you to wait here and be a witness."

Finding that we were both willing to comply with this request,
she addressed herself directly to the Minister. "Suppose I
promise to listen to your exhortations," she began, "what do
you promise to do for me in return?"

The voice in which she spoke to him was steady and clear;
a marked contrast to the tremulous earnestness with which he
answered her.

"I promise to urge you to repentance and the confession of
your crime. I promise to implore the divine blessing on me in
the effort to save your poor guilty soul."

She looked at him, and listened to him, as if he was speaking to
her in an unknown tongue, and went on with what she had to say as
quietly as ever.

"When I am hanged to-morrow, suppose I die without confessing,
without repenting--are you one of those who believe I shall be
doomed to eternal punishment in another life?"

"I believe in the mercy of God."

"Answer my question, if you please. Is an impenitent sinner
eternally punished? Do you believe that?"

"My Bible leaves me no other alternative."