softly, softly downward: it was a man with a helmet and
one unarmed; she could not distinguish their features. They began to
talk, in whispers, it is true, but the listener understood many words,
and she now recognized the speakers by their voices.

"But I tell you, it must be this very day! He has ordered the scribe to
come early tomorrow morning, with the seal. He means to change his
will--to add a codicil. What good will his death do me, if he first
throws the best part of his riches into that wench's lap?"

The other made some reply which the girl did not hear.

"Ha!--she--she can't be reached!" answered the first speaker. "That
red-haired witch is under the protection of the fiends of hell."

"How so?"

"Why, one night lately--a deadly terror has seized me ever since when I
see the brown beast--the monster's hot, loathsome breath was steaming
from her open jaws into my face! She was within a hair's breadth of
clutching and squeezing me to death! This very evening--just now--at
supper--"

"Hark, what was that," asked the other startled, "up above in the
pine-tree? Didn't you hear anything?"

"Pshaw! The night-breeze in the branches!"

"No, no! It was--"

"Well, it was that bird! There it flies!"

The startled blackbird, loudly uttering its cry of fear and warning,
flew upward; the listener, in her horror, had pressed her hand upon her
throbbing heart and, by the slight movement, frightened the bird
perched so near her.

"Well then, by Tartarus, I will risk it! He complained again to-day,
before many witnesses, of fever and all sorts of pains. Have you
hemlock enough? Shall I give you my vial? I brought it with me. Here, I
always carry it in my breast."

"Enough for six uncles!"

"But the stuff must have a suspicious taste: sharp, bitter. Suppose he
should notice it too soon?"

"That's why I mixed the other half with honey. But take good care of
your store. Perhaps Prosper, in case he has any suspicion, must also--"

"Or the Barbarian girl, if the will has already--"

"Let us go," the other interrupted.

"Put it in the Emperor's goblet! He drinks from no other.--Quick: I go
to the left."

"And I go to the right."

The voices died away, and the footsteps echoed from two directions.

Horrified, almost paralyzed with terror, Bissula slipped down from the
tree. On reaching the ground she staggered, clinging to the trunk for
support, and for a moment wondered whether she had not fallen asleep
an