tell me all--I must know it,
sooner or later. Your anxiety prepares me for the worst. If you, a man
of iron, are thus shaken"----

"I? Nonsense!" retorted the old man, somewhat disconcerted. "The fellow
was a notorious villain, and was executed for two murders."

Florian, relieved by this intelligence, began to breathe more freely,
and gazed upon the headsman with looks which sought farther explanation,
"Florian," continued the old man, fixing upon him his stern and
searching look, "when you told me the tale of your calamities at D.,
did you tell me _all_? Had you _no_ reservations?"

"None, father, by all I hold most sacred!" replied Florian, with
emphatic earnestness.

"One of Bartholdy's crimes," resumed the headsman, "was connected with
your story. He is said to have slain the officer in whose murder you
thought yourself implicated by suspicious appearances."

"_He_?" exclaimed Florian, gasping with horror. "No! by the Almighty
God, he did _not_ slay him! I have beheaded an innocent man, and the
remembrance will cleave to me like a curse!"

"Can you _prove_ that he had no share in that murder?" now sternly
demanded the headsman, whose suspicions had been roused by Florian's
acknowledgment of former intimacy with Bartholdy.

"I can swear to his innocence of _that_ murder," vehemently replied
Florian, whose energies rose with his excitement. "And the other crime?"
he eagerly continued. "In mercy, father, tell me whom else he is said to
have murdered?"

"_Yourself!_" said the old man, turning pale as he anticipated the
effect of this communication,--"if the name inserted in the judicial
summons from D. was really yours."

For some moments Florian gazed upon him in speechless despair--his eyes
became fixed and glassy--his jaw dropped--and he would have fallen from
his chair, had not the old man supported him. The headsman looked with
anxious and growing perplexity upon his unfortunate victim. "After
all," he muttered, "he is my daughter's husband, and a good husband. I
forced him to the task, and must, if possible, save him from the
consequences."

By an abundant application of cold water to the face of Florian, he
succeeded at length in restoring him to consciousness. The miserable
youth opened his eyes, and, leaning on the old man's shoulders, burst
into a passion of tears. When in some measure tranquillised, the
headsman asked him soothingly if he was sufficiently collected to listen
to him.

"Yes, fa