THE FOREIGN EXECUTIONER.

A LEGEND OF WHITEHALL.

(Concluded from page 214.)

See'st this axe of mine ?-The best blood of the country has been upon its edge !

JOANNA BAILLIE.

"I

"I do not," said the stranger, gazing intently upon me, do not behold your visage glowing like the the sun, nor are you habited in a celestial vestment, nor do you bear the golden triumphant palm of heaven,-I do not see in your face and form ought that is beyond the kind features of humanity and religion, but your words are the words of an angel. You are indeed fitted to speak the gospel to man, for with you it is in truth the sound of good tidings.-But for me, I am stained with all that virtuous men must in common execrate !—I have a deadly sin upon my soul which presses upon it more heavily than that massive oaken chest, which I have borne by night and by day, by sea and by land, for more than sixty years, ever did upon my body. I have deeply injured a fellow-creature, one of the most exalted rank and the most estimable piety, whom it was the duty of all faithfully to serve :-but it is past, and the dead have no feeling." As he concluded, the gentler sensations which my last words excited, seemed to be again swallowed up in his former sulleness; and I was therefore about to leave the room to order for him another chamber, when I said,-"Quiet yourself, my unhappy brother, at least for the present; whoever you may be, and whatever have been your crimes I know not, but in this dwelling you are safe. Your sleep shall not be watched, that the involuntary words then often uttered by the tongue, may be brought against you ;-your property shall remain near your couch inviolate,-for, trust me, if I knew you to be a murderer, and that chest to contain the evidences of your guilt. I would not open it for worlds!"

"Medre del nuestro Senor!" said the stranger, starting to his feet, and how came you to know that ?-you are not a Roman priest, you do not pretend to miraculous visions and revelations, but by a few forcible words you lay upou my soul as truly, as if I

had shewn you all her feelings in the most faithful confession. Well might you say, that your church enjoins it not; where her pastors are so gifted in the knowledge of humanity she requires it not. I have been excommunicated and anathematized by the ecclesiastics of my own nation, but their heaviest curses never awakened my conscience like the brief exhortation I have heard from you." "Alas, my unfortunate friend," said I, "so similar is the hand-writing of guilt in the souls of all men, that when its characters have been once read, they are ever afterwards known to us. The human heart, with all its disguises, possesses too much sameness ever to deceive those who have long studied it."-" And are these terrific feelings to last for ever?" continued the stranger, as if musing aloud, "and cannot any repentance wash them away?-or, are they but the forerunners of others still more awful: the pangs of condemned spirits adapted to the finite powers and capacities of men?"

"No, no," returned I, " you are in error, it cannot be ? for he that truly repenteth is no longer covered with sin, the very act performed in full faith is sufficient to put it away. And why deem that your conscience has been wounded by my words? Why bow down thine head before me like a bullrush? Stand up, for I also am a man!' The truth and power of my ministry were imparted, not inherent, and if perchance the descriptions were vivid, and the denunciations awful, remember, that to such as have not sinned the path of crime cannot be made too terrible, it cannot be guarded with too great security. To such as unhappily have trodden it, they have proved it for themselves, and it remains only to lead them gently back again."-" The same the same throughout," cried the stranger : "and now canst thou tell me, Oh! friendly shepherd of men! what day of the year we have arrived at?"

"To morrow," said I, "will be the anniversary of the martyrdom of a royal and blessed victim-it will be the thirtieth of January."- "Most true, most true, I should have known it. Tomorrow then my nativity shall be fulfilled, and I must prepare to speak of that which hath been; for unto thee, thou beneficent pastor, my crimes and my life shall be made known. Do not deny me thy prayers."- They have been thine already; and now prepare to take some food and rest in thy chamber. Peace be with thee, my erring brother, and doubt not for a moment of thy perfect safety." The stranger answered not, but with great difficulty raised the chest, which appeared to be of considerable weight, to his shoulders, refusing my offered assistance; and then making a sign for me to lead the way, he followed slowly, bending under his age and his burthen, into another apartment. It was with no little degree of expectation, that I looked for the morning of the 30th of January, when the secret sins and sorrows of my unhappy guest were to be disclosed to me. I determined,

however, not to seek his chamber until he should solicit my presence ; and I therefore waited until about eleven o'clock, when he entered my apartment still bearing his ancient oaken chest, but habited in a manner entirely different from his wornout soldier's raiment of the preceeding day. He now appeared in a cloth dress of coarse white cloth, fastened with a large buff girdle and a broad iron buckle; and covered with a round cap that fitted tightly to his head. Before him hung a short and rough brown apron much spotted with blood, which was greatly changed in colour from the length of time it had remained there; and the additional sleeves which were put on over his vest, were stained in a similar manner. Upon one shoulder rested the box, his constant companion, and in the other hand he carried an ancient dark-coloured high-crowned hat, while on his legs were loose calf-skin breeches, and light brown stockings, with the large square boots of the 17th century. I had now a fair opportunity of studying the countenance of this man, comparatively in a state of rest. It was much furrowed, and was of a very dark olive-colour, with the red blood of his cheeks and an angry flush upon his broad bald forehead glowing through it; with his black grizzled hair, some portions of which appeared from beneath his cap, hanging down in flakes upon his shoulders. Above his deeply-sunken eyes, very thick bushy brows of the same hue, gave to them a yet darker shade; and at the lower part of his face, large curling mustaches, and a full, pointed beard, almost obscured his lips, which seemed ever to wear a scornful smile. There was in the whole of his features, something that one would shudder at without precisely knowing why; for his eyes occasionally looked lighted up with malice, and a stern foreign aspect gave all the characters of revenge to his swarthy visage. As he entered the apartment I saluted him-"A good morning to thee, mine ancient friend, let me hope that the nightseason has fully answered that end for which our Maker first created it :-the resuscitation of our flagged souls, the strengthening of our wearied bodies, the filling of our hearts with fresh life, and the disposing of our tongues to gratitude from the union of all these blessings. Hath it been so with thee?"

