He stepped forward to the window, and summoned the Cossack who carried the instrument of tor

ture.

"Corporal, give ten heavy strokes with the pleti on this teacher's back!"

The Cossack seized a bench, and motioned the teacher to stretch himself upon it.

Von Sempach and Beck, finding it impossible to conceal their indignation, left the room. In going downstairs, they heard the whizzing sound of the lash and the screams of the poor teacher.

"I shall lose my senses," said Adolph, while waiting at the threshold. "My God! has Alexandra grown up amid such scenes?"

The professor was delighted to hear this remark.

"It is, indeed, a very demoralizing atmosphere for a woman to breathe," said he.

"Can it be that Alexandra has escaped the contaminating influence of Russian customs? Has she also lost all feeling and the delicacy of her sex? We must find out, if possible." Rasumowski and Schulze approached.

"Ah! gentlemen," exclaimed the governor laughingly, "the singing of the pleti caused you to leave! Well, we Russians accustom ourselves to such things. When, with other practical institutions, the pleti is also Introduced into the new German Empire, then you will learn to think as useful an instrument as is the whip in the hands of the cartman." "Who drive oxen and donkeys," added the professor.

"Our new German Empire has already introduced a punishment for the soldiers, which causes as much pain as the pleti," said Adolph von Sempach. "I have read repeatedly in the newspapers that soldiers, while

upon drill, have fallen fainting to the ground. The reason was their being compelled to carry heavy stones in their knapsacks, until their strength gave way."

"It is a Russian invention that you have borrowed from us; we have long practised it," asserted Rasumowski.

"And I suppose we have also adopted your severe system of military arrest, which Count von Moltke justifies by ingeniously remarking that even in time of peace the soldier owes his health to his country."

"Yes, it is true we keep up the same strict discipline," exclaimed the Russian; "but Moltke should have said that the soldier owes his health and life to the emperor, and not to the country. Words are useless; acts are what we insist upon."

When leaving the house, there were a number of men, women, and children outside who awaited the governor. At seeing him, they all fell upon their knees, and lifted up their hands in supplication.

"Pardon! Mercy! Humanity !" were heard in confused accents.

"Keep quiet!" commanded Rasumowski. "Schulze, what does this mean ?"

"Your honor, these are the poor people who live in the huts. They ask you, for God's sake, not to destroy their only place of shelter."

"Asking me to do a thing for God's sake!" exclaimed the governor harshly. "If they had asked me to do so for the emperor's sake, I would perhaps have granted their request. Begone! Away with you! My orders are to be obeyed!"

The people, however, did not rise, but burst forth into fresh lamenta tions and tears.

"Your honor," said an old man, "graciously listen to us, as the good emperor would do, who always wishes

to help his people. We built those huts by permission of the parish, and we strive to make a living in an honest way. We pay the taxes, and are not in debt to the emperor. If your honor destroys our huts, whither shall we poor people go? Must we live with the foxes and wolves in the forests? Is this the will of the emperor ?" "The emperor desires his subjects to live in comfortable houses, for which reason the huts must be removed," answered Rasumowski.

"Your honor, we have no means to build comfortable houses," replied the old man. "Look at the little children; they will die if the orders of your honor are executed."

"I will hear no more: it is the emperor's will!" exclaimed the gov

ernor.

The words "It is the emperor's will" had the most disheartening effect upon the poor people. The haggard, wretchedly-clad assemblage gave way to despair, but a low murmur was all that was heard.

Rasumowski looked triumphantly at his guests, as if he had said in so many words: "You see what the will of the emperor can do!"

But the professor was not to be deceived. The suppressed wrath plainly visible in the faces of the men did not escape him.

A young man rose humbly from his knees, and looked with strangely glittering eyes upon the governor.

"It is not true!-the emperor does not, cannot wish us to suffer!" he exclaimed.

Rasumowski looked with astonishment at the bold youth.

"How do you know that it is not the will of the emperor ?" he asked.

"The emperor is human, but what you command is inhuman!" answered the intrepid peasant.

The Russian governor absolutely trembled with anger.

"Fifteen lashes with the pletigive it to him soundly!" he cried, and walked towards the carriage, which drove slowly through the village.

Adolph von Sempach sat depressed and silent. What he had seen and heard did not tend to elevate the character of the beautiful Alexandra in his estimation, as her remarks concerning the cruelties upon the unfortunate Poles seemed to prove that she had inherited the barbarous disposition of her father.

"Do you hear the screams of the insolent fellow ?" said the governor. "The pleti is unfortunately a poor affair-it has not sufficient swing and force. The old knout was much better; for it was made of strong leather straps, intertwined with wire. The Emperor Nicholas I. introduced this new knout, however and whatever the czar does, is well done; but if I were consulted, I would bring the old knout again into use."

"I fear, governor," said Beck "that even the new knout or the pleti would meet with invincible opposition in Germany."

