The crowd made room for a young man in a cart, who, having thrown the reins on the horse's neck, passed through the file of soldiers and mounted the hillock of earth, armed with the two-handed weapon that he was about to use for the first time in his life. "Look!" said one of the crowd; "it _is_ young Leo, after all. I thought they had found a substitute." "What a hard-hearted young ruffian to consent to take the life of his father with his own hands!" said another. "And he doesn't seem to feel it a bit," said a third; "why, he is actually smiling." "Some folks say that he does not know who it is that he is going to behead," said a fourth. "Not know that the criminal is his father?" exclaimed the former speaker. "Nonsense, I don't believe it." The young headsman was attired in a buff leather jerkin slashed with red and hose of a dark green. He appeared about two-and-twenty, and was as yet beardless. He was considerably taller than his father, but his frame, though powerfully built, was devoid of that excessive and almost preternatural muscular development that characterised that of the old executioner. His hair was of a reddish brown, his complexion florid, his eyes light blue, and his features, though somewhat coarse, had something in them not altogether disagreeable. He leaned firmly on his sword and gazed around calmly on the crowd, when suddenly the human sea became violently agitated and began to groan and hiss in its fury. The cause of this tumult became speedily known. It was the arrival of the "poor sinner," who was drawn in a cart between two priests and habited according to the custom of the condemned on such occasions. Loud hooting and execrations burst forth on all sides from the crowd as it made way for the condemned cart. "But that is not Franz Wenzel," said one to his neighbour. "The old Henker had red hair; this man's hair is black." "Fool, don't you know how that is?" said his neighbour. "Haven't you heard yet how he dyed his hair black in order not to be recognised?" "No, did he though?" said the former. "But look! why is his head tied up so with two handkerchiefs? I can't see anything of his face." "H'm, I don't know; some innovation I suppose. The handkerchief always used to be tied on when on the scaffold in my time," answered his friend. The criminal had now alighted from the cart, and, followed by the two priests, ascended the place of execution, where he took his seat on the chair placed for him. The assistant executioner, whose face was most successfully disguised with a black mask, pushed his way through the crowd and mounted the platform. "Who is _he_?" was a question asked by everyone of everybody; "and why is he masked while Leo, who bears the sword, is unmasked?" "Who knows? Perhaps he is the new headsman that they all talked about, and young Leo will not really behead his own father; but we shall see."