"Even so: I will work upon her feelings till human nature can hold out no longer. When she is mine, I shall drop my glove from the window, and the prisoner is respited." "Good, my lord; but if you fail, the signal ?” ` "On to the death, Sebastian, for I will then be revenged. Revenge is as sacred to the Italian as his honour or religion, and richer blood than that of this English marauder must be sacrificed to propitiate it. Let my orders be fulfilled to the letter. Remember, at noon, and in the Grass Market-farewell." CHAPTER IV. For a departing being's soul The death-hymn peals, and the hollow bells knoll; PARISINA. ""Tis well," said the duke, as he entered a chamber which had been prepared for his reception in the house of the burgomaster Van Rosen; and now the hour?" "On the strike of noon, my lord duke," answered a page who attended him, at the same time bending lowly. "When the maiden is brought hither-I mean the young Englishwoman who was taken prisoner with him who is about to die-conduct her here. Till then I would be alone." The page made his obeisance and withdrew, and Farnese, with a countenance settled and determined, but revealing little of the diabolical expression one might expect to discover in the features of a man ready to shed the blood of a fellow-creature rather than forego the gratification of a temporary passion, walked up and down the chamber. "I shall now surely win her," he exclaimed; "but my ardour in the chase hath greatly abated, even since yesternight. Honour and pride are other considerations; they were never wounded in the family of Farnese, but that they took a signal revenge. I will not be braved longer; if she yet spurn me, her lover shall pay the price of her obstinacy, and his blood be upon her head, not mine." The door of the apartment was now opened, and his destined victim, the unfortunate Mary Ambree, ushered in. She came this time without support and with a firm step; her eye was settled, but wild, and from her face, though it was paler, yes, even paler than it had been the day before, all emotion had passed away, and nothing now dwelt there but calm and enduring resolution. She seemed as a victim led to the sacrifice, certainly without hope, almost without desire of mercy. She just bent her head to Farnese as he greeted her, and then meeting his searching gaze with a quiet look quite as determined, stood before him, awaiting what he would say to her, without uttering a word. "Maiden," said the duke, coldly, as he led her by the arm to the window, which looked into the square below, "come hither. It is the Groodt Mart of Ghent you see beneath you. Examine all you may mark worthy of your notice in it." Saying thus, he pointed to the preparations already made for the execution of Sir John Major. An oblong space, which, with the exception of a slight passage on either side to the right and left of the window, and from which an entrance had at the farther end been left open to the interior, extended from one end to the other of the market, had been railed in with a slight barrier, and was now guarded by a grim line of Spanish infantry. Within, at the termination of the barrier opposite to the entrance, which opened on the street leading to the Stadhus, was drawn up a double file of harquebusiers, with their matches ready in their hands, and at some paces from them was a spot marked out as the station of the condemned. To add to the impressiveness of the scene, the windows of all the houses round the square were hung to the roofs with sable tapestry, and at the front of every door were posted two officials of the government, clad in long black cloaks, and each holding a dim flambeau of unbleached wax in his right hand, while they stood as rigid and immovable as statues, with their left hand crossed upon their breasts. The space left open before the market, and every street leading to it, were crowded with spectators, all of them anxious and some breathless with expectation; and before the broad and arched doorway of the venerable church of St. Nicholas was drawn up a large troop of the armed retainers of the priesthood and various monastic orders of Ghent, while, in the interior of the church, and between the fair and lofty arches of the central aisle, were to be partially seen, as the dreamy light from the stained windows fell upon them, the proud and lordly canons of the cathedral of St. Bavo, clad in their richest vestments, and drawn up in long procession, ready to issue from the porch, with many a pix, censer, banner, crosier, and pastoral, borne before them. On the mouldering towers above hung heavily and drooping in the sky the gigantic standards of Castile and Arragon, now for a moment partially unfurled, and rustling as the