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128
THE KNIFE.

roborative of the charge against them. The man was at first furious, struggled with the officers, boldly declared his innocence, and finally settled down into sullen silence. The woman was quiet and gentle, watching only her husband's eye, and confirming all his assertions. The prisoners attracted great attention; they were both singular and superior, evidently very different from the ignorant and simple villagers among whom they ordinarily moved. Rachel (such was the female's name) was perfectly beautiful, though in the peculiar style which belongs to her race: delicately made, with a mild and mournful cast of countenance, she seemed the last person in the world to have engaged in an act of violence; indeed, the most distant allusion to the murder drove the colour from her dark cheek, and convulsed her slight frame with a shudder of fear and loathing. There was something very remarkable in her devotion to her husband; it was a mixture of deference, tenderness, and submission. Her age appeared to be about twenty; and a general and strong sympathy was excited for a creature so young, so lovely, and so meek.

The man was obviously turned of forty; his black hair was mixed with gray, and the fine outline of his features was harsh with time and exposure to all weathers. He was tall, and his gait even commanding; his hands and feet were of that small and fine mould we are accustomed to attribute to gentle blood; the expression of his face was one