shepherd, I returned with him, and the chieftain received from his
lips the refusal of the father. At a signal, which we all understood,
we followed him some distance from the victim. He there pronounced her
sentence of death. Every one stood ready to execute his order; but I
interfered. I observed that there was something due to pity, as well as
to justice. That I was as ready as any one to approve the implacable
law which was to serve as a warning to all those who hesitated to pay
the ransoms demanded for our prisoners, but that, though the sacrifice
was proper, it ought to be made without cruelty. The night is
approaching, continued I; she will soon be wrapped in sleep; let her
then be despatched. All that I now claim on the score of former
fondness for her is, let me strike the blow. I will do it as surely,
but more tenderly than another.

Several raised their voices against my proposition, but the captain
Imposed silence on them. He told me I might conduct her into a thicket
at some distance, and he relied upon my promise.

I hastened to seize my prey. There was a forlorn kind of triumph at
having at length become her exclusive possessor. I bore her off into
the thickness of the forest. She remained in the same state of
insensibility and stupor. I was thankful that she did not recollect me;
for had she once murmured my name, I should have been overcome. She
slept at length in the arms of him who was to poniard her. Many were
the conflicts I underwent before I could bring myself to strike the
blow. My heart had become sore by the recent conflicts it had
undergone, and I dreaded lest, by procrastination, some other should
become her executioner. When her repose had continued for some time, I
separated myself gently from her, that I might not disturb her sleep,
and seizing suddenly my poniard, plunged it into her bosom. A painful
and concentrated murmur, but without any convulsive movement,
accompanied her last sigh. So perished this unfortunate.

He ceased to speak. I sat horror-struck, covering my face with my
hands, seeking, as it were, to hide from myself the frightful images he
had presented to my mind. I was roused from this silence by the voice
of the captain. "You sleep," said he, "and it is time to be off. Come,
we must abandon this height, as night is setting in, and the messenger
is not returned. I will post some one on the mountain edge, to conduct
him to the place where we shall pass the night."

Thi