breeze took them, and then sullenly sinking down again. At this moment the clock struck, and the deep-toned bell of the church began to knoll; the clamour of the crowd was hushed, a slight murmur of expectation succeeded it, and then all was quiet, save there swelled solemnly, and only heard by fits, as it rolled faintly from the remote choir in the interior of the church, the rich peal of the organ, and the drowsy chant of the canons singing a requiem for the dead. Mary Ambree knew not what tragedy was to follow these awful preparations, but she felt a faintness come over her, and her heart beat violently against her bosom. She gasped for breath, and clutched, with a convulsive grasp, the cold mullion which separated the window, to support herself; yet she could not withdraw her fascinated gaze from the unearthly scene beneath her, while every knoll of the sullen bell, answered, as it were, by a prolonged echo, and the distant thunders of the cannon from the beleaguered walls, went bitterly to her soul, telling her, as if in an audible voice, to despair and die. "Now, my chaste damsel," said the duke, bitterly, "yesterday you braved-yes, I was never, in the whole course of my life, so perfectly set at defiance before; but a night of reflection, your own good sense telling you that I have it in my power alike to make you happy or miserable, even as you conciliate me by submission or provoke me by resistance, and above all, this present awful display of my authority, the scene beneath you, may have brought you, however tardily, to your senses, and taught you to have some little respect for a sovereign when he kneels at your feet." "My lord," answered Mary," what these terrors are for—what they mean-how they concern me— -I cannot in any manner conceive; but my heart tells me something dreadful is about to be done before my eyes. O great duke, have mercy upon me, as you hope mercy shall be shown to yourself hereafter, and do not put a woman to a greater and more terrible trial than human nature can endure. If I am to be the victim, I am ready to die; but let me die easily, and do not prolong my suffering by unendurable tortures. And O, my lord, since I am the only guilty, if any guilt be mine, let my death alone pay the price, and do not unjustly-yes, inhumanly, make another—for a horrible fear tells me there is another-suffer, not for his own crime, but for my constancy." 66 Mary Ambree, not a hair of thy head shall be harmed, for I love you; but the life or death of another is, as you justly fear, with all the awfulness of such a responsibility, in your hands. If you still deny me what I crave, not demand, he must die; but when you comply with my wishes, be he then within a minute's breadth of his fate, that compliance will save him. And now, if your eyes can endure the sight of the man you love, yet will not stoop to save, behold your victim." As he spoke, he pointed to a long procession, which winded with a melancholy pace from the steep street at the extremity of the left hand of the market, and which goes down to the Stadthus. Mary shuddered convulsively as the foremost of the train appeared, but it relieved her, and she breathed freer; it was not him. No, hope was not quite extinguished-she did not see him yet. First came a party of gray friars, barefoot and bareheaded, carrying long tapers in their hands, and, as they bent their heads and kept their eyes fixed on the earth, chanting the dismal notes of the Miserere. Next after them rode the stern soldiers of the holy office, for the prisoner being a heretic, this was partly a religious as well as a military execution, mounted each one on a stately black steed, and clad in a black mantle which almost swept the ground behind him. And lastly, fenced on both sides by a double file of the iron men-at-arms of Castile, they brought forth the prisoner, clad in a penitential dress, and with his head uncovered, and his hands bound with a friar's girdle of cords behind his back. Two priests, clad in their full and most sumptuous vestments, kept even pace with him, the one on his right hand holding before his averted eyes the crucifix, and earnestly pressing him to kiss it, and the other with his breviary open, and his face raised to heaven, praying in a low voice without ceasing. It was Sir John Major-it was her betrothed, the husband of her heart, if not of her hand; he for whose dear sake she had renounced her parents and her home-he whom she had followed without shrinking through all hardships and dangers-yes, braved the horrid front of battle to follow him! And now to see him led to the slaughter, in her presenceunder her very eyes! She fell down before the feet of the duke, and clasped his knees." O my lord, you can do it-save him, for the sake of mercy save him!" "I can," he answered; " be mine when I cast this glove from the window, and the prisoner is respited." "My lord, I cannot. What! when he whom I love, for whom I live alone, is in my sight? Do not drive me to distraction. O for a higher, for a nobler motive-for the love of Heaven-for the sake of your eternal salvation-for the quiet of your own conscience-have mercy upon me !