At night, besides the cockroaches, there were the cats to prevent one from sleeping. Saint-Lazare is so infested with rats that scores of cats are kept to destroy them. Moreover, almost every Sister has a cat as a companion.

In the evening before the cells were locked and bolted for the night—after the prisoners had emptied their basins and filled their jugs with water—one or the other of the Sisters, and sometimes two or three of them, came to spend five minutes, at most, with me.... I looked forward all day to those five minutes.

After that, I used to go to the end of the Boulevard of the Cells, to watch the Sisters go to evening prayer. I loved those Sisters. Their life was like that of the prisoners; they lived in similar cells, ate the same food, were insulted by the women just as I and others were, but they remained quite unruffled and patient.... The mere sight of them did me good.

I watched the night procession through the bars of the gate.... The abbé came first, followed by the Sister Superior and then all the Sisters.... They went in single file, their heads bent down, their arms hanging by their sides, slowly, silently. The only noise was the soft jingling of the bunches of keys hanging from their waists, of their large ebony crosses, and of the beads of their rosaries....

In the shadow I could not see their black gowns; I only saw their white cornettes, which looked like the white wings of birds, and under each cornette there was a serene face, beautiful because the eyes were pure and the soul was filled with charity and the love of God.

Sixty Sisters passed thus, and as they went by the heavy iron gate through which I was watching, each Sister raised her head and faintly, divinely smiled at me as if to say: "I will pray for you in the chapel...."

I forgot my misery; I forgot that I was accused of murder;... I returned to my cell and from behind the bars of my open window, I listened to the songs and prayers.... Then I lit my candle, went to bed and read a page of the Bible....

Firmin, afterwards, would talk with me. We whispered.... But sometimes we forgot, and spoke too loudly... and in the night we heard the voice of the Sister on duty in the Boulevard of the Cells, saying slowly, monotonously: "Silence... silence... silence...."

CHAPTER XXV.
THE "INSTRUCTION"

FROM December 5th, 1907, to March 13th, 1909, my "Instruction" took place in the Palace of Justice, in the Cabinet of M. André, the Examining Magistrate.... I am not superstitious, but I state for the sake of those interested in such coincidences, that the cell to which I was taken after my arrest was cell No. 13, that my Instruction lasted 13 weeks, that my final interrogatory took place on March 13, and that the jury returned to decide my fate on November 13 (1909).