“As you left the choice of your costumes to me,” said the count to the two friends, “I have had these brought, as they will be the most worn this year; and they are most suitable, on account of the confetti (sweetmeats), as they do not show the flour.”

Franz heard the words of the count but imperfectly, and he perhaps did not fully appreciate this new attention to their wishes; for he was wholly absorbed by the spectacle that the Piazza del Popolo presented, and by the terrible instrument that was in the centre.

It was the first time Franz had ever seen a guillotine⁠—we say guillotine, because the Roman mandaïa is formed on almost the same model as the French instrument. 7 The knife, which is shaped like a crescent, that cuts with the convex side, falls from a less height, and that is all the difference.