p of these proceedings was observed by Marjory from her seat at the
window; and it was not till she saw the men lay hold of her husband, and
the executioner proceed to adjust the rope, that she ceased to be able
to watch the details of this extraordinary mock trial and real
condemnation. At that moment she uttered a loud scream, and fell on the
floor in a state of insensibility, from which she was roused by her
little daughter, Helen, who had come from her bed to ascertain her
mother's illness. Rising in a state of frenzy, she sought the door of
the apartment, with a view to throw herself between the king and her
husband; but the door was locked in the outside--a precaution,
doubtless, taken by the king's orders, to prevent a scene of a woman's
unavailing grief. The prospect, now, of being forced to remain in a
chamber a few feet above the gallows on which her husband, and the
object of her strongest and softest affections, was to be suspended, and
hanged like a common malefactor, rose on her bewildered view. Though she
might place her hands over her eyes, the _sound_ of his death would
reach her ear--the jerk of the fatal cord, the struggle of the choking
breath, the last sigh of her beloved Parys, would come to her, and
reason might remain to bear it. If she could close up both eyes and
ears, her fancy would exaggerate the acts performing around her, and
fill her mind with shapes and forms, if possible more hideous than the
dread spectres of the waking sense. Breaking loose from Helen, and also
from Hector--who had joined his sister, and had from the window got some
glimpse of the dire operations in progress in the court, and thus
ascertained the cause of his mother's scream--she ran round the
apartment, in the way of unfortunate maniacs, till her brain became
dizzy with the quick circumgyrations, and then stood ready to fall,
staring wildly at her children, who had followed her in her progress
with loud screams. Meanwhile, the buzz of the preparations for the
execution fell on her ear, and, running to the window, she held forth
her extended arms, and implored the king, in wildly pathetic words and
moans, to spare her husband. The king never moved his head; but many of
the men turned up their grim, embrowned faces, fixed their eyes on her
beautiful countenance, and saw her white arms wildly sawing the air,
without showing any indications of being moved. Cockburn himself, who
stood with his arms bound behind his back, hi