g her nuptials an occasion for
all in the city to witness and to favor, is the common headsman of
Berne--a wretch who lately came near to prove the destruction of more
Christians than the law has condemned, and who is sufficiently out of
favor with Heaven to bring the fate of Gomorrah upon your town!"

Pippo tottered to his station among the prisoners with the manner of one
who had delivered himself of an important trust, and was instantly lost to
view. So rapid and unlooked for had been the interruption, and so vehement
the utterance of the Italian while delivering his facts, that, though
several present saw their tendency when it was too late, none had
sufficient presence of mind to prevent the exposure. A murmur arose in the
crowd, which stirred like a vast sheet of fluid on which a passing gust
had alighted, and then became fixed and calm. Of all present, the bailiff
manifested the least surprise or concern, for to him the last minister of
the law was an object, if not precisely of respect, of politic good-will
rather than of dishonor.

"What of this!" he answered, in the way of one who had expected a far more
important revelation. "What of this, should it be true! Harkee,
friend,--art thou, in sooth, the noted Balthazar, he to whose family the
canton is indebted for so much fair justice?"

Balthazar saw that his secret was betrayed, and that it were wiser simply
to admit the facts, than to have recourse to subterfuge or denial. Nature,
moreover, had made him a man with strong and pure propensities for the
truth, and he was never without the innate consciousness of the injustice
of which he had been made the victim by the unfeeling ordinance of
society. Raising his head, he looked around him with firmness, for he too,
unhappily, had been accustomed to act in the face of multitudes, and he
answered the question of the bailiff, in his usual mild tone of voice, but
with composure.

"Herr Bailiff, I am by inheritance the last avenger of the law."

"By my office! I like the title; it is a good one! The last avenger of
the law! If rogues will offend, or dissatisfied spirits plot, there must
be a hand to put the finishing blow to their evil works, and why not thou
as well as another! Harkee, officers, shut me up yonder Italian knave for
a week on bread and water, for daring to trifle with the time and
good-nature of the public in this impudent manner. And this worthy dame is
thy wife, honest Balthazar; and that fair ma