42 Talcs of the Dead. [JULY, 



retrieved himself for a moment by catching at the foot of the gallows 

 with both hands : one of them gradually relaxed its hold, and the next 

 instant he was himself precipitated headlong into the abyss, and borne 

 away by the torrent." 



This gallows with its blithe and smiling accompaniments, this scene 

 of death so jocundly portrayed, had wound up my curiosity to the 

 highest pitch. I could never have believed that a hempen cravat was 

 productive of such pleasing recollections. I had heard that death came 

 arrayed in pall and winding-sheet ; never before had I contemplated him 

 in the gaiety of his holiday suit. The bandit was a philosopher of the 

 right school; he looked upon the gallows as a long-suffering creditor, 

 but one with whom he must ultimately reckon ; or rather, like a calcu- 

 lating gamester, he knew that he had fairly lost his stake, and that its 

 payment would be rigorously exacted. I was anxious to hear the con- 

 tinuation of his adventures, and at my request he thus resumed his story. 



' f 1 have the most perfect recollection," said he, " even of the slightest 

 sensations which I experienced ; and were the whole business to recom- 

 mence in an hour from this moment, I should feel not the least concern. 

 When the rope had been fastened about my neck, and when the execu- 

 tioner had pushed me from the ladder, I was seized with a violent pain 

 about the throat. Shortly afterwards I felt nothing. The air inflated my 

 lungs slowly, but pinched up as they were, the slightest particle of the 

 balmy breeze revived me ; and besides, being lightly balanced in mid- 

 air, I might be said to breathe it at every pore. I can even recollect that 

 this swing-swong motion was not without its charms. I beheld external 

 objects as it were through a thin veil of gauze; my ear was rather 

 fatigued by a stilly silence ; I began gradually to lose myself in my me- 

 ditations, though I can no longer exactly recollect the subject of them, 

 unless it was the money I had won the evening before from my comrade 

 Gregorio. All of a sudden I gasped for breath ; I could no longer per- 

 ceive objects distinctly ; I no longer felt the swing-swong motion ; I was 

 dead !" 



. " And yet," said I, " here you are, alive and hearty ; and I congra- 

 tulate you most sincerely on your escape." 



The bandit upon this assumed an air of gravity, and assured me there 

 was a miracle at the bottom of it. " I had been dead," resumed he, 

 ^ upwards of an hour, when my comrade cut the rope. When I came to 

 myself, the first object that I beheld was a lovely female ; her sylph-like 

 form reclining with deep interest over my exhausted frame ; her soft 

 black eyes fixed with intense anxiety on mine, that had so long been 

 closed in death ; her balmy breath revivifying me with a soul more pure 

 than that which had quitted its tenement. Her voice, her look, her lan- 

 guage, her soul, were Italian ! Methought for an instant that I had 

 newly risen from the tomb, and that I was in the presence of Raphael's 

 Madonna. Now, signer, you have heard the bandit's story. I have faith- 

 fully promised the lovely Maria to become an honest man, if possible. 

 Love, they say, works miracles ; and perhaps he will, in favour of Maria, 

 operate my conversion. I have even already made considerable progress 

 in the path of virtue ; for I have procured myself two most essential 

 requisites to the character of an honest man a good coat, and a new 

 hat." 



" But, besides that," added I, " you must have a trade ; and I am 

 greatly afraid, my good friend, that you have none." 



