"
Having delivered the sentence in those terms, he sat down again,
and placed a mark against the two first condemned names on the
list of prisoners. Immediately afterward the next case was called
on, and the curiosity of the audience was stimulated by a new
trial.
CHAPTER IV.
The waiting-room of the revolutionary tribunal was a grim, bare
place, with a dirty stone floor, and benches running round the
walls. The windows were high and barred; and at the outer door,
leading into the street, two sentinels kept watch. On entering
this comfortless retreat from the court, Lomaque found it
perfectly empty. Solitude was just then welcome to him. He
remained in the waiting-room, walking slowly from end to end over
the filthy pavement, talking eagerly and incessantly to himself.
After a while, the door communicating with the tribunal opened,
and the humpbacked jailer made his appearance, leading in
Trudaine and Rose.
"You will have to wait here," said the little man, "till the rest
of them have been tried and sentenced; and then you will all go
back to prison in a lump. Ha, citizen," he continued, observing
Lomaque at the other end of the hall, and bustling up to him.
"Here still, eh? If you were going to stop much longer, I should
ask a favor of you."
"I am in no hurry," said Lomaque, with a glance at the two
prisoners.
"Good!" cried the humpback, drawing his hand across his mouth; "I
am parched with thirst, and dying to moisten my throat at the
wine-shop over the way.
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