They arrived at the place they had selected for their station; sometimes walking to and fro in order to escape observation, sometimes hiding behind the pillars of a neighbouring house, they awaited the coming of their victims. The time passed on; the streets grew more and more empty; and, at last, only the visitation of the watchman or the occasional steps of some homeward wanderer disturbed the solitude of their station. At last, just after midnight, two men were seen approaching towards them, linked arm in arm, and walking very slowly. "Hist! hist!" whispered Wolfe's comrade, "there they are at last; is your pistol cocked?" "Ay," answered Wolfe, "and yours: man, collect yourself your hand shakes." "It is with the cold then," said the ruffian, using, unconsciously, a celebrated reply; "let us withdraw behind the pillar." They did so: the figures approached them; the night, though star-lit, was not sufficiently clear to give the assassins more than the outline of their shapes and the characters of their height and air. "Which," said Wolfe, in a whisper,--for, as he had said, he had never seen either of his intended victims,--"which is my prey?" "Oh, the nearest to you," said the other, with trembling accents; "you know his d--d proud walk, and erect head that is the way he answers the people's petitions, I'll be sworn. The taller and farther one, who stoops more in his gait, is mine." The strangers were now at hand. "You know you are to fire first, Wolfe," whispered the nearer ruffian, whose heart had long failed him, and who was already meditating escape. "But are you sure, quite sure, of the identity of our prey?" said Wolfe, grasping his pistol. "Yes, yes," said the other; and, indeed, the air of the nearest person approaching them bore, in the distance, a strong resemblance to that of the minister it was supposed to designate. His companion, who appeared much younger and of a mien equally patrician, but far less proud, seemed listening to the supposed minister with the most earnest attention. Apparently occupied with their conversation, when about twenty yards from the assassins they stood still for a few moments. "Stop, Wolfe, stop," said the republican's accomplice, whose Indian complexion, by fear, and the wan light of the lamps and skies, faded into a jaundiced and yellow hue, while the bony whiteness of his teeth made a grim contrast with the glare of his small, black, sparkling eyes. "Stop, Wolfe, hold your hand. I see, now, that I was mistaken; the farther one is a stranger to me, and the nearer one is much thinner than the minister: pocket your pistol,--quick! quick!--and let us withdraw."