Page:Marietta, or the Two Students.djvu/43

Rh of recklessness, and want of defference. It was truly surprising as well as lamentable; but what better could they expect from men who would go forth at the lone hour of midnight, and unearth the unoffending dead for the sake of the savage and unnatural pleasure of cutting them in pieces. Nothing; it was of a piece with their other crimes.

When the man of justice had delivered himself,—which he did at length without aid—of this powerful harangue, he drew about him all his terrors, and looked sternly, and almost annihilatingly at the two individuals "charged with high misdemeanors against the state." But when he expected that they would have quailed beneath the severity of his eye, or fallen down before him, what was his horror to find that it only increased their merriment.

"These are hardened wretches. I perceive we shall be obliged to resort to more cogent means."

"If you have proper authority," said the Dr., "you can search the premises, and if you discover the object of your search, you can attend to your duty as a magistrate afterward. This is the legal mode of procedure."

"As I said before, sir, I am well versed in what concerns my duty," replied the magistrate, imperiously, "and I shall discharge it at all hazards. As a civil officer I call on you to submit to my authority; if you do this, you will, I assure you, be the gainer by it."

Approaching the Dr., and laying his hand upon his shoulder, he said, in an authoritative tone, "You are my prisoner. I arrest you in behalf of the state, as being guilty of most flagrant and unnatural crimes. Men," he continued, beckoning his companions to approach, "I command you in the name of the State to seize and iron these miscreants."

The good natured Doctor could bear it no longer, and seizing the self-sufficient constable by the nape of the neck with a vigor which that worthy functionary vainly attempted to resist, he pushed him along before him to the open door, then applying his foot energetically to his most assailable parts, he sent him off, not in a tangent, but in a half circle, to the bottom of the stairs. Then turning to the assistants who were looking at the operation, in silent astonishment, he said, "If you want to search the premises you are at liberty to do so."

But they did not seem disposed to avail themselves of this privilege, but hastened to the assistance of their fallen leader, who was groaning lustily, and breathing out threatenings against the audacious wretch who had dared to do him violence.

He would "return on the morrow with sufficient force to make certain his capture, and then he should receive summary punishment for his defiance of the laws." He would have made the attempt even then, but his attendants refused, as they did not consider themselves able to effect any thing; and they doubted his power to proceed to such an extremity. Accordingly after a short search, they left the house, mortified and swelling with rage.

Locking the door of the dissecting room, the Doctor and Levator went to their homes.

We will now return, and follow the fortunes of Eugene. After leaving the dissecting room, as before mentioned, for more than an hour he walked the streets, reflecting on what he had just witnessed. It had touched a delicate spot in his conscience. He had seen the carcase of the betrayer of his mistress horribly disfigured by a loathsome and disgraceful disease. It naturally caused him to think of his own course of life, and what might possibly be its results if he persisted as he had begun. It was easy to foresee what they might be, and the shocking idea made him shudder. He loved Cecil; and the fate of her seducer seemed a warning to him, and pointed significantly to what might be his own destiny.

Tired at length of wandering without any object, he turned his footsteps towards the residence of Cecil. It was near ten o'clock when he reached the house where lived his mistress. Knocking at the door he requested admission to the room. With sorrow he heard from the old woman that she was sick, and not in a condition to see him at present. Although he insisted upon it, she assured him he could not have access to her until the morrow.

With a sad and heavy heart he left the house, and sought his own home. Plunged in deep thought, it was a late