m had given the above
confession to Walter Lester;--on the day of execution, when they entered
the condemned cell, they found the prisoner lying on the bed; and when
they approached to take off the irons, they found, that he neither
stirred nor answered to their call. They attempted to raise him, and
he then uttered some words in a faint voice. They perceived that he was
covered with blood. He had opened his veins in two places in the arm
with a sharp instrument he had some time since concealed. A surgeon was
instantly sent for, and by the customary applications the prisoner in
some measure was brought to himself. Resolved not to defraud the law of
its victim, they bore him, though he appeared unconscious of all around,
to the fatal spot. But when he arrived at that dread place, his sense
suddenly seemed to return. He looked hastily round the throng that
swayed and murmured below, and a faint flush rose to his cheek: he cast
his eyes impatiently above, and breathed hard and convulsively. The dire
preparations were made, completed; but the prisoner drew back for
an instant--was it from mortal fear? He motioned to the Clergyman to
approach, as if about to whisper some last request in his ear. The
clergyman bowed his head,--there was a minute's awful pause--Aram seemed
to struggle as for words, when, suddenly throwing himself back, a bright
triumphant smile flashed over his whole face. With that smile, the
haughty Spirit passed away, and the law's last indignity was wreaked
upon a breathless corpse!

CHAPTER VIII.

AND LAST. THE TRAVELLER'S RETURN.--THE COUNTRY VILLAGE ONCE
MORE VISITED;--ITS INHABITANTS.--THE REMEMBERED BROOK.--THE
DESERTED MANOR-HOUSE.--THE CHURCHYARD.--THE TRAVELLER RESUMES
HIS JOURNEY.--THE COUNTRY TOWN.--A MEETING OF TWO LOVERS AFTER
LONG ABSENCE AND MUCH SORROW.--CONCLUSION.

"The lopped tree in time may grow again,
Most naked plants renew both fruit and flower;
The sorriest wight may find release from pain,
The driest soil suck in some moistening shower:
Time goes by turns, and chances change by course
From foul to fair."
--Robert Southwell, the Jesuit.

Sometimes towards the end of a gloomy day, the sun before but dimly
visible, breaks suddenly out, and clothes the landscape with a smile;
then beneath your eye, which during the clouds and sadness of day, had
sought only the chief features o