The convict made no reply. He looked intently at the speaker, and then seated himself once more on his stool.
“Ye hear what my daughter ha’ bin sayin’,” observed the farmer. “What answer ha’ ye to mek?”
“You forgive me, then?” said the prisoner, in a low breathless tone.
“Aye, surely; it aint loikely we should do otherwise. It be but natural when ’ee’s about to leave the world. We do forgive ’ee.”
“Yes,” said Patty softly, “we forgive you from our hearts.”
“Heaven bless you! Heaven bless you!” cried the prisoner, as he wrung their hands with his, which were chained. “I thought that you would when I asked Joe to tell you I could not leave the world without asking your forgiveness.”
“Ah!” he said, in continuation, “you do not know how bitterly I have been punished for my cowardice and treachery, and this be the consequence,” he ejaculated, glancing at his chains.
Patty sighed—the sight was a painful and touching one.
The prisoner went on telling them how he had been in the power of an evil woman, and how he had been driven to desperation on that fatal night, and what miseries he had endured since then.
As he gave this recital they closed their eyes that they might not see his face, which was distorted with agony.