lief from the horror of what awaited the victim. It was,
indeed, an extraordinary request; and told, as no words spoken by mortal
had ever told, the pregnancy of an anguish that could seek for alleviation
(if I may use so inadequate a phrase) from so fearful an alternative. All
were, for a time, now silent, and there was no sound to be heard but the
deep sobs of the daughter, as she recovered from her swoon; the struggle in
the throat of the mother; and the shuffling and tramping in the cell of the
prisoner.

"There is still hope," I whispered in the ear of the mother.

"None--none!" she ejaculated again. "My Eugene! my Eugene!"

She reclined back, with her hands over her face, still sobbing out the name
of her son. I pointed to the father to assist her, while I should go again
to ascertain the state of the son; but he did not seem to understand
me--retaining still his rigid position, and looking with the calmness of
despair on the scene around him. Her silence continued but a few moments;
and when she opened her eyes again, it was to fix them on me.

"What are you doing?" she exclaimed again. "What, in the name of heaven,
are you doing to my Eugene?--Saving him for second, and still more cruel
death. It might have been all over. Let me see him--let me see him!"

And she rose to proceed to the cell where her son was confined; but her
strength failed her, and she again reclined helplessly back in her seat.
The clergyman's ministrations were called for by these uttered sentiments,
which seemed so little in accordance with the precepts of Holy Writ,
however natural to the bursting heart of the mother, to whom the reported
death of her son, in his unparalleled situation might almost have been
termed a boon. Retreating from a scene so fraught with misery, I hastened
back to Eugene, who was still in the arms of the men. One of them whispered
to me that he had spoken when he heard the shrill cry of his sister; but,
immediately after, he relapsed again into stupor. The men complained of
being exhausted by their efforts to keep him moving. His weight was now
almost that of a dead body; and it was only at intervals that he made any
struggles to move himself by the aid of his paralysed limbs. Two other
individuals were got to relieve them; and the compulsory motions were
continued. The lethargy had not altogether mastered the sentient powers;
and, the operation having been stopped that I might examine his condition,
he lifted h