190
The Headsman,
[Feb.
THE HEADSMAN.
A TALE OF DOOM.
ON a dark and gusty evening in November 178-, three students at a university in Northern Germany were sitting with Professor N. around the stove of his study. These foul- individuals had in the morning ac- companied a much-valued friend, who was finally quitting the univer- sity, on the first stage of his journey homeward, and had returned at the full speed of their jaded horses, to reach the city before the closing of the gates. On arrival within the ramparts, they were invited by the Professor to drown their parting sor- row-in a bowl of punch, and accom- panied him to his abode, where they sat for some time gazing at the crack- ling firewood in the stove, and mu- sing in silent melancholy upon the social and endearing qualities of the friend with whom they had parted perhaps for ever. Meanwhile the materials for the most cheering of all potations lay untouched upon the table, the candles remained unlight- ed and forgotten, and, as if by tacit agreement, the friends continued to indulge in retrospective musings un- til the twilight waned into darkness, and the nickering light from the open door of the stove just enabled each of them to discern the saddened fea- tures of his neighbour. When re- turning to the city, their exhausted spirits had been painfully jarred by the spectacle, so rare in Germany, of a scaffold erecting without the ram- parts for the execution of a murder- er. Some remarks of the humane Professor upon the crime and punish- ment of the condemned did not tend to cheer the young men, who replied in monosyllables, and were ponder- ing in mute and melancholy excite- ment upon the awful catastrophe so near at hand, when a tap at the door made them all start from the reverie in which they had been too deeply absorbed to hear any one ascending the stairs. " Come in," at length shouted the Professor, afterpausing a little to recollect himself. The door was gently opened, and the dying flame in the stove threw its last blaze upon the pallid features of a tall and handsome youth, who entered the
room with diffidence, and enquired if Professor N. was at home. " Here I am, my dear Julius," answered the kind Professor, as he rose from his chair, and grasped with cordial pres- sure the hand of the enquirer. " Can I do any thing to oblige you ?"
" I have called upon you to request a favour," answered the stranger hesitatingly, as he surveyed Avith searching looks the three students, whose features were not distinguish- able in the Rembrandt chiaro-scuro of the Professor's study.
" If no secret," said the Professor briskly, as he replenished his stove with beech-wood, " explain yourself freely. All present are my particular friends, and certainly no enemies of yours. Say, my dear boys ! you all know and respect our worthy Har- pocrates ?"
The students briefly assented, and the Professor invited the stranger to take a seat near the fire, which, dart- ing play fully through the pile of beech, soon roared loudly up the chimney.
- ' I believe that Lieutenant B. is your
near relation ?" began the pale youth, in tones which betrayed an inward tremour.
- "He is my nephew," replied the
Professor.
" I have understood," continued the stranger, " that he will command the j detachment ordered on duty at the execution to-morrow. I am particu-* larly desirous to stand near the cri-^ minal at the moment of decapitation, and wish, through your kind interfe- rence with the lieutenant, to obtain admission within the circle."
" By all means," answered the Pro- fessor. " My nephew has invited me to accompany him, but I have decli- ned it, and I must own that your re- quest surprises me no little. How is ; it, my dear Julius, that you, who are ( by nature and habit so gentle and fastidious, can seek such strong ali- ment as the near inspection of a pub- ' lie execution ? Even I, who served three campaigns in the artillery be- fore I betook myself to mathematics, could not face a catastrophe so ap- palling."
" I study anatomy as an amateur,"
