To the working-folk, this was perhaps a morning wedding....

Perhaps these were gay people coming from a nocturnal fiesta....

Several times the cortege slackened its speed, blocked by a row of heavy carts with mountains of garden-stuff.
The _maitre_, in spite of his emotions, recognized the road that the automobile was following.

In the _place de la Nation_ he caught glimpses of the sculptured group, _le Triomphe de la Republique_, piercing the dripping mistiness of dawn; then the grating of the enclosure; then the long _cours de Vincennes_ and its historic fortress.
They went still further on until they reached the field of execution.
Upon getting down from the automobile, he saw an extensive plain covered with grass on which were drawn up two companies of soldiers.
Other vehicles had arrived before them.

Freya detached herself from the group of persons descending from the automobile, leaving behind the nuns and the officers who were escorting her.
The light of daybreak, blue and cold as the reflection of steel, threw into relief the two masses of armed men who formed a narrow passageway.
At the end of this impromptu lane there was a post planted in the ground and beyond that, a dark van drawn by two horses, and various men clad in black.
The woman's approach was signalized by a voice of command, and immediately sounded the drums and trumpets at the head of the two formations.