But since you know so much of
the dwarf, perhaps you also know he is now the king's prisoner?"
"I did not know it; but I surmised as much when I discovered that
you and Count L'Estrange, followed by such a body of men, visited
the ruin. Well, his career has been long and dark enough, and
even the plague seemed to spare him for the executioner. And so
the poor mock-queen is dead? Well, her sister will not long
survive her."
"Good Heavens, madame!" cried Sir Norman, aghast. "You do not
mean to say that Leoline is going to die?"
"Oh, no! I hope Leoline has a long and happy life before her.
But the wretched, guilty sister I mean is, myself; for I, too,
Sir Norman, am her sister."
At this new disclosure, Sir Norman stood perfectly petrified; and
La Masque, looking down at the dreadful place at her feet, went
rapidly on:
"Alas and alas! that it should be so; but it is the direful
truth. We bear the same name, we had the same father; and yet I
have been the curse and bane of their lives."
"And Leoline knows this?"
"She never knew it until this night, or any one else alive; and
no one should know it now, were not my ghastly life ending.
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