Note 2 — Chapter XI · [CONTINUATION OF STERN’S COMPOSITION.]

“Well; that is very simple … you saw there a woman, dressed in black, kneeling down before a block. She bowed her head, and white as silver was the neck, which appeared whiter from its contrast with the velvet … and there stood a man with a large sword;2 and he held it high, and he looked at this white neck … and he considered the arc which his blade must describe, to be driven through just there … there between those joints with exactness and force——and then you fell, Duclari; you fell because you saw that, and, therefore, you cried: ‘Oh, dear!’ and not because your chair had only three legs.