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ture of the human soul, and in the unalterable conditions which externally determine it; and, in these two he is sure to find her. He is then no longer surprised to see the poisonous hem lock spring up in those very beds, where the most salutary herbs usually flourish in profusion; or, to find wisdom and folly, vice and virtue, in the same cradle together.

Were I even to set no value on any of the advantages which pneumatology derives from such a method of treating history, it merits, however, a preference on this account alone, that it eradicates the cruel scorn and proud security with which unproved standing virtue generally looks down on the fallen, as it diffuses the meek spirit of toleration, without which, no fugitive can return, no reconciliation of the law can take place, and no infected member of society can be rescued from the general contagion.

If the criminal, of whom I shall presently speak, was still entitled to appeal to that spirit of toleration, if he was really lost to the state beyond a possibility of recovery, I shall leave to the judgment of the reader. Our mercy can now be of no avail, for he died by the hand of the executioner; but the dissection of his vices may prove a lesson to humanity, perhaps, also to justice.

economy by speculation; too proud and too effeminate to change the state of the gentleman, in which he lived, with that of the peasant; and to renounce his boasted liberty, he only saw one resource left him, which thousands before and after him have taken with better success, the resource to steal in an honest manner. His native town lay on the borders of one of the prince's forests. He became deer-stealer, and the produce of his depredations passed faithfully into the hands of his mistress.

Amongst the lovers of Hannah, was Robert, a huntsman to the forester, who soon observing the advantage which the liberality of his rival had gained over him, sought after the cause of this change with an evil eye. He went oftener to the Sun, for this was the sign of the inn; his watchful eye, sharpened by jealousy and envy, soon discovered whence this money flowed. Not long before that period a severe edict had been revived against the deer-stealers, which condemned the transgressors to bridewell. Robert was indefatigable in watching all the secret steps of his enemy, and, at last, succeeded in detecting the imprudent inn-keeper in the fact. Wolf was imprisoned, and it was with great difficulty, and not without the sacrifice of all his little property, that he obtained a commutation of his punishment.

Christian Wolf was the son of an innkeeper, in a country town of **** (the name of which, Robert triumphed. His rival was beaten off from reasons, which will appear evident in the the field, and Hannah's favour lost for the sequel, we must conceal); he assisted his mo- beggar. Wolf knew his enemy, and this enemy ther to carry on the business till his twentieth was the happy possessor of his Johanna. A year, for his father was dead. The house was galling sense of his own want, joined to injured little frequented, and Wolf had many idle hours. pride, poverty and jealousy combined, break in From the time he had been at school he had upon his sensibility, hunger drives him on the been known as a wild youth. Grown up girls wide world, revenge and passion rivet him to the complained frequently of his assurance, and the spot. He again became a deer stealer; but Roboys of the town paid homage to his inventive | bert's redoubled vigilance entraps him a second abilities. Nature had neglected his person. A time. Now he experiences the full severity of little unseemly figure, frizzled hair of a disa the law, for he has nothing more to give; and in greeable black colour, a flat nose, and swollen a few weeks, he is delivered over to the brideupper lip, which was besides distorted by a well of the capital. kick of a horse, rendered his appearance so extremely repulsive, that it frightened all the women from him, and afforded an inexhaustible fund of merriment to his comrades.

He wished to obtain that by defiance, which was refused him by nature; because he displeased, he resolved at pleasing. He was sensual, and persuaded himself that he was in love. The girl he choose treated him ill; he had reason to fear that his rival was happier; but the girl was poor.

A heart that was shut to the professions of love might open to his presents; but he himself was oppressed with want, and the vain attempt to render his external agreeable, consumed the little he gained by a bad business. Too easy and too ignorant to remedy his ruined

The year of punishment is endured, his passion had grown by absence, and his obstinacy had risen under the pressure of misfortune. Scarce had he obtained his liberty, when he hastened to his native place to show himself to his Johanna. He appears, but is avoided. Pressing want, at last, humbled his pride, and got the better of his effeminacy. He offers himself as a day labourer to the rich of the place; the husbandman locks with contempt on the weak effeminate wretch; the muscular appearance of his sturdy rival bears off the preference by this unfeeling patron. He makes a last attempt. A place is still vacant; the last lost appointment of an honest name-he applies to be made town's herdsman, but the peasant will not trust his swine to a profligate.

