me a voyage to England, where he stated that a person of high rank was to be beheaded, and the government wished for an executioner who was at once eminent and unknown. No country on earth could be more detestable to me than my own, and I therefore readily consented, provided my liberty were procured. This was done at no inconsiderable price in gold; I departed with the trooper, and we arrived in England towards the latter end of January, 1649. All knowledge of the person whom I was to execute was carefully kept from me; but I was introduced to one who was called Lieutenant-General, a tall and somewhat

stout man, of a long, full, and rather reddish countenance, with dark flowing hair, especially on the back of his head, and small and retired eyes, the brows of which were contracted together. There was a great degree of stern serenity in his features, and his voice was harsh, though his language was full of fervour. He was habited in a slight cloth dress with a short linen collar, and a steel cuirass before it, while thick quilted cuishes, armed in front with iron plates, and large brown boots with massive spurs, were upon his legs: a powerful sword hung from a cross belt by his side. It was midnight when I was conducted into this person's presence, and before the doors of the chamber in which he was, a trooper passed backwards and forwards with his carabine bent. To him a watchward was given before he admitted us; and when we entered, we discovered a large and antique oak-lined chamber, which was lighted up by a bright fire burning on the earth, and the flame of a silver lamp which stood upon a carved wooden table, together with papers, proclamations, a small clasped bible, and two horse pistols.-You will perhaps wonder how all these particulars live in my mind amidst the many terrible features which compose my life;and how, being a Spaniard, I have been enabled thus to relate them to you in your own language: but from that night I was received into an English troop of horse, where I continued for many years, in which your tongue was made as familiar to me as my own. For the rest, all my life, since I first visited this country, has been employed in reflecting upon the scenes which I have acted in it, till 1 have brought to memory even the most trivial particular of them. But time wears, and I must forward: -The trooper who brought me over from Spain, took the General apart and spake to him privately, and then returning acted as interpreter between us. Art thou,' said the General, he who shall execute this deed of justice for us?' I replied in the affirmative, Is thy hand sure with a sharp weapon?' returned he, 'for we must have no marring of the work,' he added, looking with somewhat of a smile on the trooper, whom I had frequently suspected to be a leader in disguise.—I bowed an assent. Then so far,' he cotinued, the Lord is with us, But thou must disguise thee, for when this act shall be past, I will not trust thee from

6

me ;-thou shalt not go again out from us to be a spy unto other nations, but I will have thee for one of mine own guard, if thou knowest aught of war.' To this I replied that I had formerly served in the Spanish army, and expressing his satisfaction, he consigned me to the trooper, giving him directions relative to my quarters. When five days had passed from my arrival in England, during which time I was kept in perfect solitude, attended only by the trooper who brought me food, and who daily let me out to walk into a high walled solitary court-yard, for air and exercise. On the evening of the sixth I was ordered to be in readiness to quit my present lodgings at midnight, and to prepare for the performance of my duty on the following morning. It was now long since I had sympathized in any human passions, or felt an attachment to any human spot; but from that solitary apartment, I had been witness to a scene which had again awakened some of the better feelings of my nature. About the middle of the preceding day. it seemed to me as though I heard some one sighing, weeping, and praying in the next apartment, and upon searching the wainscot I discovered a small space through which I could survey him unobserved. In this chamber, which was fitted up in a somewhat more costly manner than my own, I discovered a tall handsome man of about fifty years of age, with beautiful long black hair, and a face in which majesty, sorrow, and interesting piety were exquisitely blended. He was dressed in a close but rich habit, with a jewel suspended by a light blue ribband about his neck, and a sort of coronet cap was placed upon the table near him. He was slowly pacing about the room, and as if engaged in active devotion, his ejaculations were frequent and fervid, while his fine dark brown eyes and mild countenance were often turned to heaven with an air of grief mingled with resignation. While I was feeling, almost for the first time in my life, pity and interest for a fellow-creature, the door of his apartment opened and I saw the trooper, whom I have already mentioned, lead in a young woman and a lovely child, who both in face and appearance, greatly resembled the person I had before been looking at. Their brief interview was tender in the extreme; tears, embraces, kisses, and forcible and affectionate language of parting evidently passed between them, though at that time your tongue was almost wholly unknown to me. They were allowed but a very short time to remain together, for the trooper soon led them out, and the stranger whom I closely watched for the remainder of the day, returned to his devotions, in which he was sometimes assisted by an ecclesiastic, who shortly afterwards came to him. The manner in which I had been brought to England, and the secrecy in which I had been kept there, caused it to burst upon my mind that I had beheld my victim, King Charles of England, in the stranger I have spoken of;-for the war then raging in Britain was well known in Spain. This thought shook

me with horror, but I sought to stifle my conscience by plunging yet deeper into crime. About midnight I was once more visited by the trooper who brought that chest into my apartment, and produced from it a soldier's dress and accoutrements, which having ordered me to put on, he placed these clothes, which formed my official dress in Spain, in their room, and locked the box: he drew one of his pistols and bade me follow him. We went down into a large court, where a company of soldiers, in dresses similar to my own, was drawn out in files, and when he had placed me in the centre of the whole body, he gave the word to march. The night was dark and cold, but I could observe from the freshness of the air and the rustling of the wind through leafless trees, that we paced through an extensive park containing water. All was silent, and we proceeded for some time, till at length we passed under a kind of gate-way, guarded by mounted troopers, which brought us out to a wide street with a grand ornamented entrance stretching nearly all across it on the right hand, and rows of houses, fading into darkness on the left. In front was a magnificent stone building, evidently a portion of a palace, having seven large windows and pillars between them, in front of which numerous workmen, lighted by torches, were erecting a scaffold and covering it with black cloth. I had not long either to observe these preparations for the next day's tragedy, or to feel the sickening sensations which arose within me, for we continued across the street, behind the opposite building, and the trooper having posted all my companions at different parts, again drew his pistols, and caused me to walk before him into the palace. Here I was once more placed in a solitary room, my arms were taken from me, and the chest containing my executioner's dress, was brought by my constant attendant into the apartment.

