But I must and
will hear the truth from her own mouth; without this satisfaction I will
not leave this spot. Murder me by numbers you possibly may; but I am
an armed man--I am a desperate man, and I will nto die without ample
vengeance. This is my resolution, take it as you may. I WILL hear her
determination from her own mouth; from her own mouth, alone, and without
witnesses, will I hear it. Now, choose," he said, drawing his sword with
the right hand, and, with the left, by the same motion taking a pistol
from his belt and cocking it, but turning the point of one weapon and
the muzzle of the other to the ground--"choose if you will have this
hall floated with blood, or if you will grant me the decisive interview
with my affianced bride which the laws of God and the country alike
entitle me to demand."
All recoiled at the sound of his voice and the determined action by
which it was accompanied; for the ecstasy of real desperation seldom
fails to overpower the less energetic passions by which it may be
opposed. The clergyman was the first to speak.
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