"And you killed her!" said the monk, vehemently. "You served as instrument to those dastardly villains who dared not kill her themselves. You had no pity on her youth, her beauty, her weakness! You killed her!"
"Alas! holy father," said the headsman, "this woman concealed, under the exterior of an angel, the vices of a demon; and when I saw her, when I remembered all that I had myself suffered from her"——
"You? And what could she have done to you?"
"She had seduced my brother, who was a priest, had fled with him from his convent, lost him both body and soul."
"Your brother?"
"Yes, my brother had been her first lover. Oh, my father! do not look at me thus. I am very guilty, then! You cannot pardon me!"
The monk composed his features, which had assumed a terrible expression during the latter part of the dying man's confession.
"I will pardon you," said he, "if you tell me all. Since your brother was her first lover, you must know her maiden name. Tell it me."
"Oh, my God! my God!" exclaimed the headsman—"I am dying! Absolution, holy father! absolution!"
"Her name," said the monk, "and I give it to you."