us, even after her death. Do you know I rather like that
woman?"

"Is it possible that you are in earnest?" I asked.

"I know as well as you do," he answered, "that this is neither a time
nor a place for jesting. The fact is, the Prisoner carries out an idea
of mine. It is my positive conviction that the worst murders--I mean
murders deliberately planned--are committed by persons absolutely
deficient in that part of the moral organization which _feels_. The
night before they are hanged they sleep. On their last morning they
eat a breakfast. Incapable of realizing the horror of murder, they are
incapable of realizing the horror of death. Do you remember the last
murderer who was hanged here--a gentleman's coachman who killed his
wife? He had but two anxieties while he was waiting for execution. One
was to get his allowance of beer doubled, and the other was to be hanged
in his coachman's livery. No! no! these wretches are all alike; they are
human creatures born with the temperaments of tigers. Take my word for
it, we need feel no anxiety about to-morrow. The Prisoner will face the
crowd round the scaffold with composure; and the people will say, 'She
died game.'"

CHAPTER VIII. THE MINISTER SAYS GOOD-BY.

The Capital Punishment of the Prisoner is in no respect connected with
my purpose in writing the present narrative. Neither do I desire
to darken these pages by describing in detail an act of righteous
retribution which must present, by the nature of it, a scene of horror.
For these reasons I ask to be excused, if I limit what I must needs say
of the execution within the compass of a few words--and pass on.

The one self-possessed person among us was the miserable woman who
suffered the penalty of death.

Not very discreetly, as I think, the Chaplain asked her if she had truly
repented. She answered: "I have confessed the crime, sir. What more do
you want?" To my mind--still hesitating between the view that believes
with the Minister, and the view that doubts with the Doctor--this reply
leaves a way open to hope of her salvation. Her last words to me, as she
mounted the steps of the scaffold, were: "Remember your promise." It was
easy for me to be true to my word. At that bygone time, no difficulties
were placed in my way by such precautions as are now observed in the
conduct of executions within the walls of the prison. From the time of
her death to the time of her burial, no living creature saw her face.
S