And then a creaking rumble from below attracted his attention, and he looked round.

He moved forward and threw the window wide, letting in with the March air an odd medley of sounds to which the rolling of drums afforded a most congruous accompaniment.
"Look, Citoyenne," he said, and he pointed out the first tumbril, which was coming round the corner of the Rue St.Honore.
She approached with some shrinking begotten by a suspicion of what she was desired to see.
In the street below, among a vociferating crowd of all sorts and conditions, the black death-cart moved on its way to the guillotine.
It was preceded by a company of National Guards, and followed by the drummers and another company on foot.

Within the fatal vehicle travelled three men and two women, accompanied by a constitutional priest--one of those renegades who had taken the oath imposed by the Convention.

The two women sat motionless, more like statues than living beings, their faces livid and horribly expressionless, so numbed were their intelligences by fear.

Of the men, one stood calm and dignified, another knelt at his prayers, and was subject, therefore, to the greater portion of the gibes the mob was offering these poor victims; the third, a very elegant gentleman in a green coat and buckskin breeches, leant nonchalantly upon the rail of the tumbril and exchanged gibes with the people.