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Part III | Baroness Emmuska Orczy | |
XXXVIII Capitulation |
Page 1 of 6 |
What occurred within the inner cell of the Conciergerie prison within the next half-hour of that 16th day of Pluviose in the year II of the Republic is, perhaps, too well known to history to need or bear overfull repetition. Chroniclers intimate with the inner history of those infamous days have told us how the chief agent of the Committee of General Security gave orders one hour after midnight that hot soup, white bread and wine be served to the prisoner, who for close on fourteen days previously had been kept on short rations of black bread and water; the sergeant in charge of the guard-room watch for the night also received strict orders that that same prisoner was on no account to be disturbed until the hour of six in the morning, when he was to be served with anything in the way of breakfast that he might fancy. All this we know, and also that citizen Heron, having given all necessary orders for the morning's expedition, returned to the Conciergerie, and found his colleague Chauvelin waiting for him in the guard-room. "Well?" he asked with febrile impatience--" the prisoner? "He seems better and stronger," replied Chauvelin. "Not too well, I hope?" "No, no, only just well enough." "You have seen him--since his supper?" "Only from the doorway. It seems he ate and drank hardly at all, and the sergeant had some difficulty in keeping him awake until you tame." "Well, now for the letter," concluded Heron with the same marked feverishness of manner which sat so curiously on his uncouth personality. "Pen, ink and paper, sergeant!" he commanded. "On the table, in the prisoner's cell, citizen," replied the sergeant. |
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El Dorado Baroness Emmuska Orczy |
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