Porte Montmartre, with the number four. Lastly came a messenger, from
the Porte Bussy, who announced four. De Loignac wrote all these down,
added them to those who had entered the Porte St. Antoine, and found the
total number to be forty-five.

"Good!" said he. "Now open the gates, and all may enter."

The gates were thrown open, and then horses, mules, and carts, men,
women, and children, pressed into Paris, at the risk of suffocating each
other, and in a quarter of an hour all the crowd had vanished.

Robert Briquet remained until the last. "I have seen enough," said he:
"would it be very advantageous to me to see M. Salcede torn in four
pieces? No, pardieu! Besides, I have renounced politics; I will go and
dine."




CHAPTER IV.

HIS MAJESTY HENRI THE THIRD.


M. Friard was right when he talked of 100,000 persons as the number of
spectators who would meet on the Place de Greve and its environs, to
witness the execution of Salcede. All Paris appeared to have a
rendezvous at the Hotel de Ville; and Paris is very exact, and never
misses a fete; and the death of a man is a fete, especially when he has
raised so many passions that some curse and others bless him.