Two o'clock struck, three and four followed, but still he remained, as Ichabod thought, absorbed in earnest prayer, and kneeling by his side, the worthy minister joined with true and pious fervour, till his patience became quite exhausted. He stirred him, and Walter, who had fallen asleep, started up.
"Is it time?" he asked.
"Thou hast slept well," said the divine, pettishly; "out of seven hours that were allotted three have already fled."
"My dear and worthy sir, you see how calm my conscience is. Perhaps it is hard to die so young; but for me life has now lost every charm. Death never has terrors to the brave. He opens the gates to a fame and a life that are eternal, and when the coffin lid is closed, sorrow and jealousy, envy and woe are excluded for ever. In four hours more mine will have closed over me. ——— Kingdoms and cities, the trees of the forest, the lakes, the rocks, and the hills themselves, have all their allotted periods of existence, and man has his; for every thing must perish—all must die and all must pass away. Oh, why then this foolish and unavailing regret about a few years more or less? ——— Front to front and foot to foot I have often met death on the field of battle, and if without flinching I have faced the volley of a whole brigade, that hurled a thousand brave spirits into eternity at once, shall I shrink from the levelled musquets of twelve base hirelings of the Stadtholder? ——— Will Lilian ever look on the grave where this heart moulders that loved her so long and so well? Oh no, for now she is the wife of another—oh, my God, another! In all wide Scotland there is not one to regret me, to shed one tear for me. I disappear from the earth like a bubble on a tide of events, leaving not one being behind me to recal my memory in fondness or regret."
* * * * *
The great clock of St. Giles struck the hour of seven.
Musquets rattled on the pavement of the echoing street; the door of the Iron Room opened, and the gudeman of the Tolbooth presented his stern and sinister visage.
"It is time," he announced briefly.
"I am ready," replied Walter cheerfully, and, with a soldier on each side of him and followed by the clergyman, he descended the narrow circular staircase of the prison, and, issuing from an arched doorway at the foot, found himself at the end of the edifice. Here he paused and gazed calmly around him.
An early hour was chosen for his execution, that few might witness it, for there existed in Scotland a strong feeling against William's policy; the massacre of Glencoe, the successive defeats and heavy expenses of the Dutch wars rankled bitterly in the minds of the people.