ish eyes which were manifestly lightening
to a vicious gleam. At length, thrusting forth his chest, he cried
hoarsely:

"So you ask me whither I am bound? I am bound for the brigands' lair,
for the brigands' lair, where, unless you first take and put me in
fetters, I intend to cut the throat of every man that I meet. Yes, a
hundred murders will I commit, for all folk will be the same to me, and
not a soul will I spare. Aye, the end of my tether is reached, so take
and fetter me whilst you can."

His breath was issuing with difficulty, and as he spoke his shoulders
heaved, and his legs trembled beneath him. Also, his face had turned
grey and become distorted with tremors.

Upon this, the crowd broke into a gruff, ugly, resentful roar, and
edged away from the man. Yet, in doing so, many of its members looked
curiously like the man himself in the way that they lowered their
heads, caught at their breath, and let their eyes flash. Clearly the
man was in imminent danger of being assaulted.

Suddenly he recovered his subdued demeanour--he, as it were, thawed in
the sunlight: until, as suddenly, his legs gave way beneath him, and,
narrowly escaping injury to his face from the corner of a bale, he fell
forward upon his knees as though felled with an axe. Thereafter,
clutching at his throat, he shouted in a strange voice, and crowding
the words upon one another:

"Tell me what I am to do. Is all of it my fault? Long I lay in prison
before I was tried and told to go free... yet--"

Tearing at his ears and cheeks, he rocked his head to and fro as though
seeking to rend it from its socket. Then he continued:

"Yet I am NOT free. Nor is it in my power to say what will become of
me. For me there remains neither life nor death."

"Aha!" exclaimed the big peasant; and at the sound the crowd drew back
as in consternation, while some hastened to depart altogether. As for
the remainder (numbering a dozen or so), they herded sullenly,
nervously, involuntarily into a mass as the young fellow continued in
distracted tones and with a trembling head:

"Oh that I could sleep for the next ten years! For then could I prove
myself, and decide whether I am guilty or not. Last night I struck a
man with a faggot. As I was walking about I saw asleep a man who had
angered me, and thereupon thought, 'Come! I should like to deal him a
blow, but can I actually do it?' And strike him I did. Was it my fault?
Always I keep asking myself, 'Can I, o