"The Citoyen Héron did not leave for the frontier. Let the Citoyen Héron be roused and corroborate the accused!" Two or three threw themselves upon the sleeper to bring him forward. The mind of Dossonville, thus faced with certain defeat, did not give a second to despair, but, with the last instinctive grasping for life, gathered for a supreme effort. "It is unnecessary," he cried hurriedly. "That night I performed secret services to the Nation that cannot be made public. But my life is at stake; I demand Santerre. Santerre will vouch for me." But what he said was lost in the chorus: "Spy!" "Liar!" "Traitor!" "Liar! Liar!" "Santerre now!" "Robespierre next!" "He was nursing Danton, perhaps!" Dossonville stretched out his hand appealingly, but recognizing, himself, the impossibility of his position, he changed the gesture into one of command, and looking Maillard calmly in the face, said: "Well, hurry it up then!" "To La Force!" Dossonville, wheeling to meet his escorts, found himself face to face with Javogues. "Ah, traitor," the Marseillais cried, planting himself in his path with folded arms, "have I caught you at last?" With a sneer, he turned contemptuously on his heel, while Dossonville, seized by his two guards, began the fatal journey. Already from the gates savage faces peered in expectation, while from the courtyard cries of warning arose: "Another! Another!" "Make ready, comrades!" "A tall one this time!" "Make ready!" Half-way to the gate, Dossonville stumbled and went down, sprawling. Instantly he was up, but catching at the arms of his guards, who, trying to shake him off, cried: "Let go, there, or I'll stab you." "Citoyen," answered Dossonville with an exclamation of pain--"Citoyen, I have turned my ankle. Support me!" "Come, come, no nonsense!" "Citoyen, it is because I do not wish to appear to shrink. Remember that I am a Frenchman; I desire only to die bravely. Give me your support." "Give it to him!" growled the other. "Citoyen, I thank you; unfortunately, we shall not meet again." The one who had spoken continued gruffly: "When you pass through the gate keep your hands behind your back; you'll suffer less." "Thanks again." The next moment the door of the human furnace flung open upon his eyes the horrid spectacle of dead and living: of the living more horrible than the dead. "One step more!" The butchers, but five deep, seeing a man borne to them by their comrades, relaxed their tension; those farthest away even lowering their dripping blades. "There, citoyens, steady me one moment." With a sudden powerful lunge Dossonville threw the two guards back and leaped headlong into the gauntlet, pierced it, bounded across the open, and dove headlong into the friendly crowd, disappearing like an enormous fish, with only an eddy in the crowd to show his passage. XIV GOURSAC AS ACCUSER