Place de la Concorde was packed with people, but the soldiers kept the commoners gathered to watch at a distance. Georgiana, her hands bound, climbed the scaffold. Standing high above, she was looked up at by those below.
Usually, short people were mocked, while tall people found a sense of superiority in front of them. Yet Napoleon Bonaparte gave people the feeling that everyone was bowing their heads to him in tribute.
According to travel magazines, Bonaparte's coffin rested in a circular pit surrounded by twelve sculptures. Visitors had to lower their heads to see the reddish-brown stone sarcophagus.
Saint Genevieve's remains had once rested in a stone sarcophagus too, yet she had still been dragged out and burned. She had once been respected by the people of Paris as well.
Joan of Arc had been burned at the stake. People in the Middle Ages also used burning at the stake to execute witches. It seemed every saint's death bore the marks of her era.
Georgiana looked at the enormous blade of the guillotine. She did not feel afraid. She was still thinking of a way out until the executioner "invited" her beneath the blade.
She had to kneel, then lie facedown on the guillotine. The wood was already steeped in the smell of blood, like rusted iron.
To keep blood from spilling everywhere, a wooden basin had been placed before her. It was clean now, but once the blade fell, the blood pouring from her head and neck would all collect there.
If anyone could think of anything else at a time like this, Georgiana would admire them. But she had no intention of shouting "Wait!" like Madame du Barry.
The last wizard sentenced to death, Duke Vincent de Tefler-Pike, had used a Concealment Charm to hide his neck