Executions continued to occur in St. Radegonde; the Radegundians being conservative and very human. But much of the innocent enjoyment that formerly attended them departed after the fair Chatelaine had ceased to officiate. Enguerrand, on succeeding to the post, wedded Clairette, she being (he was heard to say) a more suitable match in mind and temper than others of whom he would name no names. Rumour had it, that he found his match and something over; while as for temper--and mind (which she gave him in bits)----But the domestic trials of high-placed officials have a right to be held sacred. The profession, in spite of his best endeavours, languished nevertheless. Some said that the scaffold lacked its old attraction for criminals of spirit; others, more unkindly, that the headsman was the innocent cause, and that Enguerrand was less fatal in his new sphere than formerly, when practising in the criminal court as advocate for the defence. Credo By Arthur Symons EACH, in himself, his hour to be and cease Endures alone, yet few there be who dare Sole with himself his single burden bear, All the long day until the night’s release. Yet, ere the night fall, and the shadows close, This labour of himself is each man’s lot; All a man hath, yet living, is forgot, Himself he leaves behind him when he goes. If he have any valiancy within, If he have made his life his very own, If he have loved and laboured, and have known A strenuous virtue, and the joy of sin; Then, being dead, he has not lived in vain, For he has saved what most desire to lose, And he has chosen what the few must choose, Since life, once lived, returns no more again. For of our time we lose so large a part In serious trifles, and so oft let slip The wine of every moment at the lip Its moment, and the moment of the heart. We are awake so little on the earth, And we shall sleep so long, and rise so late, If there is any knocking at that gate Which is the gate of death, the gate of birth. Four Drawings By Aubrey Beardsley I. Portrait of Himself II. Lady Gold’s Escort III. The Wagnerites IV. La Dame aux Camélias [Illustration: PAR LES DIEVX JVMEAVX TOVS LES MONSTRES NE SONT PAS EN AFRIQVE.] [Illustration] [Illustration] [Illustration] White Magic By Ella D’Arcy I SPENT one evening last summer with my friend Mauger, _pharmacien_ in the little town of Jacques-le-Port. He pronounces his name Major, by-the-bye, it being a quaint custom of the Islands to write proper names one way and speak them another, thus serving to bolster up that old, old story of the German savant’s account of the difficulties of the English language--“where you spell a man’s name Verulam,” says he reproachfully, “and pronounce it Bacon.”