ndividualized amongst the crowd,--that eye
instantly lost its calm contempt. A shudder passed visibly over his
frame, and his cheek grew blanched with terror. The mob saw the change,
but not the cause, and loud and louder rose their triumphant yell. The
sound recalled the pride of the young noble; he started, lifted his
crest erect, and sought again to meet the look which had appalled him.
But he could no longer single it out among the crowd. Hat and cloak once
more hid the face of the foe, and crowds of eager heads intercepted
the view. The young marquis's lips muttered; he bent down, and then the
crowd caught sight of his companion, who was being lifted up from
the bottom of the tumbril, where she had flung herself in horror and
despair. The crowd grew still in a moment as the pale face of one,
familiar to most of them, turned wildly from place to place in the
dreadful scene, vainly and madly through its silence imploring life and
pity. How often had the sight of that face, not then pale and haggard,
but wreathed with rosy smiles, sufficed to draw down the applause of the
crowded theatre; how, then, had those breasts, now fevered by the thirst
of blood, held hearts spellbound by the airy movements of that exquisite
form writhing now in no stage-mime agony! Plaything of the city, minion
to the light amusement of the hour, frail child of Cytherea and the
Graces, what relentless fate has conducted thee to the shambles?
Butterfly of the summer, why should a nation rise to break thee upon
the wheel? A sense of the mockery of such an execution, of the horrible
burlesque that would sacrifice to the necessities of a mighty people so
slight an offering, made itself felt among the crowd. There was a low
murmur of shame and indignation. The dangerous sympathy of the mob was
perceived by the officer in attendance. Hastily he made the sign to
the headsman, and as he did so, a child's cry was heard in the English
tongue,--"Mother! Mother!" The father's hand grasped the child's arm
with an iron pressure; the crowd swam before the boy's eyes; the air
seemed to stifle him, and become blood-red; only through the hum and
the tramp and the roll of the drums he heard a low voice hiss in his ear
"Learn how they perish who betray me!"

As the father said these words, again his face was bare, and the woman,
whose ear amidst the dull insanity of fear had caught the cry of her
child's voice, saw that face, and fell back insensible in the arms o