"I pray your lordships to appoint a day and hour on which your righteous sentence shall be carried out."
"The decree of the court is that the sentence be carried out at the daybreak following the time when forty-eight hours shall have elapsed from now."
"In the name of justice I thank your lordships.—Prisoner," and the procureur turned to him, "you hear and understand your sentence?"
"Yes, I hear and understand it."
CHAPTER XXXII.
THE LAST CHANCE.
Outside the court all was sunshine and brightness on that June evening, and all the people streaming out in the warm air—that yet seemed fresh and cool after the stuffiness within—chattered and laughed and chuckled at the exciting day they had had.
"For, figurez vous," said one, a hideous creature, "when we went to see the marchioness tried we could only hope she would be condemned, though all the while we know well that for the noblesse there is no serious punishment. Ma foi! what a punishment! Twenty pistoles—a sum she pays weekly, I'll be sworn, for absolution—and a retraite from Paris for a year. Tiens! she was not ill favoured, that marchioness; she will doubtless have a score of lovers follow her into the country. Say, Babette," and she turned to a pale-faced girl by her side, "shall we go to the Place de Grève to see that villain broken? Daybreak, after forty-eight hours; that will be daybreak on Monday. To-day is Friday!"
"Not I," the pale-faced girl replied. "For my part I could pity him—only that he fought against France. Il etait beau, cet homme la bas. His mustache was enough to set a girl dreaming. And his eyes! Ciel! what eyes, when he faced the old hérisson, De Rennie!"