a
sort of parenthesis, as the dwarf concluded his pleasant observation
by thrusting himself forward across the table, after his rather
discomposing fashion, and breaking out into one of his diabolical
laughter-claps.

The queen, who had been sitting passive, and looking as if she were in
spirit a thousand miles away, now started up with sharp suddenness, and
favored his highness with one of her fieriest fiery glances.

"Will your highness just permit somebody else to have a voice in that
matter? How many more trials are to come on tonight?"

"Only one," replied the duke, glancing over a little roll which he held;
"Lady Castlemaine's, for poisoning the Duchess of Sutherland."

"And what is my Lady Castlemaine's fate to be?"

"The same as our friend's here, in all probability," nodding easily, not
to say playfully, at Sir Norman.

"And how long will her trial last?"

"Half an hour, or thereabouts. There are some secrets in the matter that
have to be investigated, and which will require some time."

"Then let all the trials be over first, and all the beheadings take
place together. We don't choose to take the trouble of traveling to the
Black Chamber just to see his head chopped off, and then have the same
journey to undergo half an hour after, for a similar purpose. Call Lady
Castlemaine, and let this prisoner be taken to one of the dungeons, and
there remain until the time for execution. Guards, do you hear? Take him
away!"

The dwarf's face grew black as a thunder-cloud, and he jumped to his
feet and confronted the queen with a look so intensely ugly that no
other earthly face could have assumed it. But that lady merely met it
with one of cold disdain and aversion, and, keeping her dark bright eyes
fixed chillingly upon him, waved her white hand, in her imperious way,
to the guards. Those warlike gentlemen knew better than to disobey her
most gracious majesty when she happened to be, like Mrs. Joe Gargary, on
the "rampage," which, if her flashing eye and a certain expression about
her handsome mouth spoke the truth, must have been twenty hours out of
the twenty-four. As the soldiers approached to lead him away, Sir Norman
tried to catch her eye; but in vain, for she kept those brilliant optics
most unwinkingly fixed on the dwarf's face.

"Call Lady Castlemaine," commanded the duke, as Sir Norman with his
guards passed through the doorway leading to the Black Chamber. "Your
highness, I presume, is ready to a