During this paroxysm, which lasted nearly a quarter of an hour, Lebrun, who stood near, got such a vivid impression of her face that the following night he could not sleep, and with the sight of it ever before his eyes made the fine drawing which--is now in the Louvre, giving to the figure the head of a tiger, in order to show that the principal features were the same, and the whole resemblance very striking.
The delay in progress was caused by the immense crowd blocking the court, only pushed aside by archers on horseback, who separated the people.The marquise now went out, and the doctor, lest the sight of the people should completely distract her, put a crucifix in her hand, bidding her fix her gaze upon it.This advice she followed till they gained the gate into the street where the tumbril was waiting; then she lifted her eyes to see the shameful object.It was one of the smallest of carts, still splashed with mud and marked by the stones it had carried, with no seat, only a little straw at the bottom.It was drawn by a wretched horse, well matching the disgraceful conveyance.
The executioner bade her get in first, which she did very rapidly, as if to escape observation.There she crouched like a wild beast, in the left corner, on the straw, riding backwards.The doctor sat beside her on the right.Then the executioner got in, shutting the door behind him, and sat opposite her, stretching his legs between the doctor's.His man, whose business it was to guide the horse, sat on the front, back to back with the doctor and the marquise, his feet stuck out on the shafts.Thus it is easy to understand how Madame de Sevigne, who was on the Pont Notre-Dame, could see nothing but the headdress of the marquise as she was driven to Notre-Dame.
The cortege had only gone a few steps, when the face of the marquise, for a time a little calmer, was again convulsed.From her eyes, fixed constantly on the crucifix, there darted a flaming glance, then came a troubled and frenzied look which terrified the doctor.He knew she must have been struck by something she saw, and, wishing to calm her, asked what it was.
"Nothing, nothing," she replied quickly, looking towards him; "it was nothing.""But, madame," said he, "you cannot give the lie to your own eyes;and a minute ago I saw a fire very different from the fire of love, which only some displeasing sight can have provoked.What may this be? Tell me, pray; for you promised to tell me of any sort of temptation that might assail you.""Sir," she said, "I will do so, but it is nothing." Then, looking towards the executioner, who, as we know, sat facing the doctor, she said, "Put me in front of you, please; hide that man from me." And she stretched out her hands towards a man who was following the tumbril on horseback, and so dropped the torch, which the doctor took, and the crucifix, which fell on the floor.The executioner looked back, and then turned sideways as she wished, nodding and saying, "Oh yes, I understand." The doctor pressed to know what it meant, and she said, "It is nothing worth telling you, and it is a weakness in me not to be able to bear the sight of a man who has ill-used me.The man who touched the back of the tumbril is Desgrais, who arrested me at Liege, and treated me so badly all along the road.
When I saw him, I could not control myself, as you noticed.""Madame," said the doctor, "I have heard of him, and you yourself spoke of him in confession; but the man was sent to arrest you, and was in a responsible position, so that he had to guard you closely and rigorously; even if he had been more severe, he would only have been carrying out his orders.Jesus Christ, madame, could but have regarded His executioners as ministers of iniquity, servants of injustice, who added of their own accord every indignity they could think of; yet all along the way He looked on them with patience and more than patience, and in His death He prayed for them."In the heart of the marquise a hard struggle was passing, and this was reflected on her face; but it was only for a moment, and after a last convulsive shudder she was again calm and serene; then she said:--"Sir, you are right, and I am very wrong to feel such a fancy as this: may God forgive me; and pray remember this fault on the scaffold, when you give me the absolution you promise, that this too may be pardoned me." Then she turned to the executioner and said, "Please sit where you were before, that I may see M.Desgrais." The man hesitated, but on a sign from the doctor obeyed.The marquise looked fully at Desgrais for some time, praying for him; then, fixing her eyes on the crucifix, began to pray for herself: this incident occurred in front of the church of Sainte-Genevieve des Ardents.
But, slowly as it moved, the tumbril steadily advanced, and at last reached the place of Notre-Dame.The archers drove back the crowding people, and the tumbril went up to the steps, and there stopped.The executioner got down, removed the board at the back, held out his arms to the marquise, and set her down on the pavement.The doctor then got down, his legs quite numb from the cramped position he had been in since they left the Conciergerie.He mounted the church steps and stood behind the marquise, who herself stood on the square, with the registrar on her right, the executioner on her left, and a great crowd of people behind her, inside the church, all the doors being thrown open.She was made to kneel, and in her hands was placed the lighted torch, which up to that time the doctor had helped to carry.Then the registrar read the 'amende honorable' from a written paper, and she began to say it after him, but in so low a voice that the executioner said loudly, "Speak out as he does; repeat every word.Louder, louder!" Then she raised her voice, and loudly and firmly recited the following apology.
