e the last awful
ceremony was in progress, were resumed. As he read them, I saw the
clergyman fix his eye on the executioner with a peculiar expression. He
drew his handkerchief from his pocket, and passed it slightly over his
upper lip. This was the fatal signal. A lumbering noise, occasioned by
the falling of part of the apparatus, announced that it had been obeyed.

In that moment, a rush from the scaffold forced me from the door.
The sheriffs, the under-sheriff, the ordinary, the gentleman who had
assisted him in preparing the sufferers for eternity, and several other
persons quitted the platform as expeditiously as possible, that they
might not behold the final agonies of the unhappy men. Sir Thomas took
me by the arm as he passed, and signified that he wished me to accompany
him. I did so. Again I marched through the passages which I had recently
traversed. Two minutes brought me to the door of the room to which I had
first been conducted. Here my friend accosted me with his natural
firmness of tone, which before had been considerably subdued by humane
emotions, and said--

"You must breakfast with us."

I started at the unsentimental idea of eating the moment after quitting
so awful a spectacle, as that which I have attempted to describe. But
I had not sufficient energy to resist the good will which rather
unceremoniously handed me in. Here I found the other sheriff, the
ordinary, the under-sheriff, the city-marshal, and one or two of the
individuals I had previously met, already seated.

"Well, it is all over," said Sir Thomas, as he took his seat at the
table.

"Yes, it is," said the ordinary, in the same tone which I had heard a
few moments before, and admired as appropriately solemn. "It is all
over, and--" putting his cup and saucer to the under-sheriff, who
prepared to pour out the tea--"I am very glad of it."

"I hope you do not mean the breakfast is all over," remarked the
sheriff, whose wit I had previously admired, "for I have had none yet."

The moment had not arrived at which humour like this could be duly
appreciated, and I did not observe that any of the company gave even
that sort of _note of face_ for a laugh which we had all used half an
hour before.

Our conversation turned naturally on the manner in which the sufferers
had conducted themselves; on the wishes they had expressed, and the
confessions they had made.

But while I looked on the hospitably spread table, I could not help
co