunal. Despair was written all over it in
characters impossible to be mistaken. I had fixed my resolution to go
through the whole scene, if not with heroism, at least with that
decent firmness which becomes a man; yet the sound of the words which