"A dagger!" he exclaimed, with a shudder, and a recoil. "Madame,
are you talking of murder?"
"I told you!" she said, through her closed teeth, and with her
eyes flaming like fire, "that ridding the earth of that fiend
incarnate would be a good deed, and no murder! I would do it
myself if I could take him off his guard; but he never is that
with me; and then my arm is not strong enough to reach his black
heart through all that mass of brawn, and blood, and muscle. No,
Sir Norman, Doom has allotted it to you - obey, and I swear to
you, you shall go free; refuse - and in ten minutes your head
will roll under the executioner's axe!"
"Better that than the freedom you offer! Madame, I cannot
murder!"
"Coward!" she passionately cried; "you fear to do it, and yet you
have but a life to lose, and that is lost to you now!"
Sir Norman raised his head; and even in the darkness she saw the
haughty flush that crimsoned his face.
"I fear no man living; but, madame, I fear One who is higher than
man!"
"But you will die if you refuse; and I repeat, again and again,
there is no risk. These guards will not let you out; but there
are more ways of leaving a room than through the door, and I can
lead you up behind the tapestry to where he is standing, and you
can stab him through the back, and escape with me! Quick, quick,
there is no time to lose!"
"I cannot do it !" he said, resolutely, drawing back and folding
his arms.
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