He tried at least to close his eyes; he could not.

A power unknown and irresistible compelled him to look.
Then Albert again cried out: "I am innocent; the guilty one is----" He pronounced a name; the crowd repeated this name, and he alone did not catch what it was.

At last the head of the condemned man fell.
M.Tabaret uttered a loud cry, and awoke in a cold perspiration.

It took him some time to convince himself that nothing was real of what he had just heard and seen, and that he was actually in his own house, in his own bed.

It was only a dream! But dreams sometimes are, they say, warnings from heaven.