The Sicilian Bandit / From the Volume Captain Paul""

to be sent from Messina to Palermo; and Pascal, under a large escort of gendarmerie, was conveyed

eaties of the priest, Pascal resolutely refused to confess. The priest continued to exhort him to unburden his guilty mind; but nothing coul

"is, that I do not wish to

, my son?" inqu

aid Bruno, "not only the acknowledgment of your own

t, "there can be no complet

onfession would therefore be imperfect, and I

o acknowledge that you fear they will be too great to expect pardon? But comfor

tween your absolution and my death, a wicked t

confession would be l

onfess," observed Pascal, "for

it from your mind?

al s

allowed myself to be dragged forward as a disgraceful spectacle to the multitude? No! I would have strangled myself with the chain that binds me. At Messina, I

mean?" aske

runo, with bi

aid the priest, "without repenting

ent she least expects it; she, also, shall die without a priest, and without confession; sh

tant the ga

"the chapelle ard

your refusal to confess,

t," said Bru

I will repeat without pressing you any further; and I trust that, while you li

id Bruno; "but I have no r

son, and at that moment brilliantly illuminated, for, according to custom, he was there to hear the mass fo

is ring by means of a chain that went round his body, but which was sufficien

e church: it contained the remains of an insane person who had died during the day, and the director thought the deceased

, both of time and labour for the priest; and as

for the head and the other for the f

as in a better frame of mind; but the condemned man answered that, notwithstanding the mass to which he had listened,-notwi

and ascertain whether a night of solitude and contemplation, passed in a church and

hat awaited his youth. He remembered only a filial and sacred obedience towards the kind parents the Lord had given him. He remembered his father's abode--so quiet, so innocent, and happy at one time-which suddenly, became, without his being aware of the cause, full of tears and sorrow. He remembered the day when his

ome victorious superiority of evil over good, through the means of which all t

id; and fancying that in this, his extremity, some portion of this eternal secret would perhaps be revealed to him, he bowed his forehead to the earth and prayed-conjured the Deity, with all the fulne

g that internal voice which still continued

it is that the most insignificant amongst us all considers his own existence as the centre of the creation, imagine

e had had with his mind than from any fear of the scaffold, and

ng reminded him of Teresa-Teresa, whom he had not seen since the day when he first broke the bonds of God and man-Teresa, who had become mad, and for three years had been confined in the lunatic asylum from whence the coffin and the corpse had been brought-Teresa, his be

d back by the waist, his chain not being long enough to enable him to reach the corpse, and it held him fast to the pill

e corner of the veil, but he could discover nothing; he exerted all the power of his lungs

ized his chain with both hands, and collecting all his strength for the effort, he strove to

pillar, placed his head in his hands, and remained motionless and mute as the statue of

and his office as a minister of reconciliation. He thought that Pascal slept, but

, "are you prepared for confess

, father; but first render m

said the pri

aise the corner of the cloth that

winding-sheet. Pascal had not dece

pest sorrow, and then made a sign to the pries

the sight of death inspired

, and I became a murderer. She has conducted this woman through madness, and me, through despair, to

s entered the church to l