The confusion was bewildering, and became still more so, when, hurrying through all the streets toward the Place de St.Pierre, the people found it barricaded on all sides, and filled with mounted guards and archers.

Carts, fastened to the posts at each corner, closed each entrance, and sentinels, armed with arquebuses, were stationed close to the carts.

In the centre of the Place rose a pile composed of enormous beams placed crosswise upon one another, so as to form a perfect square; these were covered with a whiter and lighter wood; an enormous stake arose from the centre of the scaffold.

A man clothed in red and holding a lowered torch stood near this sort of mast, which was visible from a long distance.

A huge chafing-dish, covered on account of the rain, was at his feet.
At this spectacle, terror inspired everywhere a profound silence; for an instant nothing was heard but the sound of the rain, which fell in floods, and of the thunder, which came nearer and nearer.
Meanwhile, Cinq-Mars, accompanied by MM.