nd reeling already,
gave way beneath this terrible violence; her useless struggles ceased,
her arms fell inert by her side: and losing consciousness completely,
her proud, unbendable spirit was spared the humiliating knowledge of her
final removal by the rough soldiers, and of the complete wreckage of her
last, lingering hopes.

Chapter XVIII: No. 6

Consciousness returned very slowly, very painfully.

It was night when last Marguerite had clearly known what was going on
around her; it was daylight before she realized that she still lived,
that she still knew and suffered.

Her head ached intolerably: that was the first conscious sensation which
came to her; then she vaguely perceived a pale ray of sunshine, very
hazy and narrow, which came from somewhere in front of her and struck
her in the face. She kept her eyes tightly shut, for that filmy light
caused her an increase of pain.

She seemed to be lying on her back, and her fingers wandering restlessly
around felt a hard paillasse, beneath their touch, then a rough pillow,
and her own cloak laid over her: thought had not yet returned, only the
sensation of great suffering and of infinite fatigue.

Anon she ventured to open her eyes, and gradually one or two objects
detached themselves from out the haze which still obscured her vision.

Firstly, the narrow aperture--scarcely a window--filled in with tiny
squares of coarse, unwashed glass, through which the rays of the morning
sun were making kindly efforts to penetrate, then the cloud of dust
illumined by those same rays, and made up--so it seemed to the poor
tired brain that strove to perceive--of myriads of abnormally large
molecules, over-abundant, and over-active, for they appeared to be
dancing a kind of wild saraband before Marguerite's aching eyes,
advancing and retreating, forming themselves into groups and taking on
funny shapes of weird masques and grotesque faces which grinned at the
unconscious figure lying helpless on the rough paillasse.

Through and beyond them Marguerite gradually became aware of three walls
of a narrow room, dank and grey, half covered with whitewash and half
with greenish mildew! Yes! and there, opposite to her and immediately
beneath that semblance of a window, was another paillasse, and on it
something dark, that moved.

The words: "Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite ou la Mort!" stared out at her
from somewhere beyond those active molecules of dust, but she also saw