"I am going to the guillotine," replied Madame Roland; "a few moments and I shall be there; but those who send me thither will follow me ere long. I go innocent, but they will come stained with blood, and you who applaud our execution will then applaud theirs with equal zeal." Sometimes she would turn away her head that she might not appear to hear the insults with which she was assailed, and would lean with almost filial tenderness over the agéd partner of her execution. The poor old man wept bitterly, and she kindly and cheeringly encouraged him to bear up with firmness, and to suffer with resignation. She even tried to enliven the dreary journey they were performing together by little attempts at cheerfulness, and at length succeeded in winning a smile from her fellow-sufferer. A colossal statue of Liberty, composed of clay, like the liberty of the time, then stood in the middle of the Place de la Concorde, on the spot now occupied by the Obelisk; the scaffold was erected beside this statue. Upon arriving there, Madame Roland descended from the cart in which she had been conveyed. Just as the executioner had seized her arm to enable her to be the first to mount to the guillotine, she displayed an instance of that noble and tender consideration for others, which only a woman's heart could conceive, or put into practice at such a moment. "Stay!" said she, momentarily resisting the man's grasp. "I have only one favor to ask, and that is not for myself; I beseech you grant it me." Then, turning to the old man, she said, “Do you precede me to the scaffold; to see my blood flow would be making you suffer the bitterness of death twice over. I must spare you the pain of witnessing my punishment. The executioner allowed this arrangement to be made. With what sensibility and firmness must the mind have been imbued which could, at such a time, forget its own sufferings, to think only of saving one pang to an unknown old man! and how clearly does this one little trait attest the heroic calmness with which this celebrated woman met her death! After the execution of Lamarche, which she witnessed without changing color, Madame Roland stepped lightly up to the scaffold, and, bowing before the statue of Liberty as though to do homage to a power for whom she was about to die, exclaimed, “O Liberty! Liberty! how many crimes are committed in thy name!" She then resigned herself to the hands of the executioner, and in a few seconds her head fell into the basket placed to receive it. WIDDER GREEN'S LAST WORDS. "I'm goin' to die!" says the Widder Green. Such works and ways is too much for me; The girls is flounced from top to toe, 'We're pleased to say the Widder Green Without a-raisin' some feller's fur? No more than if this was the Judgment Day. No more'u ef he was hand and glove With all the creturs he ever made, That makes this world or t'other complete. Bibles kicked out o' deestrict schools, Crazy creturs a-murderin' round,— Honest folks better be under ground. So fare-ye-well! this airthly scene Won't no more be pestered by Widder Green.* THE LITTLE HERO. Now, lads, a short yarn I'll just spin you, From Liverpool port out three days, lads; Not a bad-tempered lubber among us; Strong as iron, an' steady as quick; As had ought to bin home to his marm. The lad had a face bright and sunny, An' says he in a voice dear and pretty, "And he told me the big ship would take me And he said, 'Now the Lord is your father, "It's a lie," says the mate: "not your father, ""Twarn't us," growled the tars as stood round 'em. Says the small chap, I'm Frank, just turned nine." "Oh, my eyes!" says another bronzed seaman To the mate, who seemed staggered hisself, "Let him go free to old Novy Scoshy, And I'll work out his passage myself." "Belay!" says the mate: "shut your mouth, man! Then a-knitting his black brows with anger, An', says he, " P'r'aps to-morrow'll change you- I took him some dinner, be sure, mates,— The mate brings him up from his cage. An' he plants him before us amidships, An' he says, through his teeth, mad with passion, "Tell the truth, lad, and then I'll forgive you; But the truth I will have. Speak it out. It wasn't your father as brought you, But some of these men here about." Then that pair o' blue eyes, bright and winning, 'Twarn't no use; the mate didn't believe him, There! you never see such a sight, mates, Eight minutes went by all in silence. Says the mate then, "Speak, lad: say your say." His eyes slowly filling with tear-drops, He faltering says, "May I pray?" I'm a rough and hard old tarpa'lin As any "blue-jacket" afloat; But the salt water sprung to my eyes, lads, The mate kind o' trembled an' shivered, Ne'er the like was on sea or on land. An' the little chap kneels on the deck there, And soft come the first words, "Our Father," Every bit of that prayer, mates, he goes through, Amen." And for all the bright gold of the Indies, I wouldn't ha' heard it again. |