"You are mistaken," answered the Russian. "The Germans can also be subdued the German neck must bow to him who has the power. Now, gentlemen, I will show you some evidences of the industry of our farmers," he continued, when the carriage had left the village. at our abundant crops! The German farmer can hardly excel the Russian. You find everywhere signs of prudent husbandry as well as of diligence and perseverance."

"Look

Herr Schulze gave a token of assent, the professor knew nothing about agriculture, and Von Sempach preserved a gloomy silence.

"Do you see that village?" said Rasumowski, pointing in a certain direction. "All the inhabitants are Roman Catholics, with the exception

CONCERNING the writer of these beautiful lines, the English historian, Stow, makes the following brief mention in his Chronicle: "February 20, 1594-5.-Southwell, a Jesuit, that long time had lain prisoner in the Tower of London, was arraigned at the King's Bench bar. He was condemned, and on the next morning drawn from Newgate to Tyburn, and there hanged, bowelled, and quartered." From this account we are unable to discover that the man whose judicial murder Stow thus records was put to death for any offence but that of being a JESUIT, and of having "long time lain in prison in the Tower of London." And yet, in thus stating the case, Stow tells the simple truth; for Southwell was guilty of no more serious crime than his sacerdotal character, and of suffering the imprisonment and tortures inflicted upon him in consequence thereof.

-Robert Southwell, 1593.1

For three years previous to his death he had been in prison and in the Tower, had lain in noisome and filthy dungeons, and been subjected many times to torture and the rack. From the high social position of his family, the fame of his literary accomplishments, his admirable and saintly bearing as a missionary priest in England, for six long years carrying his life in his hand while ministering to a scattered flock, obliged to move from place to place in disguise as though he were a malefactor, and finally, from the wonderful fortitude and constancy with which he was said to have suffered torture, his case was very generally known in London, and deeply commiserated even by many Protestants. So deep and widespread, indeed, was this sympathy that, when it was determined by the officers of the crown to try and condemn him on one and the same day, and execute him the next morning, they withheld from the public all announcement of his execution, meanwhile giving notice of the hanging of a famous highwayman in another place in order to draw off the concourse of spectators. But it availed not, for there were many who kept so close a watch upon the move

ments at Newgate, to which prison he had been removed a few days before his trial, that, when Southwell was brought out to be drawn on a sled or hurdle to the place of execution at Tyburn, he was followed by great numbers of people, and among them many persons of distinction, who witnessed the carrying out of his dreadful sentence, which was that he should be "hung, bowelled, and quartered."

That our readers may understand that our qualification of Southwell's execution as a judicial murder is not the result of mere personal sympathy or of religious prejudice, we will here record the judgment of several Protestant authorities, who speak out concerning it in a manner not to be misunderstood. In the valuable Cyclopædia of English Literature, by Chambers, we read concerning Southweil that, after having ministered secretly but zealously to the scattered adherents of his creed, "without, as far as is known, doing anything to disturb the peace of society, he was apprehended and committed to a dungeon in the Tower, so noisome and filthy that, when he was brought out for examination, his clothes were covered with vermin. Upon this his father, a man of good family, presented a petition to Queen Elizabeth, begging that, if his son had committed anything for which, by the laws, he had deserved death, he might suffer death; if not, as he was a gentleman, he begged her majesty would be pleased to order him to be treated as & gentleman. Southwell after this was somewhat better lodged, but an imprisonment of three years, with ten Lafictions of the rack, wore out his patience, and he entreated to be brought to trial. Cecil is said to have made the brutal remark that, 'if he was in so much haste to be hanged, ae should quickly have his desire.'

Being at the trial found guilty, upon his own confession, of being a Romish priest, he was condemned to death, and executed at Tyburn accordingly, with all the horrible circumstances dictated by the old treason laws of England. Throughout all these scenes he behaved with a mild fortitude which nothing but a highly regulated mind and satisfied conscience could have prompted."

Cleveland (Compendium of English Literature, p. 88), after stating the circumstances of Southwell's imprisonment, trial, and execution, remarks: "The whole proceeding should cover the authors of it with everlasting infamy. It is a foul stain upon the garments of the maiden queen that she can never wipe off. There was not a particle of evidence at his trial that this pious and accomplished poet meditated any evil designs against the government. He did what he had a perfect right to do; ay, what it was his duty to do, if he conscientiously thought he was right -endeavor to make converts to his faith, so far as he could without interfering with the right of others. If there be anything to be execrated, it is persecution for opinion's sake."

Allibone, in his Dictionary of English Literature, says that Southwell, "to the disgrace of the English government, suffered as a martyr at Tyburn, February 21, 1595, after three years' imprisonment in the Tower, during which it is asserted he was ten times subjected to the torture. He was a good poet, a good prose writer, and a better Christian than his brutal persecutors."

Old Fuller, in his Worthies of England, as might be expected, views Southwell with a stern English Protestant eye, and thus dismisses him : "Robert Southwell was born in this county (Norfolk), as Pitsons affirmeth, who, although often mistaken