turned towards it his horse's head, he saw the old man, whose promised
visit he was endeavouring to escape, issuing from the lane on horseback.
"I guessed as much," said the headsman, smiling, as he rode up to the
startled fugitive. "I knew you would try to escape me, but I cannot
consent that you should thus run headlong into certain destruction. You
have neither sanguine hopes nor a fixed purpose to support you, and you
want firmness to answer with discretion the trying questions which will
everywhere assail you. You are silent--you feel the full extent of your
danger--why not then embrace the certain protection I offer you? Fear
not that I shall either repeat or allude to my last night's proposal. My
sole object is your immediate protection at this critical period, when
you are doubtless tracked in all directions by the blood-hounds of the
police. At the frontiers you will inevitably be stopped and identified;
but under my roof you will be safe from all pursuit and suspicion. I
live secluded from the world; I have no visitors; and your presence will
not be suspected by any one. In a few weeks the heat of pursuit will
abate, and you may then take your departure with renewed courage and
confidence."

"Courage and confidence!" repeated to himself the timid Florian; "would
Heaven I had either!" The good sense, however, of the old man's advice
was so obvious, that he determined to avail himself of so kind an offer.
Gratefully pressing his hand, he dismissed all doubts of his sincerity,
and said, "I will accompany you; and may God reward your benevolence,
for I cannot."

"We must return by the road I came," said the headsman, turning his
horse. "It will take us outside the town to my house; and, at this hour,
we shall arrive there unperceived. Your landlord, who is under
obligations to me, sent you this road at my request. He supposes that
you are my distant relative, and that, unwilling to appear in public
with an executioner, you had made an appointment with me for this early
hour on your way homeward."

After a ride of half an hour through the shady lanes which skirted the
ramparts, they reached the back entrance of the Gothic building before
mentioned, and Florian entered this singular sanctuary with emotions not
easily described. The old headsman was in high spirits; and the blunt
but genuine kindness and cordiality of his manners soon removed from the
mind of his guest every lurking suspicion that some treachery