There was a low murmur of shame and indignation.

The dangerous sympathy of the mob was perceived by the officer in attendance.

Hastily he made the sign to the headsman, and as he did so, a child's cry was heard in the English tongue,--"Mother! Mother!" The father's hand grasped the child's arm with an iron pressure; the crowd swam before the boy's eyes; the air seemed to stifle him, and become blood-red; only through the hum and the tramp and the roll of the drums he heard a low voice hiss in his ear "Learn how they perish who betray me!" As the father said these words, again his face was bare, and the woman, whose ear amidst the dull insanity of fear had caught the cry of her child's voice, saw that face, and fell back insensible in the arms of the headsman..