Pagina 669 di 896

There were hurried words of farewell and kindness, but the

parting was soon over. It was the incident of every day, and the

society of La Force were engaged in the preparation of some games

of forfeits and a little concert, for that evening. They crowded

to the grates and shed tears there; but, twenty places in the

projected entertainments had to be refilled, and the time was, at

best, short to the lock-up hour, when the common rooms and

corridors would be delivered over to the great dogs who kept

watch there through the night. The prisoners were far from

insensible or unfeeling; their ways arose out of the condition of

the time. Similarly, though with a subtle difference, a species

of fervour or intoxication, known, without doubt, to have led

some persons to brave the guillotine unnecessarily, and to die by

it, was not mere boastfulness, but a wild infection of the wildly

shaken public mind.