The Three Ages of Woman

The Three Ages of Woman
The Virgin and Child with St Anne
The Water lily Pond
Venus and Cupid
Thirty-five," said the mender of roads, who looked sixty. ¡¡¡¡"It was done when you were more than ten years old; you might have seen it." ¡¡¡¡"Enough!" said Defarge, with grim impatience. "Long live the Devil! Go on." ¡¡¡¡"Well! Some whisper this, some whisper that; they speak of nothing else; even the fountain appears to fall to that tune. At length, on Sunday night when all the village is asleep, come soldiers, winding down from the prison, and their guns ring on the stones of the little street. Workmen dig, workmen hammer, soldiers laugh and sing; in the morning, by the fountain, there is raised a gallows forty feet high, poisoning the water." ¡¡¡¡The mender of roads looked through rather than at the low ceiling, and pointed as if he saw the gallows somewhere in the sky. ¡¡¡¡"All work is stopped, all assemble there, nobody leads the cows out, the cows are there with the rest. At midday, the roll of drums. Soldiers have marched into the prison in the night, and he is in the midst of many soldiers. He is bound as before, and in his mouth there is a gag-tied so, with a tight string, making him look almost as if he laughed." He suggested it, by creasing his face with his two thumbs, from the corners of his mouth to his ears. "On the top of the gallows is fixed the knife, blade upwards, with its point in the air. He is hanged there forty feet high- and is left hanging, poisoning the water." ¡¡¡¡They looked at one another, as he used his blue cap to wipe his face, on which the perspiration had started afresh while he recalled the spectacle.