the gallows at midnight. As he stood on the ladder, amid the flaming
torches, he broke forth into furious execrations, wagging his long white
beard to and fro, making hideous grimaces, and cursing the hard fate
which, after many dangers on the battle-field and in beleaguered cities,
had left him to such a death. The cord strangled his curses. Crugeot
was executed at three in the morning, having obtained a few hours'
respite in order to make his preparations, which he accordingly occupied
himself in doing as tranquilly as if he had been setting forth upon an
agreeable journey. He looked like a phantom, according to eye-witnesses,
as he stood under the gibbet, making a most pious and, Catholic address
to the crowd.

The whole of the following day was devoted to the trial of Gosson. He
was condemned at nightfall, and heard by appeal before the superior court
directly afterwards. At midnight, of the 25th of October, 1578, he was
condemned to lose his head, the execution to take place without delay.
The city guards and the infantry under Capres still bivouacked upon the
square; the howling storm still continued, but the glare of fagots and
torches made the place as light as day. The ancient advocate, with
haggard eyes and features distorted by wrath, walking between the sheriff
and a Franciscan monk, advanced through the long lane of halberdiers, in
the grand hall of the Town House, and thence emerged upon the scaffold
erected before the door. He shook his fists with rage at the released
magistrates, so lately his prisoners, exclaiming that to his misplaced
mercy it was owing that his head, instead of their own, was to be placed
upon the block. He bitterly reproached the citizens for their cowardice
in shrinking from dealing a blow for their fatherland, and in behalf of
one who had so faithfully served them. The clerk of the court then read
the sentence amid a silence so profound that every syllable he uttered,
and, every sigh and ejaculation of the victim were distinctly heard in