The sloping street grew broader between the two prisons, the "great" and the "little" Roquette, in such wise as to form a sort of square, which was shaded by four clumps of plane-trees, rising from the footways.

The low buildings and scrubby trees, all poor and ugly of aspect, seemed almost to lie on a level with the ground, under a vast sky in which stars were appearing, as the moon gradually declined.

And the square was quite empty save that on one spot yonder there seemed to be some little stir.

Two rows of guards prevented the crowd from advancing, and even threw it back into the neighbouring streets.

On the one hand, the only lofty houses were far away, at the point where the Rue St.Maur intersects the Rue de la Roquette; while, on the other, they stood at the corners of the Rue Merlin and the Rue de la Folie Regnault, so that it was almost impossible to distinguish anything of the execution even from the best placed windows.