ng outside
apprized me of the coming of the adjutant, and the door of my cell being
thrown open, I was ordered to walk forth into the court of the prison. Two
squadrons of my own regiment, all who were not on duty, were drawn up,
dismounted, and without arms; beside them stood a company of grenadiers,
and a half battalion of the line, the corps to which the other two
prisoners belonged, and who now came forward, in shirt-sleeves like
myself, into the middle of the court.

One of my fellow-sufferers was a very old soldier, whose hair and beard
were white as snow; the other was a middle-aged man, of a dark and
forbidding aspect, who scowled at me angrily as I came up to his side, and
seemed as if he scorned the companionship. I returned a glance, haughty
and as full of defiance as his own, and never noticed him after.

The drum beat a roll, and the word was given for silence in the ranks--an
order so strictly obeyed, that even the clash of a weapon was unheard, and
stepping in front of the line, the Auditeur Militaire read out the
sentences. As for me, I heard but the words "Peine afflictive et
infamante;" all the rest became confusion, shame, and terror co-mingled;
nor did I know that the ceremonial was over, when the troops began to
defile, and we were marched back again to our prison quarters.

Chapter XIV. A Surprise And An Escape.

It is a very common subject of remark in newspapers, and as invariably
repeated with astonishment by the readers, how well and soundly such a
criminal slept on the night before his execution. It reads like a
wonderful evidence of composure, or some not less surprising proof of
apathy or indifference. I really believe it has as little relation to one
feeling as to the other, and is simply the natural consequence of
faculties over-strained, and a brain surcharged with blood; sleep being
induced by causes purely physical in their nature. For myself, I can say
that I was by no means indifferent to life, nor had I any contempt for the
form of death that awaited me. As localities, which have failed to inspire
a strong attachment, become endowed with a certain degree of interest when
we are about to part from them forever, I never held life so desirable as
now that I was going to leave it; and yet, with all this, I fell into a
sleep so heavy and profound, that I never awoke till late in the evening.
Twice was I shaken by the shoulder ere I could throw off the heavy weight
of slumber; a