gned; the dignity of conscious
innocence was there. He turned his fine dark eyes with a pitying glance
on the upturned faces of the gazing crowd; the hisses and groans with
which they had greeted his first appearance were hushed; a death-like
stillness fell upon that vast assemblage, and many a rugged cheek was
moistened with tears of genuine compassion.

"Hark, he is about to speak! Is it to confess his crime?"

In deep clear tones he addressed the multitude. "Fellow-men, you are
assembled here this day to see me die. You believe me guilty of a
dreadful crime; the most dreadful crime that a human creature can
commit--the murder of a parent. Here, before you all, and in the
presence of Almighty God, I declare my innocence. I neither committed
the murder nor am I acquainted with the perpetrators of the deed. God
will one day prove the truth of my words. To Him I leave the vindication
of my cause; He will clear from my memory this infamous stain.
Farewell!"

"He cannot be guilty!" exclaimed some.

"The hardened wretch!" cried others. "To take God's name in vain, and
die with a lie upon his lips."

The prisoner now resigned himself to the hangman's grasp; but whilst the
fatal noose was adjusting, a cry--a wild, loud, startling cry--broke
upon the crowd, rising high into the air and heard above all other
sounds. Again and again it burst forth, until it seemed to embody itself
into intelligible words; "Stop! stop!" it cried, "stop the execution! He
is innocent! he is innocent!"

The crowd caught up the cry; and "He is innocent! he is innocent!"
passed from man to man. A young female was now seen forcing a passage
through the dense mass. The interest became intense; every one drew
closer to his neighbor, to make way for the bearer of unexpected
tidings, who, arriving within a few yards of the scaffold, again called
out in shrill tones, which found an echo in every benevolent
heart--"Godfrey Hurdlestone and William Mathews are the real murderers.
I heard them form the plot. I saw the deed done!"

"Damnation!--we are betrayed!" whispered Godfrey to his colleague in
crime, as they fled from the scene.

All was now uproar and confusion. The sheriff and his officers at length
succeeded in quieting the excited populace, and removed the prisoner
once more to his cell.

"I trust, my son, that the bitterness of death is past," said the
chaplain, who accompanied him hither. "The God in whom you trusted has
been strong to sa