"Yes" replied my guest, setting down his chest and seating himself opposite to me" I feel braced for the trials and duties of the day, with a strength which I know well is not mine own; a calmness which for the these last sixty years has been unknown to me. But now, thou benevolent priest, call up all thine attention to the history which I am about to relate :-awaken all thy Christian charity to pity and pray for one whom all others of thy profession have held accursed to perdition."

"We should beware," said I, "as erring men ourselves, how we pursue any crime with execrations; since in so doing we too frequently involve the man with his sins, and forget liberality

of setiment whilst we are condemning aberrations from virtue. This too is productive of another evil; for they who delight in the denunciation of sin are frequently permitted to fall into it themselves, to teach them that they likewise are mortal. For thy history then, relate it, and be sure of my sympathy and of my prayers."

"As it is certain," began the stranger, "that my birth would be a foul stain even to the best or most glorious of cities, I will say only that I am of Spain, that my name is Ignacio Riaza, and that my unhappy parents were called Luis and Raquel Riaza from the place of their birth, a town about twenty Spanish miles northward of the capital. I call them unfortunate, in having a son who from his earliest years was pledged to vice, so deeply pledged, that Eliséo Estrellado, or Elisha the star-enlightened, an eminent astrologer of Madrid, when he erected my nativity, refused to explain it because its configurations shewed such a malignant soul. As I grew up these planetary predictions were abundantly fulfilled, for a fierce and cruel disposition which procured for me the surname of Sanguijuela, or the Bloodsucker, shewed that Mars had a powerful ascendancy in my mind. The most ferocious have, however, felt the influence of affection, and it is possible if I had allowed myself to be guided by the gentle Encracia Rosadella, my first and only sincere love, I might have been-but no matter, I must on. My fierce impetuous disposition carried me into the army while yet quite a youth, where all the vices which are common to the most abandoned soldiery were mine. I gamed to such excess, that it was in vain to apply for more aid to those friends who had even then assisted me almost beyond their means; but yet I deemed avarice held back their hands, and permitted myself to be persuaded by a wretched creature, one Carlota Rezelso, for whom I had left my former amiable Encracia, to try upon my heart-broken parents the effects of how shall I say it?-of the secret poison! They who propose a crime usually find the means to execute it :-and the detestable Carlota brought me acquainted with an old hag, usually called Madre Juana la Envenenador, or Mother Jane the Poisoner, who furnished me with a bottle of her fiendish preparation. Even though I had gone thus far in guilt, blood was not yet hanging upon my soul, and I would fain have shrank back from the horrid precipice before me :-my debts, however, were large, my creditors clamorous, the pay of my fellowsoldiers which I had drawn, as a petty officer, was embezzled.Rezelso, whom I have sometimes deemed to be a fiend in human form, knew all this, and constantly urged me forward by alternately depicting to me discovery and ruin; and the success which might arise from a quick performance of the deed. I cannot relate to you a thousandth part of what I felt even previous to my preparing the draught; time seemed to fly with me un

observed, and I know only that it was given !—As it was made to a very powerful degree of strength, its action was too visible and too rapid for our crime to remain a secret, The blue livid bodies were soon discovered; and to this hour I deem that it was by Rezelso's evidence, that these murders were attributed to me!-Yet was I well avenged; for, to avoid the consequence of of her own share in this horrible transaction, which I made fully known, the hag who furnished it, herself swallowed a portion of the same poison! All my other offences became now detected :— I was tried aud condemned, publicly excommunicated in the churches, and cast into a most loathsome dungeon to await my release by execution.

"It happened at this time, that Lorenzo Verdugo, the chief public executioner, fell sick and died of the prison-plague, at a period when the state most required his services, in consequence of a conspiracy which had lately been discovered. No one, not already stained with blood, could be prevailed upon to accept the office-till, at length, the principal Judges of the Criminal Court, gave orders that it should be offered to me, together with my forfeited life; and this was done on the night before that day when I myself was to have been executed. The miseries which I had met with, even in my short career, notwithstanding they were the natural consequences of my own crimes, had inspired me with a boundless hatred to mankind; and I accepted, with a fiendish joy, the restoration of my liberty on condition of becoming head executioner of the city. Yet there were those who could not rejoice even at the saving of my life upon such terms :-my ever kind and gentle Encracia, who had wept over all my sorrows, and who yet had borne up her tender frame to visit me in my condemned prison, upon seeing me pass her dwelling to the first performance of my sanguinary duty, gave a wild shriek—and expired! I have sometimes wondered how my form hath held together, stained as it is with crime, and weakened by such awful visitations; but all at this time seemed to me only additional excitements to wade deeper in human blood in the new office to which I was appointed. I will not harrow up your soul by telling the histories-nor indeed can I well call them to mind-of those many victims which have died by my hand; I feel guiltless of all of them, for they fell for crimes exciting no compassion ;-but there is one execution which neither time nor tears can wash away, where he whose blood was shed, was condemned because he was too angel-like to live in such depraved times, and where the trial and the sentence were began without authority, carried on without justice, and executed without mercy. It will hardly be credited, that at the time of which I speak, I was scarcely twenty years of age, and I had reigned about two years over death, when a British trooper, who spoke the Spanish tongue, sought my dwelling, and proposed to