In all his plans disappointed, every where repulsed, he became, for the third time, deerstealer, and, for the third time, was unlucky enough to fall into the hands of his vigilant

enemy.

This second relapse aggravated his guilt. The judges looked into the book of laws, but none of them read the state of mind of the accused. The edict against the deer-stealers required a solemn and striking example; and Wolf was condemned, with the sign of the gallows burnt on his back, to work three years in the fortress.

This period also elapsed, and he went from the fortress; but quite a different creature from what he was when he came there. This forms the commencement of a new epoch in his life; but let us hear his own words, as he afterwards made a confession to the clergyman who attended him, and to the courts of justice :

"I entered the fortress," said he," as a strayed sheep, and left it as a finished villain. I had still something in the world that was dear to me, and my pride revolted at ignominy. As I was brought to the fortress, I was confined to the same apartment with three and twenty prisoners, amongst whom were two murderers, the rest were all noted thieves and vagabonds. They made a game of me, when I talked of God; they urged me on to utter the most dreadful imprecations against our blessed Saviour; they sung obscene songs, which I, a professed libertine, could not hear without disgust and horror; but what shocked my modesty most was, what I saw them practise. No day passed without the repetition of some scandalous scene of their lives, without the contrivance of some wicked scheme. At first Ifled from these wicked miscreants, and avoided, as much as possible, their intercourse; but I needed some creature to sympathise with me, and the barbarity of my keepers had even refused me my dog. The labour was hard and tyrannical; my constitution was sickly; I required help; and, if I must candidly confess it, I required com passion. So I habituated myself to the most de testable ideas, and in the last three months I became a greater proficient than my teacher.

"From this moment I thirsted for my liberty, as I thirsted for revenge. All mankind had injured me, for every one was better and happier than I. I looked upon myself as a martyr to the rights of man, and a sacrifice to the laws. Gnashing my teeth, I impatiently bit my chains when the sun set on the hill of my prison; an extensive prospect is a double hell for one that is confined. The fresh draught of wind that whistled through the air holes of my tower, and the swallow, that harboured on the iron bar of my grated crevice, seemed to mock me with their

liberty, and made my confinement appear the more horrid. It was then I swore an irreconcilable inextinguishable hatred to all that bore the resemblance of man, and what I swore I have faithfully kept.

"My first thought, on recovering my liberty, I was my native town. As little as I had there to hope for my future support, the more promising were my expectations of satiating my thirst for revenge. My heart beat more licentiously as I descried at a distance the steeple arise from amongst the woods. It was no more that heartfelt pleasure and satisfaction which I had experienced on my first pilgrimage. The memory of all the hardships, of all the persecutions I had once undergone there, awoke at once from a terrible death-like sleep, all my wounds bled afresh, and every scar to my honou was again unripped I redoubled my pace, for I anticipated in my mind the pleasure of overwhelming my enemies with consternation by my sudden appearance, and I now thirsted as much for humiliation as I formerly trembled for it.

"The bell tolled to evening service as I stood in the midst of the market-place. The people thronged to church. They soon recollected me, and every one that stumbled on me seemed shy and retreated. I had always been particularly fond of little children, and even now this attachment involuntarily got the better of me, and I offered a little boy that hopped by me a penny. The boy looked at me a few moments with a fixed stare, and then threw the money in my face, Had my blood been a little more cool, I should have remembered, that the long beard which I wore, since my release from the fortress, had disfigured the traits of my face, and had rendered then horrid-but my bad heart had infected my reason. Tears such as I had never shed rolled over my cheeks.

"The boy knows not who I am, nor whence I come, said I, half audibly to myself, and yet he avoids me like a bugbear. Am I then marked any where on the forehead, or have I no longer the appearance of a mortal, because I feel that I can no longer love one? The contempt of this boy pained me more sensibly than three years labour as a convict, for I had done him good, and could accuse him of no personal

hatred.

