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Show 76 Till! LILY AND Til£ TOT£~!. met only by denunciation and scorn. The base nature of Albert felt only his own mortification. Jlis appetite for revenge darkened his vision wholly. He saw ncitllcr lJis policy nor humanity; and tho creatures of his will were not permitted to hesitate in carrying out his brutal resolution. Armed wilh little hickories from the neighboring woods, they awaited but his command1 and with its repeated utterance, tlu'l lash descended hmwily upon tho uncovered shoulders of the unhappy \voman. With the first stroke, she bounded from the earth with a piercing shriek, at once of entreaty, of agony, nod horror. Up to this moment, neither she, nor, indeed, any of the spectators, except Rcnnud, nod possibly Gueroachc himself, l1nd imagined thatAlbertwould put in execu· tion a purpo::~e so equally impolitic and cruel. But when the blow fell upon tho almost fair and naked shoulders of the womanwhen her wild, girlish, almost childlike shriek rent the air, then the long suppressed agonies of Guernache broke forth in a passion of fury that looked more like the excess of the madman tlmn the mere ebullition, however intense, of a simply desperate man. lie had struggled long at endurance. He had borne, llitherto, without flinching, everything in the shi'lpe of penalty which his petty tyrant could fasten upon him-much more, indeed, tlHI.n the ordinary nature, vexed with frequent injustice, is willing to endure. But, in the fury and ngony of that humilinting moment, all restraints of prudence or fear were forgotten, or trampled under foot. Ile flung himself loose from the men who held him, and darting upon the individual by whom the merciless blow had been struck, he felled l1im to the earth by a single blow of his Ucrculean fist. But he wne permitted to do no more. In anotl1er instant, grappled by n dozen powerful arms, be waa borne to the oorth, aud scoured with cords which 'filE LEGEND OF GUE.RNACITE. 77 not only bound his limbs but were drawn so tightly as to cut rc~ morsclessly into the flesh. IT ere he lay, and his agony may be far more eMily conceived than described, thus compelled to behold tho further torturce of the woman of his heart, without being able to struggle and to die in her defence. llis own tortures were forgotten, as he witnessed hers. In vain would his cars have rejected the terrible sound, stroke upon stroke, which testified the continuance of this brutal outrage upon humanity. Without mercy was the punishment bestowed; and, bleeding n.t every blow from the biting scourge, the wretched innocent was at length tortured out of tho garrison. nut with that first shriek to which she gave uttcJ-ance, and which declared rather the mental horror than tho bodily pain which she suffered from such a cruel degradltlion, she ceased any longer to acknowledge her suffering. Oh! very powerful for endurance is the strength of a. loving heart! The rest of the punishment she bore with tho silence of one who suffera martyrdom in tho approving eye of l1ea.ven; as if, beholding the in.snue agonies of Gucrna.che, she had steeled herself to bear with any degree of torture rather than increase l1is sufferings by her complaints. In this manner, and thus silent under her own pains, she was c:zpelled from the fortress. She wns driven to the margin of the cleared space by which it was surrounded. She heard the shouts which drove her thence, tmd heard nothing farther. She had barely strength to totter forward, like the deer with n mortal hurt, to tho secret cover of the forest, when she sank down in exhaustion ;-nature kindly interposing with insensibility, to save her from those physical sufferings which "he could no longer feel and live ! With the morning of the next day, Guernache was brought before the judgment-seat of Albert. The chnrgcs were suffi- |