The guillotine acts so quickly
that the condemned man has scarcely time to feel the cold steel cutting
through his muscles; it is nothing more than a fillip on the neck.
Through trying so much to mitigate the pain of death, it has now become
little more than a joke, and might be abolished altogether.
The certainty of confounding Noel, of delivering him up to justice, of
taking vengeance upon him, alone kept old Tabaret up.
"It is clear," he murmured, "that the wretch forgot his things at the
railway station, in his haste to rejoin his mistress. Will they still be
found there? If he has had the prudence to go boldly, and ask for them
under a false name, I can see no further proofs against him. Madame
Chaffour's evidence won't help me. The hussy, seeing her lover in
danger, will deny what she has just told me; she will assert that Noel
left her long after ten o'clock. But I cannot think he has dared to go
to the railway station again."
About half way down the Rue Richelieu, M. Tabaret was seized with a
sudden giddiness.
"I am going to have an attack, I fear," thought he. "If I die, Noel
will escape, and will be my heir. A man should always keep his will
constantly with him, to be able to destroy it, if necessary.
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