"Are you ready ?" he repeated, and opened his hands to clap.

One second more and all would have been over.
But he paused, as though struck by a sudden thought.
"One moment!" said he; "I forgot! It is our custom not to hang a man without inquiring whether there is any woman who wants him.

Comrade, this is your last resource.

You must wed either a female vagabond or the noose." This law of the vagabonds, singular as it may strike the reader, remains to-day written out at length, in ancient English legislation.

(See _Burington's Observations_.) Gringoire breathed again.