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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: are sentenced for a term are brought together in workshops; but in the
Conciergerie no occupation is allowed, excepting in the privileged
cells. There the absorbing idea in every mind is the drama of the
Assize Court, since the culprit comes only to be examined or to be
sentenced.
This yard is indeed terrible to behold; it cannot be imagined, it must
be seen.
In the first place, the assemblage, in a space forty metres long by
thirty wide, of a hundred condemned or suspected criminals, does not
constitute the cream of society. These creatures, belonging for the
most part to the lowest ranks, are poorly clad; their countenances are
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