"No, no! I kiss you so that you may not have the heart to kill me!'
"Soon she got weak, and her arms had no power in them, and I lifted her high in the air, and flung her far from me into the river.
"I waited a minute or two, and thought she was dead, but then I heard a bubbling and a scratching, and, looking down, saw that by a miracle she had got back to the river's brink, and that there was yet life in her. I pulled her out, and she clung to me in a weak way, and whispered, nearly choked the while, that the Virgin Mary would not let me kill her.
"Will you take the oath?' I asked, and she shook her head from side to side.
"'No! no! no!'
"I took my handkerchief, and tied it tight round her neck, and she smiled in my face. Then I lifted her up, and threw her into the river again.
"I saw her no more that night!"
* * * * * *
The Advocate removed his eyes, with a shudder, from the eyes of the wretch who had made this horrible confession, and who now sank to the ground, quivering in every limb, crying:
"Save me, master, save me!"