an
order to appropriate the gold to my own uses, and to adopt the boy as my
own. The sword was in my hand, and the signal to strike was given, when,
for the last time, I asked the name of the infant's family and country, as
a duty I could not neglect. 'He is thine--he is thine--' was the answer;
'tell me, Balthazar, is thy office hereditary, as is wont in these
regions?' I was compelled, as ye know, to say it was. 'Then adopt the
urchin; rear him to fatten on the blood of his fellows!' It was mockery to
trifle with such a spirit. When his head fell, if still bad on its fierce
features traces of the infernal triumph with which his spirit departed!"

"The monster was a just sacrifice to the laws of the canton!" exclaimed
the single-minded bailiff. "Thou seest, Herr Melchior, that we do well in
arming the hand of the executioner, in spite of all the sentiment of the
weak-minded. Such a wretch was surely unworthy to live."

This burst of official felicitation from Peterchen, who rarely neglected
an occasion to draw a conclusion favorable to the existing order of
things, like most of those who reap their exclusive advantage, and to the
prejudice of innovation, produced little attention; all present were too
much absorbed in the facts related by Balthazar, to turn aside; to speak,
or think, of other matters.

"What became of the boy?" demanded the worthy clavier, who had taken as
deep an interest as the rest, in the progress of the narrative.

"I could not desert him, father; nor did I wish to. He came into my
guardianship at a moment when God, to reprove our repinings at a lot that
he had chosen to impose, had taken our own little Sigismund to heaven. I
filled the place of the dead infant with my living charge; I gave to him
the name of my own son, and I can say confidently, that I transferred to
him the love I had borne my own issue; though time, and use, and a
knowledge of the child's character, were perhaps necessary to complete the
last. Marguerite never knew the deception, though a mother's instinct and
tenderness took the alarm and raised suspicions. We have never spoken
freely on this together, and like you, she now heareth the truth for the
first time."

"'Twas a fearful mystery between God and my own heart!" murmured the
woman; "I forbore to trouble it--Sigismund, or Gaetano, or whatever you
will have his name, filled my affections, and I strove to be satisfied.
The boy is dear to me, and ever will be, though yo