A chill went through me when it dawned upon me at last that I was being conducted to the fatal Conciergerie--that half-way house between life and death towards which so many roads converged, but from which only one, that to the guillotine, led. An angry parley took place at the door between the jailer and my captors. "Why here?" demanded the former; "we are packed to the bursting point." "To-morrow you will have more room by fifty," said the other. "This is not to-morrow," growled the hard-worked official. "The _detenu_ is your parishioner," said the soldier. "It is scandalous the slowness with which the Committee works," said the jailer. "Fifty a day goes no way; we want one hundred and fifty." "You shall have it, Citizen Concierge. Patience!--Now, Regnier, enter, and adieu," said he, with a push from the butt-end of his gun. Beyond entering my name and assigning me my night's quarters, no notice was taken of me by my jailers. I was allowed to wander on into the crowded courtyard, where of the hundreds who prowled about like caged animals none troubled themselves so much as to look up at the new unfortunate. Men and women of all sorts were there: gentlemen who held themselves aloof and had their little _cercle_ in one corner, with servants to attend them; rogues and thieves who quarrelled and gambled with one another, and made the air foul with their oaths; terrified women and children who huddled together for shelter from the impudent looks and words of the ruffians, who amused themselves by insulting them. Sick people were there with whom it was a race whether disease or the guillotine would claim them first. And philosophers were there, who looked with calm indifference on the scene, and jested and discussed among themselves. Among this motley company I was lost, and, indeed, it would have troubled me to be anything else. I found leaning-room against the wall, and had no better wish than that the promised fifty who to-morrow were to feed the guillotine might count me in their number. As soon as the short February day closed in, we were unceremoniously ordered within doors. Some of the more distinguished and wealthy retired to their private apartments; the women (though I heard they were not always so fortunate) were shut up in quarters of their own. Others retired in batches to chambers, for the use of which they had clubbed together in bands of twenty or thirty. The rest of us, comprising all the poorer prisoners, were huddled into great foul, straw-strewn rooms to sleep and pass the night as best we might.