I feel a reverence
for a woman so superior to the weaknesses, and yet so true to the real and
best affections, of her sex!"

The young man smiled so painfully as to cause his enthusiastic companion
to regret that she had put the question.

"My mother is certainly a woman not only to be loved, but in many
particulars deeply to be revered. My poor and noble mother has a thousand
excellencies, being a most tender parent, with a heart so kind that it
would grieve her to see injury done even to the meanest living thing. She
was not a woman, surely, intended by God to be the mother of a line of
executioners!"

"Thou seest, Sigismund," said Adelheid, nearly breathless in the desire to
seek an excuse for her own predilections, and to lessen the mental agony
he endured--"thou seest that one gentle and excellent woman, at least,
could trust her happiness to thy family. No doubt she was the daughter of
some worthy and just-viewing burgher of the canton, that had educated his
child to distinguish between misfortune and crime?"

"She was an only child and an heiress, like thy self, Adelheid;" he
answered, looking about him as if he sought some object on which he might
cast part of the bitterness that loaded his heart. "Thou art not less the
Beloved and cherished of thine own parent than was my excellent mother of
her's!"

"Sigismund, thy manner is startling!--What wouldst thou say?"

"Neufchatel, and other countries besides Berne, have their privileged! My
mother was the only child of the headsman of the first. Thus thou seest,
Adelheid, that I boast my quarterings as well as another. God be praised!
we are not legally compelled, however, to butcher the condemned of any
country but our own!"

The wild bitterness with which this was uttered, and the energy of his
language, struck thrilling chords on every nerve of his listener.

"So many honors should not be unsupported;" he resumed. "We are rich, for
people of humble wishes, and have ample means of living without the
revenues of our charge--I love to put forth our long-acquired honors! The
means of a respectable livelihood are far from being wanted. I have told
you of the kind intentions of my mother to redeem one of her children, at
least, from stigma which weighed upon us all, and the birth of a second
son enabled her to effect this charitable purpose, without attracting
attention. I was nursed and educated apart, for many years, in ignorance
of my birth. At a suitable a