Take, then, my life, if you can.' "And now began a scene which filled the hearts of the lookers-on with fear and horror.

The countess flew like a hunted beast round and round the scaffold.

Her white hair streamed in the wind; her black grave-clothes rustled around her like a dark cloud, and behind her, with uplifted axe, came the headsman, in his fiery red dress; he, ever endeavoring to strike her with the falling axe, but she, ever trying, by moving her head to and fro, to evade the descending stroke.

But at length her resistance became weaker; the blows of the axe reached her, and stained her white hair, hanging loose about her shoulders, with crimson streaks.

With a heart-rending cry, she fell fainting.