is judges," replied the same person; "he has been already
judged and condemned by lawful authority. We are those whom Heaven, and
our righteous anger, have stirred up to execute judgment, when a corrupt
government would have protected a murderer."

"I am none," said the unfortunate Porteous: "that which you charge upon me
fell out in self-defence, in the lawful exercise of my duty."

"Away with him--away with him!" was the general cry. "Why do you trifle
away time in making a gallows?--that dyester's pole is good enough for
the homicide."

The unhappy man was forced to his fate with remorseless rapidity.
Butler, separated from him by the press, escaped the last horrors of
his struggles. Unnoticed by those who had hitherto detained him as a
prisoner, he fled from the fatal spot, without much caring in what
direction his course lay. A loud shout proclaimed the stern delight with
which the agents of this deed regarded its completion. Butler, then,
at the opening into the low street called the Cowgate, cast back a
terrified glance, and, by the red and dusky light of the torches, he
could discern a figure wavering and struggling as it hung suspended
above the heads of the multitude, and could even observe men striking at
it with their Lochaberaxes and partisans. The sight was of a nature to
double his horror, and to add wings to his flight.

SCOTT.

* * * * *

MAZEPPA.

"'Bring forth the horse!'--the horse was brought;
In truth, he was a noble steed,
A Tartar of the Ukraine breed,
Who look'd as though the speed of thought
Were in his limbs; but he was wild,
Wild as the wild deer, and untaught,
With spur and bridle undefiled--
'T was but a day he had been caught;
And snorting, with erected mane,
And struggling fiercely, but in vain,
In the full foam of wrath and dread
To me the desert-born was led:
They bound me on, that menial throng;
Upon his back with many a thong;
Then loosed him with a sudden lash--
Away!--away!--and on we dash!
Torrents less rapid and less rash.

* * * * *

"Away, away, my steed and I,
Upon the pinions of the wind,
All human dwellings left behind;
We sped like meteors through the sky,