e court, and these two men
upon the other. Hugh strode up and down, glancing fiercely every now and
then at the bright summer sky, and looking round, when he had done so,
at the walls.

'No reprieve, no reprieve! Nobody comes near us. There's only the night
left now!' moaned Dennis faintly, as he wrung his hands. 'Do you think
they'll reprieve me in the night, brother? I've known reprieves come
in the night, afore now. I've known 'em come as late as five, six, and
seven o'clock in the morning. Don't you think there's a good chance
yet,--don't you? Say you do. Say you do, young man,' whined the
miserable creature, with an imploring gesture towards Barnaby, 'or I
shall go mad!'

'Better be mad than sane, here,' said Hugh. 'GO mad.'

'But tell me what you think. Somebody tell me what he thinks!' cried
the wretched object,--so mean, and wretched, and despicable, that even
Pity's self might have turned away, at sight of such a being in the
likeness of a man--'isn't there a chance for me,--isn't there a good
chance for me? Isn't it likely they may be doing this to frighten me?
Don't you think it is? Oh!' he almost shrieked, as he wrung his hands,
'won't anybody give me comfort!'

'You ought to be the best, instead of the worst,' said Hugh, stopping
before him. 'Ha, ha, ha! See the hangman, when it comes home to him!'

'You don't know what it is,' cried Dennis, actually writhing as he
spoke: 'I do. That I should come to be worked off! I! I! That I should
come!'

'And why not?' said Hugh, as he thrust back his matted hair to get a
better view of his late associate. 'How often, before I knew your trade,
did I hear you talking of this as if it was a treat?'

'I an't unconsistent,' screamed the miserable creature; 'I'd talk so
again, if I was hangman. Some other man has got my old opinions at this
minute. That makes it worse. Somebody's longing to work me off. I know
by myself that somebody must be!'

'He'll soon have his longing,' said Hugh, resuming his walk. 'Think of
that, and be quiet.'

Although one of these men displayed, in his speech and bearing, the
most reckless hardihood; and the other, in his every word and action,
testified such an extreme of abject cowardice that it was humiliating
to see him; it would be difficult to say which of them would most have
repelled and shocked an observer. Hugh's was the dogged desperation of
a savage at the stake; the hangman was reduced to a condition little
better, if any,