“Ha! you have been with him, you say?” replied Marston, with evident interest and anxiety.

“Yes, several times, and conversed with him long and gravely,” continued the clergyman.

“Humph!  I thought that had been the chaplain’s business, not yours, my good friend,” observed Marston.

“He has been unwell,” replied Dr. Danvers; “and thus, for a day or two, I took his duty, and this poor man, Merton, having known something of me, preferred seeing me rather than a stranger; and so, at the chaplain’s desire and his, I continued my visits.”

“Well, and you have taught him to pray and sing psalms, I suppose; and what has come of it all?” demanded Marston, testily.

“He does pray, indeed, poor man! and I trust his prayers are heard with mercy at the throne of grace,” said his companion, in his earnestness disregarding the sneering tone of his companion.  “He is full of compunction, and admits his guilt.”

“Ho! that is well—­well for himself—­well for his soul, at least; you are sure of it; he confesses; confesses his guilt?”

Marston put his question so rapidly and excitedly, that the clergyman looked with a slight expression of surprise; and recovering himself, he added, in an unconcerned tone—­

“Well, well—­it was just as well he did so; the evidence is too clear for doubt or mystification; he knew he had no chance, and has taken the seemliest course; and, doubtless, the best for his hopes hereafter.”

“I did not question him upon the subject,” said Doctor Danvers; “I even declined to hear him speak upon it at first; but he told me he was resolved to offer no defense, and that he saw the finger of God in the fate which had overtaken him.”

“He will plead guilty, then, I suppose?” suggested Marston, watching the countenance of his companion with an anxious and somewhat sinister eye.

“His words seem to imply so much,” answered he; “and having thus frankly owned his guilt, and avowed his resolution to let the law take its due course in his case, without obstruction or evasion, I urged him to complete the grand work he had begun, and to confess to you, or to some other magistrate fully, and in detail, every circumstance connected with the perpetration of the dreadful deed.”

Marston knit his brows, and rode on for some minutes in silence.  At length he said, abruptly—­

“In this, it seems to me, sir, you a little exceeded your commission.”

“How so, my dear sir?” asked the clergyman.

“Why, sir,” answered Marston, “the man may possibly change his mind before the day of trial, and it is the hangman’s office, not yours, my good sir, to fasten the halter about his neck.  You will pardon my freedom; but, were this deposition made as you suggest, it would undoubtedly hang him.”

“God forbid, Mr. Marston,” rejoined Danvers, “that I should induce the unhappy man to forfeit his last chances of escape, and to shut the door of human mercy against himself, but on this he seems already resolved; he says so; he has solemnly declared his resolution to me; and even against my warning, again and again reiterated the same declaration.”