about to be obeyed.
The father sent a messenger for me. I repaired to the cell; but to avoid
the appeals of the mother and daughter, I beckoned him forth to the lobby.
He asked me whether he should see his son now that he was all but
insensible, and could not probably recognise him. He feared that he could
not stand the scene, for that the calmness he assumed was false! I replied
that it certainly required no ordinary firmness; and yet the pain might in
some degree be even lessened by the state of stupor and insensibility in
which the youth still continued. He fixed his eyes on my face with an
expression of forced and unnatural calmness, that pained me more than the
death-like inanity of the still beautiful countenance of his son, or the
hysterical excitement of the mother. He at last seized my hand and
proceeded along to the cell hurriedly, as the turnkey was crying loudly for
the friends to depart. We entered and stood for a moment. He stood and
gazed at his son, as the latter was still kept moving by the men; but
Eugene was apparently unconscious of the presence of his parents. A loud
cry from the dense crowd who had assembled to witness the execution, struck
my ear. I ran to the window, and saw a man in the act of coming off a
horse, whose sides were covered with foam and blood. The cries of the crowd
continued, and I could distinctly hear the word "_reprieve_" mixed with the
shouts. Mr. D---- was at my back, and I felt his hands press me like a
vice. The two men who were supporting Eugene, had also heard the sound,
and, paralysed by the extraordinary announcement, they actually let the
prisoner sink on the floor. The sound of his fall made me turn; the father
had vanished, doubtless to meet the messenger, and communicate the tidings
to his wife and daughter. A great bustle in the neighbouring cells
succeeded. The two men stood and looked at me in silence. Eugene still lay
on the floor, to all appearance insensible. By my orders he was immediately
again lifted up, and dragged more violently than ever, backwards and
forwards. In a few seconds, the turnkey came in, and struck off the irons,
by which his ancle had been so severely torn that the blood flowed from it
on the floor. He informed me that he was indeed reprieved, and that the
fault of the delay was attributable to the authorities in London. I shouted
in the ear of the young man the electric word; he lifted his head, looked
wildly around him for a few seconds, a