recognised as fugitives,
and the fate that awaited us as such was at that moment brought home to
us, for a few yards away we suddenly heard the shrieks of a man who was
being murdered. They were the first cries of agony I had ever heard,
and for a few moments, I confess, I was frozen with terror. But soon
a violent reaction took place within me, and I felt that it would be
better to march straight to meet peril than to await its coming, and
although I knew the danger of trying to go through Saint-Just again, I
resolved to risk it, and to get to Marseilles at all costs. So, turning
to M____, I said:

"'You can remain here without danger until the evening, but I am going
to Marseilles at once; for I cannot endure this uncertainty any longer.
If I find Saint-Just clear, I shall come back and rejoin you, but if not
I shall get away as best I can alone.'

"Knowing the danger that we were running, and how little chance there
was that we should ever see each other again, he held out his hand to
me, but I threw myself into his arms and gave him a last embrace.

"I started at once: when I reached Saint-Just I found the freebooters
still there; so I walked up to them, trolling a melody, but one of
them seized me by the collar and two others took aim at me with their
muskets.

"If ever in my life I shouted 'Long live the king!' with less enthusiasm
than the cry deserves, it was then: to assume a rollicking air, to laugh
with cool carelessness when there is nothing between you and death but
the more or less strong pressure of a highwayman's finger on the trigger
of a musket, is no easy task; but all this I accomplished, and once
more got through the village with a whole skin indeed, but with the
unalterable resolution to blow my brains out rather than again try such
an experiment.

"Having now a village behind me which I had vowed never to re-enter,
and there being no road available by which I could hope to get round
Marseilles, the only course open to me was to make my way into the city.
At that moment this was a thing of difficulty, for many small bodies
of troops, wearing the white cockade, infested the approaches. I soon
perceived that the danger of getting in was as great as ever, so I
determined to walk up and down till night, hoping the darkness would
come to my aid; but one of the patrols soon gave me to understand that
my prowling about had aroused suspicion, and ordered me either to go on
to the city, in which by al