women. Words they had none, or they were but
few.

At length the fatal judgment was passed. M'Leod was condemned to be
shot; and the sentence was ordered to be carried into execution on the
afternoon of the same day on which it was awarded. The unhappy victim
of military law shrunk not at the contemplation of the miserable fate
that awaited him. He heard it announced with unmoved countenance and
unshrinking nerve; his only remark, simply expressed in his native
language, being, "that, as to being shot, he minded it not; but he
could have wished that it had been on the field of battle." Although
prepared for the dreadful intelligence which was to inform him of the
doom of his comrade--for he had no doubt from the first that it would
be so--M'Intyre knew not yet the one-half of the misery that awaited
him in connection with the impending death of his friend. It was
possible to aggravate to him the horrors of that event tenfold, and to
increase inconceivably the torture of his already agonised mind--and
poor M'Intyre found it was so.

We leave it to the reader to conceive what were his feelings, when he
was informed that he was to be one of the firing-party--one of his
comrade's executioners! This was a refinement in cruelty which had
been reserved for Colonel Maberly. It was unparalleled. But his order
had gone forth. He had willed it so, and it was known that he never
yielded a point on which he had once determined. It was believed also,
that his usual obstinacy and hard-heartedness would be increased in
this case, from an idea that he was adding to the terror of the
example, by the savage proceeding just alluded to. The idea, however,
of compelling one comrade to assist in putting another to death, was
so revolting to every feeling of humanity, so wantonly cruel, that the
men of the regiment determined on sending a deputation to the colonel,
to entreat of him to rescind his order, and to relieve M'Intyre of
the horrible duty to which he had appointed him. This deputation
accordingly waited on the commanding officer, and, in the most
respectful language, preferred their petition. They did not seek a
remission of the unfortunate man's sentence; for they felt and
acknowledged that, however stern and cruelly severe it was, it was yet
according to military law; but they implored that his comrade might
not be compelled to share in its execution. The petition was preferred
in vain. Colonel Maberly was inexorable. "He had giv