five
o'clock
I glory in your superiority , for it is right that the adored should be above the adorer . '' Yet his courage did not fail him . Far from it , indeed ; if hers had been a mood of gentle calm , his was one of ecstatic exaltation . At five o'clock that same afternoon he stepped from the tumbril under the gaunt shadow of the guillotine . He turned to the people , his eyes bright , a flush on his cheeks . `` At last I am to have the happiness of dying for Charlotte , '' he told them , and mounted the scaffold with the eager step of the bridegroom on his way to the nuptial altar .