"I seated myself in a carpenter's yard opposite the church; for what reason, I know not; but I well remember that I arose irritated to the highest pitch, as none of all my acquaintance, who passed by, not even one, deigned to take the least notice of me, With reluctance, I left my station to seek for an inn; as I was turning the corner of a street I ran full against my

Johanna. Mine host of the Sun!' exclaimed she quite loud, and advanced to embrace me; 'you here again, dear landlord of the Sun! thank God, that you are returned!' Famine and extreme wretchedness were visible in her dress, art opprobrious malady in her face, her whole appearance bespoke the most abandoned of creatures to which she was sunk. I soon conceived what must have happened. Several dragoons whom I had met led me to believe that there were soldiers quartered in the town Soldier's trull! cried 1, and in a fit of laughter, turned my back upon her. It gave me pleasure to think that there was a creature in the scale of mankind more despicable than myself. I never loved her.

My mother was dead; my creditors had paid themselves with my small house; I had nobody and nothing more to interest me; the whole world fled from me as from a viper; but I had, at last, lost all sense of shame. Formerly I had avoided he eyes of mankind, because I could not brook contempt. At present I obtruded myself upon them, and took delight to scare them; I felt myself at my ease, since I had nothing more to lose, and nothing more to care for; I stood in no further need of any good quality, as no one supposed me capable of any.

"The wide world lay before me, I might have, perhaps, passed for an honest man in another province, but I had lost the courage even to appear as one. Despair and shame hed, at last, obliged me to adopt this mode of thinking; it was the last sub'erfuge that remained to me, to reconcile myself to the want of honour, since I could no longer lay claim to anv. my vanity and pride survived my degradation, I must have committed suicide.

Had

"What my resolutions then were, I knew not properly myself; so much 1 recollected obscurely, I determined to deserve my fate; the laws, I thought, were a benefit to the world; I resolved therefore to infringe them. Formerly, I transgressed from necessity and levity; at present, I did it from free choice and for pleasure.

"The first thing I did was to continue deerstealing. Hunting, in general, grew upon me to a passion; and, besides, it was also necessary for me to subsist But this was not the only motive that actu ted me; it was highly gratifying for me, to set the prince's edict at defiance, and do my sovereign every possible injury. I was no wise afraid of being apprehended, for 1 had a ball ready for him who should de ect me; and I knew well that I did not miss my man. I killed all the game that came in my way; what I converted into money on the frontiers was but little; the most I suffered to rot; I led a very miserable life in order to defray the expence of

powder and shot. My devastation in the prince's forests became the subject of common talk; but no longer did suspicion fall on me, My appearance extinguished it; my name was forgotten. "This sort of life I led for several months. One morning, as usual, I traversed the wood, to follow the trace of a stag. Two hours I had fatigued myself to no purpose; and I then began to give up my booty as lost, when I at length discovered it within my shot. I was on the eve of putting the piece to my shoulder and of firing, but suddenly the appearance of a hat, that lay a few paces from me on the ground, affrighted me.

"I cist my eyes around me on every side, and immediately discovered the huntsman, Robert, who, from behind the trunk of an aged oak, levelled at the same stag for which I designed my shot. A deadly damp pervaded all my limbs as I saw him, He, of all living, was exactly the mortal whom I most abhorred, and he was within the reach of my ball. In this moment it seemed to me as if the whole world lay in my shot, and the hatred of my whole life concentrated itself in the single point of the finger with which I was to press the murderous trigger. An invincible dreadful hand hovered over me; the regulator of my fate pointed irrecoverably to this black minute; my arm trembled as I left my gun the horrid choice; my teeth chattered as if in a feverish cold; and the breath, which had confined itself to my lungs, almost suffocated me. For a whole minute the muzzle of my gun remained doubtfully directed between the man and the stag-a minute-and still a minute—a third! Revenge and conscience contended obstinately and doubtfully, but revenge got the better, and the huntsman lay stretched a corpse on the earth.

"My arm dropt with the shot.-Murderer! stuttered I slowly.-The forest was still as a church-yard-1 heard distinctly that I had said murderer. As I slipt nearer, the man died. Long did I stand speechless before the deceased; a loud fit of laughter, at length, gave me respiration Will you now hold your tongue, my friend? said I, and stepping boldly up to the body, turned the face outwards. The eyes stood wide open; I grew serious, and became again quite silent.-I began to feel strange.

