But the master of ceremonial, at first too panic-stricken to intervene, now summons 182 the sansculotte guards from the ground below. Up the steps on the double-quick they rush with fixed bayonets. As the huge victim falls back into the arms of his assistant, the bayoneting soldiers corner the dirk-waving Pierre.
The brief contest is quite unequal. In less time than it takes to tell it, one of the men plunges his bright, long steel in Pierre’s side. The latter falls like a lump of clay on the scaffold flooring. Several of the bayonets speed toward the inert lump, with the intent on the part of their owners to fling the body contemptuously from the scaffold to the floor.
But a more refined cruelty speaks: “Save him for the guillotine!” The soldiers leave the crumpled-up, desperately wounded Pierre, dooming him yet to taste La Guillotine’s embrace. They subdue de Vaudrey and truss him up anew.
The roars of the crowd die down. Comparative order is again restored. The master of ceremonial, having recovered the habit of command, orders Jean, the remaining executioner, to complete the stricken one’s job.
HENRIETTE SAVED FROM THE GUILLOTINE’S KNIFE.
Fortunately for our heroine under the knife, the second executioner is slow and awkward. He has seen butchery come quite too close to his own flesh! Still somewhat unnerved, he prepares himself for the task with clumsy movements and halting fingers. The master bids him hurry––Jean takes his time, he’s not going to bungle the job....
As the supreme moment nears, it is well that we should note what is happening with Danton and his Centaurs––