The prison was surrounded by all ages and all classes,
to get a sight of the English murderer; and the light and the air were
stopped out of each window by human faces pressed against the bars. I
was gazed at as a wild beast; and the children, as they sat on their
mothers' shoulders to look at me, received a moral lesson and a
warning at my expense.
As a tiger, in his cage, wearies the eye by incessantly walking and
turning, so I paced my den; and if I could have reached one of the
impertinent gazers, through the slanting aperture and three foot
wall, I should have throttled him. "All these people," said I, "and
thousands more, will witness my last moments on the scaffold!"
Stung with this dreadful thought, with rage I searched in my
pockets for my penknife, to relieve me at one from my torments and
apprehensions; and had I found it, I should certainly have committed
suicide. Fortunately I had left it at home, or it would have been
buried, in that moment of frenzy, in the carotid artery; for as well
as others, I knew exactly where to find it.
The crowd at length began to disperse; the windows were left, except
now and then an urchin of a boy showed his ragged head at the grille.
Worn out with bodily fatigue and mental suffering, I was going to
throw myself along upon the cold stones, when I saw the face of my own
servant, who advanced in haste to the window of the prison, exclaiming
with joy--
"_Courage, mon cher maitre; Monsieur Talbot n'est pas mort_.
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