Under Sentence of Death; Or, a Criminal's Last Hours

Chapter 44: CHAPTER XLII.

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About This Book

A volume gathers three shorter narratives that examine crime, punishment, and human bonds across varied settings. One adopts a first-person voice to render the claustrophobic psychology of a condemned prisoner confronting imminent execution, memory, and imagination. A second relates an adventurous episode set in a tented encampment, blending suspense with shifting loyalties and moral ambiguity. A third serves as a stark social vignette portraying deprivation and harsh judicial consequences, using a single life to prompt reflection on mercy and reform.

CHAPTER XLII.

The priest is kind, and the gaoler, too, has his tender side. I believe that they both shed a tear, as I told the nurse to take away my child.

It is over; now I have only to strengthen myself, and to think boldly of the executioner, of the cart, of the gendarmes, of the crowd on the bridge, of the crowd on the quay, of the crowd at the windows, and of that crowd which has assembled expressly for me on the Place de Grêve, which might be paved with the heads that have fallen there. I think that I have a whole hour to accustom myself to these thoughts.