The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1892-01-21

hempen bonds against rugged angle
Or earth-embedded stone, and in four
hours was free, rising silently among
4 the snoring warriors, and passing into
the forest as noiselessly as one OF
4 those Wierd black shadows that the
last flashes Of their expiring camp
/ fires made at play en- the background
OF the woods. stole past their out
most pickets while the first flush of
day was in the east, and then, in the
open, turned me to my own people
But it would have been far better had
! l brayed Caesars anger or trusted to
that martial boy, Sempronius Eau
nus.
] The British churls, angry and sullen
at their defeat of yesterday. were
i looking for a5victim to bear the burden
OF their wrongs. Now the priest Dhu-
WALTON, who had turned livid with
tear and anger when | had come back
unframed from the hands of the en-
envy, with q ready wit, saw he might
propltlate the Britons and crafty his
own ends by one more coward trick
70 90 played at my expense. donot
deny his readiness or grudge him aught,
yeC l nate him even now from the
potion OF my heart with all that
tlerce old anger which then would have
hlled me with delight and pride if I
could have had his anointed blood
smoking IN the runnels Of my swords.
We'll. 1t was his turn again. He
procured false witnesses NOT q diff
cult thing for q high priest in that dis
contented camp-and by midday I
was bound once more, and before the
priests ana chiefs as a traitor and q,
Roman spy.
What good was it for me to stand
up and tell the truth to that gloomy
circle while the angry crowd outside
hrlngered for a. propltiatorv sacrifice9
In vain lied with all the resources T
could muster, and in vain. when this
was frultless, denounced that pale
! Vlilan, my accuser. When came to
tell OF his treachery in killing my horse
the day before, and leaving me to be
slam by the enemy, saw was but
adding Islander in the judges eyes to
my other crimes. When declared
was no Roman, but a Briton-an aged
1901, his long white locks filleted with
oak-ieaves, rose silently and held a.
pollshed brass mirror before me, and
by every deity in the Northern skies
must own my black hair and duskv
face was far more Roman tn an native.
SO they found me guilty, and SEN
fenced me to be offered up to Baal
next morning before the army as a.
detected spy.
| When that silvery dawn came, it
brought no relief or respite, for the
laws of the Druids, which enioined
slow and deliberate judgments, for
babe the altering of a sentence once
pronounced.
They forced me and two other mis-
cradle wretches to the altar, and then,
While our guards stood by us and the
mounted men clustered among the
monollths behind, deadly silence fell
upon the assembly. It was so still we
could hear the beat of our own hearts,
and SO intolerable that one of the
others fell forward in a swoon before
1t had lasted many minutes. The din
OF battle was like the murmur of a.
pleasant brook beside that expectan5
hush; and when the white procession
or eXecutloners came chanting up the
farther avenue OF stones into the
arena, l breathed again as though
| ~ "e'o o. HupClal procession
and they were bringing me
g. bride less grim than the golden
adze which shone at their head.
They sang around the altar their
mystic song, and then halted before
the rude stone altar. Mixing up re-
llgion and justice as was their won't,
the chief Druid recited the crimes OF
the two culprits beside me, with
their punishment, and Immediately
the first one, tightly bound, was
pitched upon the stone altar; and
while Druids chanted their hymns to
Baal the assembled multitude Joined
In, and, clanking their shields in an
Internal tumult which effectively
drowned his yells for mercy, the sa-
cred adze fell, and first his head and
then his body fell into the hollow,
while twenty little streams OF crimson
blood trickled down the sides of the
altar stone. The next one was treat
ed in the same way, and tumbled off
| into the hollow below, and 1 was
hoisted up to that reeking slab.
While they arranged me- that black
priest stole up and Kissed in my ear,
1 lis 1t Of Blodwen you think when you
shut your eyes? Take this, then, for
| your final comfort"' he said, with q
malicious leer-"I, even I, the despised
and thwarted, will see to Blodwen and
answer for her happiness. Ah!-you
writhe-I thought that would interest
you. Let your last thought, accursed
stranger, be | and she; let your last
conception be my near revenge! Vii
| lain! I spit upon and deride you!''
And he was as good as his word, glow
ering down upon me helpless, with in
satiate rage and hatred, signed to the
executioner. -
! heard the wild hymn to their saw
age gods go ringing up again through
the green leaves OF the oaks; heard
the CHATTER of the weapons upon the
round brass-bound targets, the voices
| OF the priests and the cry Of a startled
kite circling in the pleasant autumn
mist overhead [ saw the great cres-
ent OF the sacred golden adze swing in
to the sky, and then, while it was just
checking to the fall which should
eXtinguish me, there came a hush up
on the people, followed by wild
4 shout Of fear and anger, and turned