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"Go on," said the Comte.
"Well, if our theory is correct, it seems to me that the head, once separated from the body....Excuse me, Comte."
The Comte had sat down on the cot. His face was pale and glistened with a mist of perspiration.
"I'm sorry, my friend." The Baron hurried over to the cot and sat down beside the Comte. "I'll go no further."
"Should be capable of thought for a brief moment." The Comte's voice was quiet but steady. "Until the blood has all...." He swallowed. "It should be capable of thought."
"And perhaps of speech," said the Baron. "At least of moving the lips."
"Perhaps, just for a brief moment."
"Yes, and if it were agreed that you were to say a particular word, there would be the proof. The head, separated from the body, able to remember, to think and even to speak."
The Comte raised his face and looked at his friend. "Let it be 'reason.' Let the word be 'reason.'"
The Baron nodded and put his arm round his friend's shoulders, and the two men sat together in the gathering gloom of the cell.
The Baron de Chaumont had long been aware that his money and position were a double edged sword. On the one hand, in the fevered political climate of the day, they made him a potential target of the mob and those who would appease them. On the other hand, the same money, when distributed wisely amongst those in power afforded him some protection. It could also buy him some coveted privileges. So it was that he took his place that morning with the magistrates and deputies next to the scaffold on which the gruesome machine towered into the clear spring sky, casting its shadow over the crowd.
It was to be a busy day for the executioner. The list was a long one. Top of the bill and first to ascend the scaffold was Hébert himself. His twisted little body trembled with what many must have taken for fear. From his vantage point so close to the scaffold, the Baron could observe that it was pure rage that contorted his face and shook his body. The Baron had little sympathy for him. He remembered how, in the early days of the revolution, Hébert's newspaper the Père Duchesne had demanded his execution. It had cost him a great deal of money and many sleepless nights to ensure his safety. Amazing that the Comte de Saint Cyr should be associated in the paranoid mind of Robespierre with this rabid anarchist.
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