The condemned, who had paused as they had risen trembling with hope, filed out, while the crowd in the court-room surged forth to meet the tumbrels.
Dossonville, using his privilege of agent de sûreté, entered the prison, seeking Nicole in the crowd of prisoners massed in the outer hall; threading through anxious groups, who whispered:
"You saw Dumas arrested?"
"They say there is a revolt against Robespierre."
"The people seemed to sympathize with us."
Others, scorning to hang their hopes on desperate chances, waited stoically or reverently the summons to the tumbrels. A young aristocrat was whistling defiantly:
"Oh, Richard, oh, mon roi,
L'univers t'abandonne!"
In another group, guarding their enmity to the end, two brothers of the people retorted with the "Marseillaise."
Two women near Dossonville were chatting gaily:
"I am so pale those cursed revolutionists will think that I am afraid."