o him by the hand of him whom he had degraded in the eyes of
the whole world beneath the condition even of a felon, and delivered
over in my misery to contempt and scorn. I found him out;--there he was
before me--in all that beauty by women so beloved--graceful as Apollo;
and with a haughty air, as if proud of an achievement that adorned his
name, he saluted me--_her husband_--on the field,--and let the wind play
with his raven tresses--his curled love-locks--and then presented
himself to my aim in an attitude a statuary would have admired. I shot
him through the heart."

The good old man heard the dreadful words with a shudder--yet they had
come to his ears not unexpectedly, for the speaker's aspect had
gradually been growing black with wrath, long before he ended in an
avowal of murder. Nor, on ceasing his wild words and distracted
demeanour, did it seem that his heart was touched with any remorse. His
eyes retained their savage glare--his teeth were clenched--and he
feasted on his crime.

"Nothing but a full faith in Divine Revelation," solemnly said his aged
friend, "can subdue the evil passions of our nature, or enable
conscience itself to see and repent of sin. Your wrongs were indeed
great--but without a change wrought in all your spirit, alas! my son!
you cannot hope to see the kingdom of heaven."

"Who dares to condemn the deed? He deserved death--and whence was doom
to come but from me the Avenger? I took his life--but once I saved it. I
bore him from the battlements of a fort stormed in vain--after we had
all been blown up by the springing of a mine; and from bayonets that had
drunk my blood as well as his--and his widowed mother blessed me as the
saviour of her son. I told my wife to receive him as a brother--and for
my sake to feel towards him a sister's love. Who shall speak of
temptation--or frailty--or infatuation to me? Let the fools hold their
peace. His wounds became dearer to her abandoned heart than mine had
ever been; yet had her cheek lain many a night on the scars that seamed
this breast--for I was not backward in battle, and our place was in the
van. I was no coward, that she who loved heroism in him should have
dishonoured her husband. True, he was younger by some years than me--and
God had given him pernicious beauty--and she was young, too--oh! the
brightest of all mortal creatures the day she became my bride--nor less
bright with that baby at her bosom--a matron in girlhood's resplendent