"The judgment of God never once occurred to me; but a judgment, I do not well know which, a confused remembrance of the halter and sword, and the execution of a woman for child murder which I had witnessed when a schoolboy. There was something extremely frightful for me in the idea, that my life, from the present moment was forfeited. The other particulars of what I then felt I cannot now recollect, I wished immediately after the perpetration of the

murder, that the huntsman hd still lived. I did myself violence to recall in a lively manner to my remembrance all the evil he had done me during his life, but strange! my memory seemed as if it had died within me; I could not retrace a single circumstance of all that, but a quarter of an hour before, had driven me mad; I could not at all conceive how I could have been guilty of this murder!

"Still did I continue standing before the corpse-I could hardly tear myself from it. The cracking of whips and the creeking sound of carriers waggons, as they drove through the wood, brought me to myself. For it was scarcely a mile from the road, where the crime was committed. I was forced to think of my safety.

"Without following any proper course, I strayed deeper into the wood. On the way I recollected that the murdered huntsman used to wear a watch. I needed money to regain the frontiers; and yet I had not the courage to return to the place where the deceased lay. Here the thoughts of the devil, and the omnipresence of the Almighty startled me. I mustered all my courage; resolved to put all hell at defiance, 1 returned to the place; I found what I expected, and, in a green purse, a little more than a dollar in money. Just as I was going to put both of them up, I suddenly stopt short and deliberated. It was no fit of shame, nor yet of fear to aggravate my crinic by robbery-spite it was, I believe, that made me throw the watch from me, and retain but half the money. I wished to pass for a personal enemy of him I had shot, but not for his rubber.

"Now I fled to the interior of the forest. I knew that the wood extended sixteen miles to the northward, and then touched the frontier. I ran quite breathless until it was high noon. The precipitation of my flight had dispersed my remorse of conscience, but it returned more dreadfully as my strength became more exhausted. A thousand frightful forms passed before me, and pierced my breast like daggers. Betwixt a life constantly disquieted by the fears of death, and a violent exit from it by my own hands, there| was now a dreadful alternative left me, and choose I must. I had not courage to rid myself of the world by suicide, and felt such horror at the prospect of remaining in it. Racked in my choice betwixt the certain torments of this life, and the uncertain terrors of eternity, alike incapable to live and to die, I spent the sixth hour of my flight; an hour replete with tortures of which no mortal, as yet, can form an idea.

"Retired within myself and slow, having unconsciously drawn my hat over my face, as if this could have rendered me undistinguishable to the eye of inanimate nature, I had followed im

perceptibly the track of a small foot path, which led me through the thickest recesses of the wood, when suddenly a harsh commanding voice before me called, hal! The voice was quite near me; my distraction and the flapped hat had prevented my looking around me. I raised my eyes, and saw a wild man, who bore a great knoty club, advancing towards me His figure bordered on the gigantic-consternation, with which I was at first seized, at less, made me believe so; and the colour of his skin was of a tawny mulattoblack, which the white of a squinting eye rendered truly horrible. He had, instead of a bel, a thick rope tied twice round a green woollen cost, in which he wore a large slaughtering knife, with a pistol. He repeated his ord rs, and a sturdy arm held me fast. The voice of a mortal had frightened me, but the appearance of a ruffian gave me courage. In the situation in which I at present was I had cause to tremble for every honest man, but none to dread a villain.

"Who are you?" said this apparition. "Your equal, was my answer,-if you are really that which you appear to be!

"That is not the right way out of the forest. What is your business here?"

"Who gave you right to ask?" answered I obstinately.

"The man viewed me twice from head to foot. It seemed as if he was comparing my figure with his own, and my answer with my figure. You speak in a brutal manner; much like a beggar,' said he, at last.

"That may be; it is what I was but yester day."

"The man laughed. One might take an oath on it,' cried he, that you still wished to pass for nothing better to day.'

"Perhaps, then, for something worse.-I wish to get on "

"Softly, my friend! what is all your hurry?" I recollected myself for a moment; I know not how the word came on my tongue. Life is short, said I slowly, and hell endures for ever.'

"He stared me full in the face. I'll be d-d,' said he, at last, if you have not made an hair-breadth escape from some gallows.'

"That may, perhaps, still happen; so, to our next meeting, comrade "

"Here's to you, comrade!" cried he, as he drew from his wallet a tin flask; from which, he took an hearty draught, and reached it to me. My flight and anxiety had exhausted my strength, and, during the whole terrible day, nothing as yet passed my lips. I feared, indeed, to have perished with faintness in this forest, where, in a circumference of twelve miles, I could not hope to find the least refreshment. You may judge how gladly I pledged him in this proffered health.

