“And looking toward the Jacobins Convent (of which, from his chamber, he could see the spires and trees), this man willed. And it was not yet dawn.  And he willed; and one who was lying in his cell in the convent of Jacobins, awake and shuddering with terror for a crime which he had committed, fell asleep.

“But though he was asleep his eyes were open.

“And after tossing and writhing, and clinging to the pallet, and saying ‘No, I will not go,’ he rose up and donned his clothes—­a gray coat, a vest of white pique, black satin small-clothes, ribbed silk stockings, and a white stock with a steel buckle; and he arranged his hair, and he tied his queue, all the while being in that strange somnolence which walks, which moves, which flies sometimes, which sees, which is indifferent to pain, which obeys.  And he put on his hat, and he went forth from his cell:  and though the dawn was not yet, he trod the corridors as seeing them.  And he passed into the cloister, and then into the garden where lie the ancient dead.  And he came to the wicket, which Brother Jerome was opening just at the dawning.  And the crowd was already waiting with their cans and bowls to receive the alms of the good brethren.

“And he passed through the crowd and went on his way, and the few people then abroad who marked him, said, ’Tiens!  How very odd he looks!  He looks like a man walking in his sleep!’ This was said by various persons:—­

“By milk women, with their cans and carts, coming into the town.

“By roysterers who had been drinking at the taverns of the Barrier, for it was Mid-Lent.

“By the sergeants of the watch, who eyed him sternly as he passed near their halberds.

“But he passed on unmoved by their halberds,

“Unmoved by the cries of the roysterers,

“By the market women coming with their milk and eggs.

“He walked through the Rue St. Honore, I say:—­

“By the Rue Rambuteau,

“By the Rue St. Antoine,

“By the King’s Chateau of the Bastille,

“By the Faubourg St. Antoine.

“And he came to No. 29 in the Rue Picpus—­a house which then stood between a court and garden—­

“That is, there was a building of one story, with a great coach door.

“Then there was a court, around which were stables, coach-houses, offices.

“Then there was a house—­a two-storied house, with a perron in front.

“Behind the house was a garden—­a garden of two hundred and fifty French feet in length.

“And as one hundred feet of France equal one hundred and six feet of England, this garden, my friend, equaled exactly two hundred and sixty-five feet of British measure.

“In the center of the garden was a fountain and a statue—­or, to speak more correctly, two statues.  One was recumbent,—­a man.  Over him, saber in hand, stood a Woman.