of the Conciergerie. Heron had just visited the prisoner as was
his wont at this hour of the night. He had watched the changing of the
guard, inspected the night-watch, questioned the sergeant in charge, and
finally he had been on the point of retiring to his own new quarters
in the house of Justice, in the near vicinity of the Conciergerie, when
citizen Chauvelin entered the guard-room unexpectedly and detained his
colleague with the peremptory question:

"How is it now?"

"If you are so near the end, citizen Heron," he now said, sinking his
voice to a whisper, "why not make a final effort and end it to-night?"

"I wish I could; the anxiety is wearing me out more'n him," added with a
jerky movement of the head in direction of the inner cell.

"Shall I try?" rejoined Chauvelin grimly.

"Yes, an you wish."

Citizen Heron's long limbs were sprawling on a guard-room chair. In this
low narrow room he looked like some giant whose body had been carelessly
and loosely put together by a 'prentice hand in the art of manufacture.
His broad shoulders were bent, probably under the weight of anxiety
to which he had referred, and his head, with the lank, shaggy hair
overshadowing the brow, was sunk deep down on his chest.

Chauvelin looked on his friend and associate with no small measure
of contempt. He would no doubt have preferred to conclude the present
difficult transaction entirely in his own way and alone; but equally
there was no doubt that the Committee of Public Safety did not trust
him quite so fully as it used to do before the fiasco at Calais and the
blunders of Boulogne. Heron, on the other hand, enjoyed to its outermost
the confidence of his colleagues; his ferocious cruelty and his
callousness were well known, whilst physically, owing to his great
height and bulky if loosely knit frame, he had a decided advantage over
his trim and slender friend.

As far as the bringing of prisoners to trial was concerned, the chief
agent of the Committee of General Security had been given a perfectly
free hand by the decree of the 27th Nivose. At first, therefore, he
had experienced no difficulty when he desired to keep the Englishman in
close confinement for a time without hurrying on that summary trial and
condemnation which the populace had loudly demanded, and to which they
felt that they were entitled as to a public holiday. The death of the
Scarlet Pimpernel on the guillotine had been a spectacle promised by
every dema