out into the street; I
was sorry for what I had done; I was going back to the house with it
just when this lady ran after me. The handkerchief was found in my
knapsack. This is all the truth. The capitulation orders me to be shot.
Shoot me, but don't despise me.'

The judges could not conceal their emotion; but when the balloting took
place, he was unanimously condemned to death. He heard his sentence with
sang-froid; after it was passed on him, he went up to his captain and
asked him to lend him four francs. The captain gave them to him. I then
saw Piter go to the woman to whom the blue handkerchief had been
restored, and I heard him say:

'Madame, here are four francs; I don't know whether your handkerchief is
worth more, but even if it is, I pay dear enough for it to engage you to
knock off the rest.'

Taking the handkerchief from her, he kissed it, and gave it to the
captain.

'Captain,' said he, 'in two years you'll be returning home; when you go
toward Areneberg, ask for Mary; give her this blue handkerchief, but
don't tell her how dearly I purchased it.'

Piter then kneeled and prayed fervently; when his prayers were ended, he
arose and walked with a firm step to the place of execution. I forgot
that I was a scientific man, and I walked down into the woods to avoid
seeing the end of this cruel tragedy. A volley of musketry soon told me
that all was over.

I returned to the fatal spot an hour afterward; the regiment had marched
away; all was calm and silent. While following the edge of the grove,
going to the highway, I perceived at a short distance before me traces
of blood, and a mound of freshly heaped earth. I took a branch from one
of the fir trees, and made a rude cross.

I placed it at the head of poor Piter's grave, now forgotten by every
body except by me, and perhaps by Mary.

GOLD.

Gold, next to iron, is the most widely diffused metal upon the surface
of our globe. It occurs in granite, the oldest rock known to us, and in
all the rocks derived from it; it is also found in the veinstones which
traverse other geological formations, but has never been found in any
secondary formation. It is, however, much more common in alluvial
grounds than among primitive and pyrogenous rocks. It is found
disseminated, under the form of spangles, in the silicious,
argillaceous, and ferruginous sands of certain plains and rivers,
especially in their junction, at the season of low water, and after
sto