"You look!" cried Clarisse.... "I cannot look again!"
Oh! if it were the last! If it were the last and their torture at an end!
She leant her head on her hands and closed her eyes, in order to see no more, while great silent tears trickled through her fingers.
Robespierre lifted the shutters and stopped to look through, but quickly let them fall again. Alas! It was not over! There was still another tumbril. The buzz of sounds advancing gradually betokened it too well!
In one bound Clarisse was at the window.
"Will it never end!"
Robespierre made a gesture to close her mouth.
"For God's sake, do not scream!"
But Clarisse did not heed him; she would go out! Out, into the street! It was too awful! She would put an end to it all! Robespierre held her back with fresh entreaties. Maddened by the restraint, she struggled desperately to free herself.
Thérèse, distracted from her orisons by the violence of the scene, turned her head. Seeing Clarisse's state, she understood all in a moment. Olivier was there in one of those tumbrils! Olivier was on the way to the scaffold! ... And Clarisse, now regardless of consequences, owned the truth.