Let me consider what time generally elapses between the condemnation and
the execution of a prisoner.
Three days of delay, after sentence is pronounced, for the prisoner’s
final plea to annul it.
The plea forgotten for a week in a Court of Assize, before it is sent
to the Minister; a fortnight forgotten at the Minister’s, who does not
even know that there are such papers, although he is supposed to
transmit them, after examination, to the “Cour de Cassation.”
Then classification, numbering, registering; the guillotine-list is
loaded, and none must go before their turn! A fortnight more waiting;
then the Court assembles, rejects twenty pleas together, and sends all
back to the Minister, who sends them back to the Attorney-General, who
sends them back to the executioner: this would take three more days.
On the morning of the fourth day the Deputies of the Attorney-General
and Recorder prepare the order of execution; and the following morning,
from day-break, is heard the noise of erecting the scaffold, and in the
cross-streets a commotion of hoarse voices.
Altogether _six weeks_. The young girl’s calculation was right! I have
now been at least five weeks (perhaps six, for I dare not reckon) in
this fatal prison; nay, I think I have been even three days more.