By this cordial my limbs were animated with new strength, my heart with fresh courage and hope, and love of life; I began to conceive that I was not altogether miserable; such were the effects of this welcome liquor. Nay, I confess i', my situation again approached that of the happy; for I had, at last, after a thousand disappointed hopes, found a creature who bore a resemblance to myself.

"The man had stretched himself on the grass; I did the same.

"Your draught hath been of service to me," said I; we must be better acquainted with one another.'

"He struck fire to light his pipe. "Have you been long in the trade?" "He looked at me stedfastly. What do you mean by that?"

"Has this been often bloody?" I drew the knife from his belt.

"Who are you?" said he in a terrible voice, and laid the pipe aside.

"A murderer, like yourself!-but, as yet,

only a heginner."

The

"I related to him my whole history man without waiting, until I had finished, sprang up with eager impatience, and drew me after him Come, brother, land ord,' said he, 'now you are ripe, now I have got you where I wanted you. I shall gain honour by you. Follow me.' "Where will you lead me?"

"Don't ask questions. Follow ;" he dragged me forcibly after him.

"We had proceeded near a mile, the forest became more and more uneven, impervious and entangled, neither of us spoke a single word, until at last the whistle of my conductor roused me from my reveries. I cast my eyes around me, we stood on the craggy precipice of a rock, which descended into a deep cleft. A second whistle answered from the inmost womb of the rock, and a ladder, as of itself, slowly arose out of the hollow. My leader descended first, desiring me to wait until he should return. 'I must chain the dog,' added he, you are a stranger here, the beast would tear you to pieces.' With that he went.

"Now I stood alone on the brink of the

"The man looked sternly at me, then took abyss, and I knew very well that I was alone. up his pipe again.

"You do not live here?" said he, at last. "Three miles from this, the keeper of the Sun, in L-, if you have ever heard of me." "The man sprang up, like one deprived of his

senses.

"The deer stealer, Wolf?" cried he, hastily. "The same!"

"Welcome, comrade! welcome!" cried he, and shook me heartily by the hand. That is excellent that I have you at last, landlord! Year and day I have been thinking how to get you. I know you very well. I have been told of all that has happened. I have long reckoned on you.'

"Reckoned on me! for what then?" "The whole country rings of you; you have been persecuted by justice, Wolf; you have been ruined; the manner in which they have treated you is sinful."

"The man grew warm-' because you shot a couple of wild boars, which the Prince feeds on our fields and meadows, they have for years dragged you about the work-house and the fortress; they have robbed you of your house and livelihood; they have reduced you to beggary. Is it come to this, brother, that man is to be valued no higher than a hare? are we not better than the beasts of the field? and a fellow like you could endure this?'

"Could I help it?"

The imprudence of my guide had not escaped my notice; a moment's resolution, to have drawn up the ladder, I was safe, and my flight secured. I must confess, I was conscious of this. I looked down into the gulf, which was now to receive me, it gave me a dark idea of the abyss of hell, from which there can be no hope of salvation. I. began to tremble at the path I was now going to tread; a speedy fight only could save me. I resolved on this flight; already I stretched out my arm to lay hold of the ladder, but at once it thundered in my ears, it sounded on every side like the scoffing laughter of hell: what has a murderer to risk! and my arm fell powerless to my side. My score of iniquity was full; the time for repentance was no more; the murder I had committed lay towered up behind me like a rock, and barred my return for ever. At the same time my conductor again appeared, and intimated to me I might come down. Now I had no longer an alternative-I descended.

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"We had proceeded a few steps under the cleft, when the bottom extended itself, and discovered several huts. In the midst of these a round green opened to the view, on which several people, eighteen or twenty in number, had laid themselves around a coal fire. Here comrades,' said my leader, and presented me in the midst of the circle, our landlord of the Sun; bid him welcome.'

"Landlord of the Sun," cried all at the same "That we shall see. But tell me, where do time, and every one darted up, and pressed round you come from now, and what are your inten-me, men and women. Shall I confess it, the joy tions :" was undissembled and sincere; confidence, even

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