It was all very well for them, who were used to such jests.

I was new to it, and fell a victim to a panic such as I have never known since.

A herculean strength seemed to possess me.
I flung my tormentors right and left, and darted away from them into the dark recesses of the surrounding gardens.

They began by giving chase, but in the end let me go, and returned to their more congenial spectacle, and presently, tired even of that, went home to bed.
It was an hour before I durst look out from my hiding-place in the midst of a clump of thick bushes.

I could still see the guillotine looming in the moonlight; but the workmen, like the sightseers, had gone.