The inmates’ day at La Roquette prison begins at six in the morning, but for Jean-Baptiste Troppmann, it began well before that, during the noisy night, because he did not sleep, undoubtedly trying to guess which hell is the worst. At the first sounding of the drums, the monster of Pantin is taken from the cellar, or as they say in Christian language, from the provisional sepulcher. Before being dressed in the contemptible clothing of the ritual, he receives two buckets of cold water on his head to be sure that he is awake and will accompany the executioners through the labyrinths of terror.