Page:Affecting history of an inn-keeper in Normandy.pdf/11

(11) and anguiſh, the mangled corps proved to be the remnains of the military ſtranger. The pious clergyman, penetrated through his very ſoul at this ſhocking ſpectacle, fetched a deep groan, and inſtantly fell dead upon his murdered nephew.

By this time the inn-holder was reſtored from thoſe dreadful contorſions, which had threatned his immediate diſſolution. Raiſing himſelf out of the chair, in which his domeſticks had ſeated him, he deſired to be taken before a magiſtrate, to whom he confeſſed every particular of this bloody tragedy. It ſeemed that the eldeſt ſon was the firſt who propoſed the deſtruction of the officer. The father heard the overture with deteſtation; but the young man having bound himſelf in a joint bond with his father for the payment of a large ſum of money, and hourly expecting his parent and himſelf to be thrown into a jail, urged the neceſſity of making the ſoldier's purſe their own property, as the only expedient to ſecure themſelves from the miſeries of confinement. The father warmly, remonſrated againſt the purſuit of ſuch impious meaſures; and likewiſe obſerved, that the guilt thereof would be highly inflamed by the extraordinary confidence which his gueſt had repoſed in him. The ſon intimated that he thought it cruel uſage to be made ſubject to the penalties of a bond, for which he had received