When the morning rose he brought me food and wine at a much earlier hour than usual, and intimated that about noon I should be conducted to the scaffold by a fellow-executioner, who, he added, could not speak Spanish, and consequently could not answer any questions, which he also hinted, it would be dangerous to put to him. He concluded, by commanding me to assume my former dress with the mask placed with it, recommending me to strengthen myself for my task with the provisions which he had brought, and then retired. When I was habited in my own vestments, I attempted to taste some refreshment, but a fever of agitation rushed through me: I a thousand times cursed the office I had undertakeu, and as often wished that I had been cut off earlier in my sins. In this manner the hours glided away until about twelve o'clock, when a party of soldiers commanded by one whom I had not yet seen, but whom I heard called Colonel Thomlison, came into my chamber, soon after I had finished my meal and put on my mask. With them

was the other executioner, dressed in all points so like myself, that it might for ever create a doubt which of us did the accursed deed. Notwithstanding all his disguises, I could not divest myself of the idea that I should behold my former companion the trooper, and even when he spake, which was but little and in a harsh grating foreign-sounding voice, it still seemed to me like the tones with which I had been familiar. We were then placed side by side in the centre of the soldiers, and moved forward through several passages, till we arrived at a splendid apartment lighted by those seven windows which I had remarked the night before; one of which was taken out to form an entrance to the scaffold that stood in the front of the building. In the centre of that scaffold stood a block covered with sable cloth, with an axe laid upon it; sawdust beyond it, and a black velvet cushion in the front; on one side was placed a coffin, also covered with black velvet. When we reached the scaffold the rear of our party halted, while the van marched to the other end with one whom I heard called Colonel Hacker. The other executioner and myself next went to our stations by the block, where I, as head man, took the right hand, and waited in silence for the coming forth of our fated victim. In a little time he was announced, by a slow march played upon muffled drums with sable banners hung to them, which came upon the scaffold, but stopped close to the palace windows. Then marched on a party of soldiers with bent carabines, who divided to the right and left, and in the midst of them that angelic man with whom I had so deeply sympathized, walked betwixt Colonel Thomlinson and the pious ecclesiastic I had already seen; while guards and officers closed the melancholy procession, and filled up all the end of the scaffold next the palace. Oh! what a scene was here: a country assembled to put a sovereign to death! Madre del Senor! what a deed! a deed that will stamp an eternal infamy on all concerned in it, and not the least so upon myself. Immediately round the scaffold were several troops of foot-soldiers, above their heads appeared the close and glittering lines of mounted troopers, and beyond them were the populace standing on every thing which might enable them to see the scaffold, stretching in distance far up beyond the Cross-gate on one side, and to where the street led towards the country and the park upon the other. Yet in all this sea of hands aud faces, the moment the guards appeared with their prisoner, there was the most profound silence: Santa Margarita! Never shall man behold such a spectacle again.— Your annals have preserved to you all the interesting scene which passed upon the scaffold, of that blessed Martyr's speech, of his giving the jewel which hung upon his neck to his holy and faithful attendant,-of his short colloquy with my fellow executioner, who bade me cut off those beautiful flaky locks that adorned his head,-of his kneeling down in prayer,-and

then-" The stranger stooped to his chest, and taking from thence the sable block, a black mask which he put on, and a large antique axe with rusted blood upon it, which he brandished as he had formerly been wont to do,- "Then" said he "'twas thus I stood, and thus I smote him!-'Twas then that-Santo Ignacio! I am myself death struck !-Oh for a little life to finish my dark story!-I undertook to convey away all these marks of the execution, and I placed the horrid symbols, together with my own dress, in this chest, which I have in vain concealed in the earth and beneath the water, it was still ever before mine eyes, I saw through the clods and the waves which covered it, and I vainly endeavoured to find a place dark enough to hide it from my conscience.-In my sleep-such sleep as visits murderers!-it has been still before me.-In my dreams, I have again acted the horrid deed,-again have I stood over my royal victim, again has this blood-stained axe- As the Executioner spake these last words he suddenly became transfixed, even in the same attitude in which he struck the fatal blow; it was but for a moment, for without a groan, or any other utterance, he fell dead upon the floor!-I called in medical aid, but it was in vain; his open eyes still glared upon me, his livid countenance was unchanged in its swarthy hue, he was gone to his own trial; and without acquainting any one except the surgeon with his eventful story, I locked up the apartment in which the body lay, and retiring, wrote the narrative while all things were yet fresh in my memory. It was upon that night that the greater part of my dwelling was consumed by a fierce fire, which swept away not only the corse of Ignacio Riaza, but also all the proofs of his guilt, excepting the axe head, which was dug out of the ruins, and the substance of these recording pages, which will transmit to future times the terrific confessions and awful fate of

THE FOREIGN EXECUTIONER.