The condemned cell is, as in most modern prisons, both in France and England, the most comfortable quarters in the building. There are actually three _cachots des Condamnés_, as there are two in Newgate, and those in the Paris gaol are better lighted and rather more spacious. The last scene of all, though it is a public execution, is no longer a feast for the ghouls. Justice is done swiftly, and the crowd sees little more than the preparation in the grey morning hours. The preparations, however, are sufficiently enticing to draw to the Place de la Roquette the riff-raff of Paris, the frequenters of the night-houses, of the boulevards, the women of the town, and some foreign amateurs of the scaffold who, like George Selwyn, would "go anywhere to see an execution." Selwyn, by the way, would find the spectacle in the Place de la Roquette tame enough after some that he had witnessed. He went to Paris on purpose to be present at the torture of the wretched Damiens, who, after suffering unheard-of pains, was torn asunder by four horses. A French nobleman, observing the Englishman's interest in the savage scene, concluded that he must be a hangman taking a lesson abroad, and said: "_Eh bien, monsieur, êtes vous arrivé pour voir ce spectacle?_"—"_Oui, monsieur._"—"_Vous êtes bourreau?_" "_Non, monsieur_," replied Selwyn, "_je n'ai pas l'honneur; je ne suis qu'un amateur_." It is after midnight that the rush begins to the spot where the scaffold is raised, and for hours the throng continues to increase in numbers and variety. All night there is feeding and drinking in the public-houses around, and, as it used to be in the Old Bailey, windows commanding a view of the scene are hired at any price. A swarm of pressmen wait through the night just outside the prison gate. At this time the victim himself is probably unaware that his last hour is at hand. When day has dawned, two carts come out from a street adjoining the prison, bearing the disjointed pieces of the guillotine. The headsman's five brawny assistants (one of whom is his son and probable successor) set up the machine, and the knife falls three or four times to test the spring. Then the guard arrives; and when the city police, the _Gardes de la République_, and the mounted _gendarmes_ are marshalled, the crowd behind can see only the top of the guillotine. A place within the cordon is reserved for the press. The genius-in-chief of the ceremony does not appear until the doors of the prison are thrown open. He is within, preparing the victim, and coaxing him, when the toilet is finished, to take a cigarette and a little glass of rum. Louis Stanislas Deibler, the _Monsieur de Paris_, came to Paris in 1871, as assistant headsman to Roch. He had been a provincial executioner, but, in 1871, a new law ordered that all criminals condemned in France should be despatched by _Monsieur de Paris_.