It was noon, and the dinner-hour. He entered an inn which was opposite the scaffold, had his table set on the balcony, and, guarded by four Hussars of Death, ate his dinner there. At dessert he rose and lifted his glass, crying: "Long live the Republic! Death to the aristocrats!" When the spectators had repeated his cry, even those who were gazing at him in fear from the top of the scaffold, not knowing what was to be done with them, he said: "It is well; I pardon you." And he ordered the mayor and his deputy to be untied, and permitted the municipal body to descend from the platform, commanding them, in the interest of "equality and fraternity," to help the executioner and his assistants to take down the guillotine and load it upon the cart, after which he made them escort him in triumph to the other end of the village. They reached Plobsheim about three in the afternoon. At the first house Schneider asked the way to the dwelling of the Comte de Brumpt. They pointed it out to him. He lived in the Rue de Rhin, the most spacious and pleasant street in the town. When they reached the house, Schneider ordered them to set up the guillotine before it, and leaving four hussars to guard the scaffold, he went away, taking the other four with him. He stopped at the hotel of the "Phrygian Cap," formerly the "White Cross." From there he wrote as follows: _To the citizen Brumpt at the town-prison_: Upon giving your written word of honor not to escape, you are free. But you will invite me to dinner to-morrow at noon, because I must talk to you on important business. EULOGE SCHNEIDER. He sent the letter to the Comte de Brumpt by one of his hussars. Ten minutes later the man brought the answer: I give my parole to the citizen Schneider to return to my own house, and not to leave it without his permission. I shall be much pleased to receive him at dinner to-morrow, at the hour named. BRUMPT. CHAPTER XI THE MARRIAGE PROPOSAL At sight of the horrible machine, which stood before her house, Mademoiselle de Brumpt ordered all the windows in the front closed. When Comte de Brumpt, leaving the prison without guards and on his own parole, arrived within sight of his own house, he found it shut like a sepulchre, with the scaffold before it. He asked himself what it meant and whether he dared go forward. But this hesitation did not last long; neither scaffold nor tomb could hold him back. He walked straight to the door and knocked in his accustomed manner--two blows in quick succession, and a third after a long interval.