e cried, his voice trembling with anger; "I
read it in your face. You are as false as sin, but you shall not rob me
of the crown of my life! No one shall rob me of it! Vengeance belongs to
me, and by this symbol of my oath I will have it!"

He snatched a handful of white blossoms from the bowl, and crushed them
in his fingers. Then he threw them upon the ground and trampled upon
them.

"Thus did she betray the sacred bonds of our Order when, for her lover's
sake, she added treachery to cunning, and wrecked my life, made
Leonardo, Count of the Marionis, the lonely inmate of prison walls, the
scorn and pity of all men. Thus did she write her own fate upon a far
future page of the tablets of time. Talk to me not of forgiveness or
mercy, girl! My hate lives in me as the breath of my body, and with my
body alone will it die!"

His withered figure seemed to have gathered strength and dignity, and
his appearance and tone, as he gazed scornfully down at the girl at his
feet, was full of a strange dramatic force. Her heart sank as she
listened to him. This was no idle, vulgar passion, no morbid craving for
evil, which animated him. It was a purpose which had become hallowed to
him; something which he had come to look upon as his sacred right. She
understood how her drawing back must seem to him. As though a flash of
light had laid bare his mind, she saw how weak, how pitifully weak, any
words of hers must sound, so she was silent.

He had commenced walking up and down the room; and, watching him
fearfully, she saw that his manner was gradually changing. The unnatural
calm into which he had momentarily relapsed was leaving him, and he was
becoming every moment more and more excited. Fire flashed in his eyes,
and he was muttering broken words and sentences to himself. Once he
raised his clasped hands to the roof in a threatening gesture, and in
the act of doing so she saw the blue flash of a stiletto in his breast
pocket. It frightened her, and she moved toward the door.

It seemed almost as though he read her purpose in her terror-stricken
face, and it maddened him. He caught her by the wrist and thrust her
back.

"You shall not leave this room, girl!" he cried. "Wait, and soon I will
bring you news!"

She stood, still panting, overcome for a moment by the strength of his
grip. Before she could recover herself, he had caught up his hat and was
gone. Outside, she heard the sound of a key in the lock. She was a
prisoner!