they were in my company for; but did not trouble to ask. I noticed that they had several curious-looking instruments with them, and it passed through my mind that these might be instruments of torture, but even to this I was indifferent. At last, one who seemed to be the chief amongst them, came to me, and said in Latin, "Arise, I wish to instruct you in the use of these instruments before you take them away with you as your sole and only friends. They are friends that will be true to you for evermore." I told him not to trouble me, but he persisted, and for the sake of getting rid of him, I stood up.
Then he said:—"I hold a most honourable and responsible position in the State, I am chief executioner. Although I do not cut off heads nor yet hang culprits by the neck, as I am told the ancients did, I cut off their connection with the earth, as effectually as if I severed their vertebræ or closed their wind-pipes. My life is devoted to science—that glorious science that teaches men all things. Were you a
