!' And with a heavy sumph, the
body fell from their hands; for when their power of cruelty ended, they
cared not for the corpse.

"It was true: life was extinct, none knew how,--whether from the
violence of the mob in its first outbreak, or that a long-suffering
heart had burst at last; but the chord was snapped, and he whose proud
soul lately defied the countless thousands around, now slept with the
dead.

"In a few seconds it seemed as though they felt that a power stronger
than their own had interposed between them and their vengeance, and
they stood almost aghast before the corpse, where no trace of blood
proclaimed it to be their own; then, rallying from this stupor, with
one voice they demanded that the son should atone for the crimes of the
father.

"'I am ready,' cried the youth, in a voice above the tumult. 'I did not
deem I could be grateful to ye for aught, but I am for this.'

"To no purpose did the commissary propose a delay in the sentence; he
was unsupported by his colleagues. The passions of the mob rose
higher and higher; the thirst for blood, unslaked, became intense and
maddening; and they danced in frantic glee around the guillotine, while
they chanted one of the demoniac songs of the scaffold.

"In this moment, when the torrent ran in one direction, Alphonse might
have escaped all notice, but that the condemned youth turned to embrace
him once more before he descended from the people.

"'They are so sorry to separate, it is a shame to part them,' cried a
ruffian in the crowd.

"'You forget, Citizen, that this boy is his substitute,' said the
commissary, mildly; 'the Republic most not be cheated of its defenders.'

"'Vive la Republique!' cried the soldiers; and the cry was re-echoed by
thousands, while amid their cheers there rose the last faint sigh of an
expiring victim.

"The scene was over; the crowd dispersed; and the soldiers marched back
to quarters, accompanied by some hundred conscripts, among whom was
Alphonse,--a vague, troubled expression betokening that he scarce knew
what had happened around him.

"The regiment to which he was appointed was at Toulon, and there I
followed him. They were ordered to the north of Italy soon after,
and thence to Egypt. Through the battlefields of Mount Tabor and the
Pyramids I was ever beside him; on the heights of Austerlitz I stanched
his wounds; and I laid him beneath the earth on the field of Auerstadt."

The old man's voice trembled and b