But then a mighty murmur rose from the crowd; no one had recognized Pontcalec.
The executioner mistook the meaning of this murmur; he placed Gaston's head at the empty corner, and with his foot pushing the body into the tumbril where those of his three companions awaited it, he leaned upon his sword, and cried aloud:
"Justice is done."
"And I, then," cried a voice of thunder, "am I to be forgotten?"
And Pontcalec, in his turn, leaped upon the scaffold.
"You!" cried Waters, recoiling as if he had seen a ghost. "You! who are you?"
"I," said Pontcalec; "come, I am ready."
"But," said the executioner trembling, and looking one after the other at the four corners of the scaffold—"but there are four heads already."
"I am the Baron de Pontcalec, do you hear; I am to die the last—and here I am."
"Count," said Waters, as pale as the baron, pointing with his sword to the four corners.