-Quick, my lord,-see, they have entered !" 66 They have, and in a few short minutes he will be no more. The bell has ceased-determine." And the last murmurs of the knell died hoarsely away, and over it swelled majestically the solemn chant of the canons, now issuing from the church of St. Nicholas. But this was heard but for a moment. A roar from the mouths of innumerable cannon came pealing along the city, and shook every house in the market like an earthquake; and instantly upon this followed a crash louder and more prolonged and reverberated than thunder, and a cry arose, at first distant, but caught from man to man and spread like fire, till it was screamed from every voice of the mighty crowd in the market-place in mingled terror and amazement-" The wall is down!" "6 They are in the city!" "The enemy! the enemy !" The prisoner, who had submitted to his fate without a murmurwho had been already placed before his executioners-whose moments were numbered-turned his eyes imploringly, as a gleam of hope shot across his countenance, towards the place whence the cry had arisen, and Mary Ambree felt her heart beat and her temples throb violently as she turned to Farnese, and, with her right hand raised, exclaimed "The Majesty of heaven is in this, proud duke: see, it is still willing and able to assist suffering innocence when it has no other tribunal to appeal to; when we have called for help, and found it not on earth, nor from those who rule the earth, the Ruler of heaven, the Master of princes, interposes his omnipotence: though you would not save him, tyrant, God will !" Farnese had turned deadly pale, and stood like one insensible with astonishment, but, at the voice of Mary thus upbraiding, he recovered his faculties, and seemed like one awakened from a dream. "I will not be baffled," he cried; "stand firm there at your peril-see to the condemned, that he does not escape from you." "My lord, my lord !" cried Mary. "Submit then, and I drop my glove." And now there came up the streets the sound of conflict and battle-cannon brayed, swords clashed, the wounded yelled, and the victorious shouted. The clamour grew nearer and nearer, and emerging from the street that led to the Stadhus might be seen parties of armed men, at first few, but increasing in number every minute, fighting their way desperately but slowly into the market. The soldiers who guarded the barrier rushed round, and, as their eyes gleamed with fire, Iran in the direction of the combat. "On your lives, stand firm there!" shouted the duke to the harquebusiers. "On, on!" cried Mary, "or he will be slaughtered; 'tis Sir John Major-the brave Sir John Major, and he will be slain. O, it will be too late! See-they are nearer! Oh, as you value the life of your best and bravest captain, on !" "Now," said the officer commanding the harquebusiers, calm and obedient to his orders to the last, "make ready-fire !" A sharp report was heard, and then there rang through the air a cry so loud, so thrilling, so full of anguish, that it made the blood curdle and the limbs quiver of the rudest soldier who was wading kneedeep in the slaughter below. Farnese shuddered, and turned to Sebastian as he entered the chamber. "Look to her there," he said, "in a voice wherein so many and contrary emotions were mingled that words cannot describe it. "We have killed her !" My lord," said Sebastian, shuddering also, "'tis too true; she is gone-quite dead, my lord." The duke averted his face for an instant, and when he turned round again, it was as calm and resolute as ever. the walls, have they not, and the streets?" "Yes, and the market now." "Does the Stadthus hold out?". "As yet, my lord." "The enemy have "And so will I, my child; for I will not yield before the government whereto I am a servant. Hang out my banner on the house-top and -Have we cannon in this house?" "We have, my lord, and they are shotted." "Fire then in the devil's name, Sebastian-I mean on the Dutch; I would have you spare those who are English." TO MY SLEEPING BABE. BY MRS. EDWARD THOMAS. SLEEP on, my child, and may'st thou never know I see thee now, fair, beautiful, and gay All that a mother's fondest wish could form ; Oh! may I never reach that dreadful day, When thou'rt, perhaps, become the mark'd of scorn. Oh! may'st thou learn betimes, my boy, to shun |