Chapter 30 - Page 2

easy to find those in another
canton, who were willing to take the little Sigismund into their keeping.
After which, a feigned death, and a private burial, did the rest. The
deceit was easily practised, for as few cared for the griefs as for the
happiness of the headsman's family The child had drawn near the end of its
first year, when I was called upon to execute my office on a stranger. The
criminal had taken life in a drunken brawl in one of the towns of the
canton, and he was said to be a man that had trifled with the precious
gifts of birth, it being suspected that he was noble. I went with a heavy
heart, for never did I strike a blow without praying God it might be the
last; but it was heavier when I reached the place where the culprit
awaited his fate. The tidings of my poor son's death reached me as I put
foot on the threshold of the desolate prison, and I turned aside to weep
for my own woes, before I entered to see my victim. The condemned man had
great unwillingness to die; he had sent for me many hours before the fatal
moment, to make acquaintance, as he said, with the hand that was to
dispatch him to the presence of his last and eternal judge."

Balthazar paused; he appeared to meditate on a scene that had probably
left indelible impressions on his mind. Shuddering involuntarily, he
raised his eyes from the pavement of the chapel, and continued the
recital, always in the same subdued and tranquil manner.

"I have been the unwilling instrument of many a violent death--I have seen
the most reckless sinners in the agonies of sudden and compelled
repentance, but never have I witnessed so wild and fearful a struggle
between earth and heaven--the world and the grave--passion and the rebuke
of Providence--as attended the last hours of that unhappy man! There were
moments in which the mild spirit of Christ won upon his evil mood 'tis
true; but the picture was, in general, that of revenge so fierce, that the
powers of hell alone could give it birth in a human heart. He had with him
an infant of an age just, fitted to be taken from the breast. This child
appeared to awaken the fiercest conflicting feelings; he both yearned over
it and detested its sight, though hatred seemed most to prevail."

"This was horrible!" murmured the Doge.

"It was the more horrible, Herr Doge, that it should come from one who was
justly condemned to the axe. He rejected the priests; he would have naught
of any but me. My soul lothed the wretch--yet so few ever showed an
interest in us--and it would have been cruel to desert a dying man! At the
end, he placed the child in my care, furnishing more gold than was
sufficient to rear it frugally to the age of manhood, and leaving other
valuables