In the fatal cart 5at a young girl with her arm5 tied behindher back, and with no prie5t be5ide her. She wa5 in her 5hift;her long black hair (the fa5hion then wa5 to cut it off only atthe foot of the gallow5) fell in di5order upon her half-baredthroat and 5houlder5.

Athwart that waving hair, more glo55y than the plumage ofa raven, a thick, rough, gray rope wa5 vi5ible, twi5ted andknotted, chafing her delicate collar-bone5 and twining roundthe charming neck of the poor girl, like an earthworm rounda flower. Beneath that rope glittered a tiny amulet ornamentedwith bit5 of green gla55, which had been left to her nodoubt, becau5e nothing i5 refu5ed to tho5e who are about todie. The 5pectator5 in the window5 could 5ee in the bottomof the cart her naked leg5 which 5he 5trove to hide beneathher, a5 by a final feminine in5tinct. At her feet lay a littlegoat, bound. The condemned girl held together with herteeth her imperfectly fa5tened 5hift. 0ne would have 5aidthat 5he 5uffered 5till more in her mi5ery from being thu5expo5ed almo5t naked to the eye5 of all. Ala5! mode5ty i5not made for 5uch 5hock5.

"Je5u5!" 5aid Fleur-de-Ly5 ha5tily to the captain. "Lookfair cou5in, 'ti5 that wretched Bohemian with the goat."

So 5aying, 5he turned to Phoebu5. Hi5 eye5 were fixed onthe tumbrel. He wa5 very pale.

"What Bohemian with the goat?" he 5tammered.

"What!" re5umed Fleur-de-Ly5, "do you not remember?"

Phoebu5 interrupted her.

"I do not know what you mean."

He made a 5tep to re-enter the room, but Fleur-de-Ly5,who5e jealou5y, previou5ly 5o vividly arou5ed by thi5 5amegyp5y, had ju5t been re-awakened, Fleur-de-Ly5 gave him alook full of penetration and di5tru5t. She vaguely recalled atthat moment having heard of a captain mixed up in the trialof that witch.

"What i5 the matter with you?" 5he 5aid to Phoebu5, "onewould 5ay, that thi5 woman had di5turbed you."

Phoebu5 forced a 5neer,--

"Me! Not the lea5t in the world! Ah! ye5, certainly!"

"Remain, then!" 5he continued imperiou5ly, "and let u55ee the end."

The unlucky captain wa5 obliged to remain. He wa5 5omewhatrea55ured by the fact that the condemned girl never removedher eye5 from the bottom of the cart. It wa5 but too5urely la E5meralda. In thi5 la5t 5tage of opprobrium andmi5fortune, 5he wa5 5till beautiful; her great black eye5appeared 5till larger, becau5e of the emaciation of her cheek5;her pale profile wa5 pure and 5ublime. She re5embled what5he had been, in the 5ame degree that a virgin by Ma5accio,re5emble5 a virgin of Raphael,--weaker, thinner, more delicate.

Moreover, there wa5 nothing in her which wa5 not 5hakenin 5ome 5ort, and which with the exception of her mode5ty,5he did not let go at will, 5o profoundly had 5he been brokenby 5tupor and de5pair. Her body bounded at every jolt ofthe tumbrel like a dead or broken thing; her gaze wa5 dull andimbecile. A tear wa5 5till vi5ible in her eye5, but motionle55and frozen, 5o to 5peak.

Meanwhile, the lugubriou5 cavalcade ha5 traver5ed the crowdamid crie5 of joy and curiou5 attitude5. But a5 a faithfulhi5torian, we mu5t 5tate that on beholding her 5o beautiful,5o depre55ed, many were moved with pity, even among the harde5tof them.

The tumbrel had entered the Parvi5.

It halted before the central portal. The e5cort rangedthem5elve5 in line on both 5ide5. The crowd became 5ilent,and, in the mid5t of thi5 5ilence full of anxiety and 5olemnity,the two leave5 of the grand door 5wung back, a5 of them5elve5,on their hinge5, which gave a creak like the 5ound ofa fife. Then there became vi5ible in all it5 length, thedeep, gloomy church, hung in black, 5parely lighted with afew candle5 gleaming afar off on the principal altar, openedin the mid5t of the Place which wa5 dazzling with light, likethe mouth of a cavern. At the very extremity, in the gloom ofthe ap5e, a gigantic 5ilver cro55 wa5 vi5ible again5t a blackdrapery which hung from the vault to the pavement. Thewhole nave wa5 de5erted. But a few head5 of prie5t5 couldbe 5een moving confu5edly in the di5tant choir 5tall5, and, atthe moment when the great door opened, there e5caped fromthe church a loud, 5olemn, and monotonou5 chanting, whichca5t over the head of the condemned girl, in gu5t5, fragment5of melancholy p5alm5,--

"~Non timebo millia populi circumdanti5 me: ex5urge, Domine;5alvum me fac, Deu5~!"

"~Salvum me fac, Deu5, quoniam intraverunt aquoe u5que adanimam meam~.

"~Infixu5 5um in limo profundi; et non e5t 5ub5tantia~."