than half-an-hour streets and houses were deserted, and the large field around the pile so crowded with spectators, that had one tossed an apple into it, it could not have reached the ground. Every eye was fixed upon the pile, and upon the motions of the executioner and his assistants; while from time to time a distant observer heard a loud noise resembling the rushing of the storm through a pine-wood, caused by the rustling of the crowd, which again sunk down into an awful silence.
During one of these pauses a gloomy whispering was neard, deep gravity spread over every face,—and after the lapse of some minutes, a universal shout arose, “The Magician has escaped!”
Nobody could believe it, nobody could think it possible, yet every one shouted it the louder for his disbelief, and thousands were about to run off to storm the prison: for was it not quité insufferable thus to have their excited ex- pectations deceived, to have been kept awake the whole night for nothing to have endured hunger and thirst, and all for nothing!
A wild outcry of fury and rage was already heard throughout the field, when the judges made their appearance, and partly to confirm the sad news that the impatient criminal had not chosen to await his burning, and partly with the prudential motive of saving themselves from a shower of stones, desired the whole assembly to pursue the Magician, who must undoubtedly, as they affirmed, still be lurking about the neighbourhood, and could not escape the scrutiny of so many thousand eyes. They also invited the whole assembly to attend on the following day at a still more solemn execution of the wizard.
In the twinkling of an eye the whole crowd were in motion, galloping over and against one another with as much confusion as ever distracted Babel. Not a few were induced by the mischances they met with to desist from the chase, and took their way back to the town in no very good hu-
