Produced by Suzanne Shell, David Wilson and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) _The Headswoman_ _BY THE SAME AUTHOR_ THE GOLDEN AGE DREAM DAYS PAGAN PAPERS THE BODLEY HEAD [Frontispiece: "Now that we have been properly introduced allow me to apologise"] THE HEADSWOMAN _By_ Kenneth Grahame _With Illustrations in Colour and Woodcuts by_ Marcia Lane Foster [Decoration] _LONDON_ _John Lane The Bodley Head Limited_ _New York John Lane Company_ _First Published 1898_ _Illustrated Edition 1921_ _Printed In Great Britain by R. Clay & Sons, Ltd., Bungay, Suffolk._ _List of Illustrations_ "Now That we have been properly introduced allow me to apologise" _Frontispiece_ _Facing page_ "You see I am Familiar with the Routine.... Good-morning, Gentlemen!" 8 "Au revoir, Sir! If you should happen to be in the Market-place any Morning" 28 Endeavouring to convey the Tardy Prisoner to the Scaffold 32 "Nay, pardon me, Sweet One, 'twas but a Jest of Mine" 36 But at this point a Hubbub arose at the Foot of the Scaffold 42 "Now, mark my Words, you Miserable Little Bladder-o'-Lard, see if I don't take this out of your Skin presently" 44 An Invitation arrived, backed by an Escort of Half-a-dozen very Tall Archers 46 _The Headswoman_ [Illustration] I It was a bland, sunny morning of a mediaeval May,--an old-style May of the most typical quality; and the Council of the little town of St. Radegonde were assembled, as was their wont at that hour, in the picturesque upper chamber of the Hotel de Ville, for the dispatch of the usual municipal business. Though the date was early sixteenth century, the members of this particular town-council possessed considerable resemblance to those of similar assemblies in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and even the nineteenth centuries, in a general absence of any characteristic at all--unless a pervading hopeless insignificance can be considered as such. All the character in the room, indeed, seemed to be concentrated in the girl who stood before the table, erect, yet at her ease, facing the members in general and Mr. Mayor in particular; a delicate-handed, handsome girl of some eighteen summers, whose tall, supple figure was well set off by the quiet, though tasteful mourning in which she was clad.