expression in his countenance which told, so I fancied, that, in this
moment, reflecting he should never want it again, the immediate cause and
consequence of the miserable relief flashed full on his imagination, with
all their concomitant horrors. But with calmness he attended to the
workman, who directed him how to stand. He manifested great presence of
mind, and, I thought, seemed to gaze with something of curiosity on the
operation, which he contributed all in his power to facilitate. The heavy
blows echoed through the room, and rudely broke in on the low murmurs and
whispers which had for some little time been the only sounds heard there.
A singularly irrational feeling came over me. I could have reproved the
striker for indecorously breaking silence, and even have questioned his
humanity for being capable of such vigorous exertion at a moment when, as
it struck me, everything ought to have presented the coldness and
motionless stillness of the grave.

The rivet was knocked out, the fetters fell to the floor, and the prisoner
was passed from the anvil to the further extremity of the room. A second
entered. This was a middle-aged man. Reflection seemed with him to have
well performed its duty. Calm and undismayed, he advanced to the anvil,
apparently unconscious of the presence of a single spectator, and wholly
occupied with meditations on eternity. Having already witnessed that part
of the preparatory ceremony which he was then to undergo, I withdrew from
the circle to observe the other sufferer. He had now been joined by the
ordinary, and was standing near a table, on which several ropes were
lying. He was directed to place his hands together, and he was then
pinioned. Here, again, I felt a disposition to criticise the conduct of
the officers, like that which I had previously experienced while
witnessing the labours of the smith. The adroitness and merciful despatch
which I noticed, I could hardly help regarding as meriting censure for the
insensibility which they marked. Those who have to perform a severe duty