The crime of one, so I heard, was that he was related to an aristocrat; that of the other, that he had murdered his own daughter.

For both offences the law of France just then had but one penalty.

And of the two, he who was most execrated and howled at and spat upon was the gentleman.
In less time than it takes to write it the show had passed.

A few of the crowd followed to see the end of the business.

The rest, for the most part, returned to their callings, and before the drums were out of hearing the Rue d'Agnes was once more a plain, dirty, ordinary Paris street.
With a heart a good deal weighted by what I had seen, I turned into the Cabaret "a l'Irlandois." If I had expected to find anything there to remind me of my own country, I was sorely disappointed.