— 5 — THE n***o COACHMANThe two men had reached the entrance into the Impasse; a street of dingy houses mostly let out in apartments lay in front of them; at the corner of the Impasse, now revealed by the moon, and unnoticed by them before, was an ancient statue of a female saint; the tall stone figure much defaced by time and weather was transfixed by a stone dagger, the hilt of which appeared above the bosom; the face was thrown back with a distorted expression of agony, which appeared dreadful in the colourless moonlight.
At the sound of the coach wheels Desgrez and his assistant withdrew into the shadow of this gloomy and sinister-looking statue. Shielding their faces with their cloaks and standing motionless they observed a small, light and fashionable coach, without, as far as they
