in health, a ministering angel, his
anger melted into love. He had no words; but, like the father of the
humbled prodigal, he had compassion, and fell upon her neck and kissed
her, and forgave her entirely, and for ever.

The old headsman survived these events several years; and, while his
strength continued equal to the effort, he spared his son-in-law from
the trying duties of his office. After his death, however, his successor
was compelled to encounter the dreadful task. For some time before and
after each execution, sadness sat heavy on his soul, but yielded
gradually to the sustaining influence of fervent prayer, and to the
caresses of his wife and children. In the intervening periods he
regained comparative tranquillity, and devoted himself unceasingly to
the education of his boys, and to the labours of his field and vineyard.
I have been told, however, that since the execution of Bartholdy he was
never seen to smile; and that, when gazing on the joyous sports of his
unconscious children, his eyes would often fill with tears of sorrowing
anticipation. Thus many years elapsed: his boys have become men, and the
recent training and nomination of one of them as his successor, have
renewed in the heart of the fond father all those bitter pangs which the
soothing agency of time and occupation had lulled to comparative repose.

* * * * *

Here the interesting narrator paused. Towards the conclusion of his
recital his mournful voice had quivered with suppressed emotion; and, as
he finished, his eyes were clouded with tears.

His companions had listened to this affecting narrative with a sympathy
which, for some moments, subdued all power of utterance, and the silence
which ensued was interrupted only by involuntary and deep-drawn sighs.
At length the Professor roused himself, and, prompted by a friendly wish
to draw out a more explanatory conclusion, he put the leading question,
"Had he, then, _no_ alternative?"

"You forget, my dear sir," replied Julius, rallying with sudden effort,
"that by the French laws the son of an executioner _must_ succeed his
father, or see the family estate transferred to strangers. When the old
headsman was near his end, his son-in-law pledged himself by oath to
train a son as his own successor. His eldest boy, who blended with his
father's gentle manners some portion of his mother's courage, evinced,
from an early age, such determined antipathy to this voca