ast the prime of her days, but she
still retained the presence, and some of the personal beauty, which had
rendered her, in youth, a woman of extraordinary mien and carriage. When
the words which announced the slight to her daughter first fell on her
ears, she paled to the hue of the dead. For several minutes she stood
looking more like one that had taken a final departure from the interests
and emotions of life, than one that, in truth, was a prey to one of the
strongest passions the human breast can ever entertain, that of wounded
maternal affection. Then the blood stole slowly to her temples, and, by
the time the bailiff put his question, her entire face was glowing under a
tumult of feeling that threatened to defeat its own wishes, by depriving
her of the power of speech.

"Thou canst answer him, Balthazar," she said huskily, motioning for her
husband to arouse his faculties; "thou art used to these multitudes and
to their scorn. Thou art a man, and canst do us justice."

"Herr Bailiff," said the headsman, who seldom lost the mild deportment
that characterized his manner, "there is much truth in what Jacques hath
urged, but all present may have seen that the fault did not come of us,
but of yonder heartless vagabond. The wretch sought my life on the lake,
in our late unfortunate passage hither; and, not content with wishing to
rob my children of their father, he comes now to injure me still more
cruelly. I was born to the office I hold, as you well know, Herr
Hofmeister, or it would never have been sought by me; but what the law
wills, men insist upon as right. This girl can never be called upon to
strike a head from its shoulders, and, knowing from childhood up the scorn
that awaits all who come of my race, I sought the means of releasing her,
at least, from some part of the curse that hath descended on us."

"I know not if this were legal!" interrupted the bailiff, quickly. "What
is your opinion, Her von Willading? Can any in Berne escape their
heritable duties, any more than hereditary privileges can be assumed? This
is a grave question; innovation leads to innovation, and our venerable
laws and our sacred usages must be preserved, if we would avert the curse
of change!"

"Balthazar hath well observed that a female cannot exercise the
executioner's office."

"True, but a female may bring forth them that can. This is a cunning
question for the doctors-in-law, and it must be examined; of all damnable
offences,