ght in the balance against him,
let me humbly hope and trust. That I was a cause, and a great one, of
this unhappy delusion, let me not deny. God forgive me, if I thought
sometimes less of the soul to be saved than of him who deemed he might
be one of the humble instruments of grace. It is but too true that I
fain would have danced, like David, before the ark. Within and without
was I assailed by those snares which, made of pride, are seen in the
disguise of charity. The aspirations of my friends, the eyes of mine
enemies, the wishes of the good, and the sneers of the mistrustful,
were about me, and upon me; and I undertook to pass with the
murderer--HIS LAST NIGHT--_such_ a last!--but let me compose myself.

* * * * *

It was about the hour of ten, on a gusty and somewhat raw evening of
September, that I was locked up alone with the murderer. It was the
evening of the Sabbath. Some rain had fallen, and the sun had not been
long set without doors; but for the last hour and a half the dungeon
had been dark, and illuminated only by a single taper. The clergyman
of the prison, and some of my religious friends, had sat with us until
the hour of locking-up, when, at the suggestion of the gaoler, they
departed. I must confess their "good-night," and the sound of the
heavy door, which the gaoler locked after him when he went to
accompany them to the outer gate of the gaol, sounded heavily on my
heart. I felt a sudden shrink within me, as their steps quickly ceased
to be heard upon the stone stairs; and when the distant prison-door
was finally closed, I watched the last echo. I had for a moment
forgotten my companion. When I turned round he was sitting on the side
of his low pallet, towards the head of it, supporting his head by his
elbow against the wall, apparently in a state of half stupor. He was
motionless, excepting a sort of convulsive movement, between sprawling
and clutching of the fingers of the right hand, which was extended on
his knee. His shrunk cheeks exhibited a deadly ashen paleness, with a
slight tinge of yellow, the effect of confinement. His eyes were
glassy and sunken, and seemed in part to have lost the power of
gazing. They were turned with an unmeaning and vacant stare upon the
window, where the last red streak of day was faintly visible, which
they seemed vainly endeavouring to watch. The sense of my own
situation now recoiled strongly upon me; and the sight of the wretch