s; and
accordingly, in his work, we are more struck with the interest of his
narrative than with the profoundness of his reflections: it contains not
the philosophy of Guizot, nor the originality of Michelet, yet it is a
valuable addition to modern literature. Would that we saw a few more
such in our own country!

FOOTNOTES:

{A} _Histoire des Gaulois_, par M. AMADEE THIERRY. 3 tomes. Paris: 1835.

THE WITCHFINDER.

CONCLUSION.

At the upper end of the large Gothic room, forming the interior of the
town-hall of Hammelburg, which was formally prepared as a court of
trial, sat upon a raised part of the flooring in his chair of state, the
Ober-Amtmann; before him were placed, at a velvet-behung table, his
_schreibers_ or secretaries; beside him sat, upon a low cushioned stool,
his daughter, the fair Fraulein Bertha, surrounded by her tirewomen, who
remained standing behind her.

The presence of the young Fraulein was of rare occurrence upon occasions
of judicial ceremony in the old town-hall. But a solemn appeal to her
testimony had been made by the witchfinder; and her father, whose sense
of justice considered that a matter of accusation of so heavy and
serious a nature as that of witchcraft, should be investigated in all
its bearings, had commanded her presence. Her heart, full of the purest
milk of human kindness, revolted, however, from witnessing the progress
of such terrible proceedings--the justice of which her simple mind,
tutored according to the dark prejudices of the age, never once doubted,
but which curdled her blood with horror. And she sat pale and sad, with
downcast eyes, scarcely daring to raise them upon the crowd that filled
the hall, much less upon the most conspicuous object in the scene before
her--the unhappy being against whom all curses, all evil feelings, all
insane desires of blood and death, were then directed. Perhaps there was
another reason also, which, almost unconsciously, caused her to keep her
eyes fixed upon the earth; perhaps she feared that they might meet two
other mild blue eyes, the expression of which was that of a deep--far
too deep--an interest; for it caused her heart to beat, and her spirit
to be troubled; and her bosom to heave and sigh, she knew not wherefore:
unless, indeed, she were, in truth, bewitched.

In the centre of the hall was placed the accused woman. She was seated
upon a rude three-legged stool, which was firmly fixed upon a raised
flooring, el