| 632 | 633 | 634 | 635 | 636 |
| 1 | 236 | 472 | 708 | 944 |
|
the wretch's crushed sides. Then he freed his wrists and ankle-bones
from the four chains that fastened him to the pillars.
The prisoner, released alike from stones and chains, lay flat on the
ground, his eyes closed, his arms and legs apart, like a crucified man
taken down from a cross.
"
Hardquanonne," said the sheriff, "arise!"
The prisoner did not move.
The groom of the gibbet took up a hand and let it go; the hand fell
back. The other hand, being raised, fell back likewise.
The groom of the gibbet seized one foot and then the other, and the
heels fell back on the ground.
The fingers remained inert, and the toes motionless. The naked feet of
an extended corpse seem, as it were, to bristle.
The doctor approached, and drawing from the pocket of his robe a little
mirror of steel, put it to the open mouth of Hardquanonne. Then with his
fingers he opened the eyelids. They did not close again; the glassy
eyeballs remained fixed.
The doctor rose up and said,--
634
Page
Quick Jump
|