and undefined awe of what he
termed the supernatural sciences, and he inwardly thanked the kind monitor
who had given him at least a chance of redeeming his days.

He immediately set about making application to the judges, in order to get
the decree of death changed into a sentence to the galleys for life. He
was equally surprised and distressed to find that they treated his
petition with contempt, and ridiculed his fears. So far from granting his
request, after repeated solicitations, they commanded him in a peremptory
manner to appear no more before them. Driven almost to despair, he
resolved upon petitioning the king; and after much expense and toil, he at
length succeeded in obtaining an audience of Charles X. All was in vain. A
crime so enormous, committed with such cool deliberation, left no opening
for the plea of mercy: every effort he made only served to strengthen the
resolution of the authorities to execute judgment. Finding all his efforts
in vain, he appeared to resign himself despairingly to his fate. Deprived
of all relish even for gain, he took to his bed, and languished in
hopeless misery, and as the time for the execution of the criminals
approached, lapsed more and more into terror and dismay.

It was on a sultry afternoon, in the beginning of June, 1826, that the
writer of this brief narrative--then a not too thoughtful lad, in search of
employment in Paris--hurried, together with a party of sight-seeing English
workmen, to the Place de Greve to witness the execution of the two
assassins of the money-changer. Under the rays of an almost insupportable
sun, an immense crowd had congregated around the guillotine; and it was
not without considerable exertion, and a bribe of some small amount, that
standing-places were at length obtained within a few paces of the deathful
instrument, upon the flat top of the low wall which divides the ample area
of the Place de Greve from the river Seine.

Precisely at four o'clock the sombre cavalcade approached. Seated upon a
bench in a long cart, between two priests, sat the wretched victims of
retributive justice. The crucifix was incessantly exhibited to their view,
and presented to their lips to be kissed, by their ghostly attendants.
After a few minutes of silent and horrible preparation, the elder advanced
upon the platform of the guillotine. With livid aspect and quivering lips,
he gazed around in unutterable agony upon the sea of human faces; then
lifting his h