Page 103 - Revelation

Svetlana de Rohan-Levashova. Revelation

– All right, watch... – Stella sadly nodded.

A scaffold ominously towered in the middle of an enormous square crammed
full of highly excitable people... A mortally pale, very thin and exhausted woman in
white proudly stepped up its small crooked steps. A plain white nightcap almost fully
covered her short cut fair hair; deep gloomy sorrow was reflected in her tired eyes,
reddened by tears or insomnia...
Slightly rocking – she found it difficult to maintain equilibrium because her
hands were tightly tied behind her back – the woman somehow managed to climb the
dais, still trying to remain straight and proud with all her might. She stood and looked
at the crowd, without lowering her gaze or showing how truly scared she was... There
was nobody around whose friendly look would warm the last minutes of her life...
There was nobody, who would help her, with the warmth of their heart, withstand this
horrific moment, when her life had to leave her in such a cruel way …

The raging, excited crowd suddenly fell silent, as if it had bumped into an
insuperable obstacle... The women in the front rows began to cry silently. The thin
figure on the scaffold came to the block, stumbled and very painfully fell down on her
knees. For a few short seconds she lifted her exhausted face, pacified by the closeness
of death... deeply breathed... and, on proudly looking at the executioner, laid her tired
head on the block. The crying became audible, women closed children’s eyes. The
executioner came to the guillotine....

The executioner shows the crowd the victim’s head

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