take his arm and turn him upon his knees by the pallet-side. The hour was
an awful one. No sound was heard save an occasional ejaculation between a
sigh and a smothered groan from the wretched felon. The candle burned
dimly; and as I turned I saw, though I scarcely noticed it at the moment,
a dim insect of the moth species, fluttering hurriedly round it, the sound
of whose wings mournfully filled up the pauses of myself and my companion.
When the nerves are strained to their uttermost, by such trifling
circumstances are we affected. Here (thought I) there has been no light,
at such an hour, for many years; and yet here is one whose office it seems
to be to watch it! My spirit felt the necessity of some exertion; and with
an energy, for which a few moments before I had hardly dared to hope, I
poured out my soul in prayer. I besought mercy upon the blood-stained
creature who was grovelling beside me--I asked that repentance and peace
might be vouchsafed him--I begged, for our Redeemer's sake, that his last
moments might know that untasted rapture of sin forgiven, and a cleansed
soul, which faith alone can bring to fallen man--I conjured him to help
and aid me to call upon the name of Christ; and I bade him put off life
and forget it, and to trust in that name alone--I interceded that his
latter agony might be soothed, and that the leave-taking of body and soul
might be in quietness and peace. But he shook and shivered, and nature
clung to the miserable straw of existence which yet floated upon the wide
and dismal current of oblivion, and he groaned heavily and muttered, "No,
no, no!" as if the very idea of death was unbearable, even for a moment;
and "to die," even to him that must, were a thing impossible, and not to
be thought of or named. And as I wrestled with the adversary that had
dominion over him, he buried his shrunk and convulsed features in the
covering of his miserable pallet; while his fingers twisted and writhed
about, like so many scotched snakes, and his low, sick moans, made the
very dungeon darker.