use
now opened, and two officers of police, together with some of the guard,
conducted out the condemned, who was placed in the pillory. This was a
sort of wooden yoke laid across the shoulders of the delinquent; a piece
of wood came forward from this into which her hands were secured: above
all stood two iron bars, to the first of which was fastened a little
bell; to the other a long fox's tail, which hung down the lack of the
condemned.

The girl seemed hardly more than nineteen, and was of an unusually
beautiful figure; her countenance was nobly and delicately formed,
but pale as death: yet there was no expression either of suffering or
shame,--she seemed like the image of a penitent, who meekly accomplishes
the imposed penance.

Her aged father, the Gevaldiger, followed her slowly; his eye was
determined; no feature expressed that which went forward in his soul:
he silently took his place beside one of the pillars before the guard
house.

A loud murmur arose among the crowd when they saw the beautiful girl and
the poor old father, who must himself see his daughter's disgrace.

A spotted dog sprang into the open space; the girl's monotonous tread,
as she advanced into the middle of the square, the ringing of the little
bell, and the fox-tail which moved in the wind, excited the dog, which
began to bark, and wanted to bite the fox's tail. The guards drove the
dog away, but it soon came back again, although it did not venture again
into the circle, but thrust itself forward, and never ceased barking.

Many of those who already had been moved to compassion by the beauty
of the girl and the sight of the old father, were thrown again by this
incident into a merry humor; they laughed and found the whole thing very
amusing.

The hour was past, and the girl was now to be released. The Gevaldiger
approached her, but whilst he raised his hand to the yoke the old
man tottered, and sank, in the same moment, back upon the hard stone
pavement.

A shriek arose from those who stood around; the young girl alone stood
silent and immovable; her thoughts seemed to be far away. Yet some
people fancied they saw how she closed her eyes, but that was only for
a moment. A policeman released her from the pillory, her old father
was carried into the guard-house, and two policemen led her into the
council-house.

"See, now it is over!" said an old glover, who was among the spectators;
"the next time she'll get into the House of Corre