A lantern slowly came and went, and five or six shadows danced over the ground.

But nothing else could be distinguished, the square was like a large black pit, around which ever broke the waves of the noisy crowd which one could not see.

And beyond the square one could only identify the flaring wine shops, which showed forth like lighthouses in the night.

All the surrounding district of poverty and toil was still asleep, not a gleam as yet came from workrooms or yards, not a puff of smoke from the lofty factory chimneys.
"We shall see nothing," Guillaume remarked.
But Pierre silenced him, for he has just discovered that an elegantly attired gentleman leaning over the balcony near him was none other than the amiable deputy Duthil.

He had at first fancied that a woman muffled in wraps who stood close beside the deputy was the little Princess de Harn, whom he had very likely brought to see the execution since he had taken her to see the trial.