erefore, and with what motive, he had been
found alone in the night, armed with a sword, in the thickest of the
wood? Here his oath as Carbonari sealed his lips, and his hesitation
was taken as additional proof. What could he reply to the deposition of
the gendarmes who had arrested him in the very act? He was consequently
unanimously condemned to death, and reconducted to his prison until the
time fixed for the execution of his sentence.

A priest was first sent to him. The officer received him with the utmost
respect, but refused to make confession, and was next importuned by the
visit of a brotherhood of penitents. At last the executioner came to
conduct him to the place of punishment; and while he was on the way,
accompanied by several gendarmes and a long line of penitents, the
funeral procession was interrupted by the unexpected arrival of the
colonel of the gendarmerie, whom chance brought to the scene. This
officer bore the name of Colonel Boizard, a man well known in all upper
Italy, and the terror of all malefactors. The colonel ordered a halt,
for the purpose of himself questioning the condemned, and made him give
an account of the circumstances of the crime and the sentence. When he
was alone with the officer, he said, "You see that all is against you,
and nothing can save you from the death which awaits you. I can,
nevertheless, save you, but only on one condition. I know that you
belong to the society of the Carbonari. Give me the names of your
accomplices in these terrible conspiracies and your life shall be the
reward."--"Never!"--"Consider, nevertheless."--"Never, I tell you; lead
me to execution."

It was then necessary to set out anew for the place of execution. The
executioner was at his post; and as the officer with a firm step mounted
the fatal scaffold, Colonel Boizard rushed up to him and begged him still
to save his life on the conditions he had offered. "No! no! never!"
Instantly the scene changed; the colonel, the executioner, the gendarmes,
the priest, penitents, and spectators, all gathered round the officer,
each one eager to press him to their hearts, and he was conducted in
triumph to his dwelling. All that had passed was simply an initiation.
The assassins in the forest and their victim, as well as the judges and
the pretended Colonel Boizard, had been playing a role; and the most
suspicious Carbonari now knew how far their new brother would carry the
constancy of his heroism and the ob