"'Mercy! What mercy would you have shown me were I in your place? However, if mercy you really crave, buy your miserable, worthless life by answering what I ask of you,' I shouted, withdrawing my foot and letting him rise. 'Now, say that you lied when you conspired against Kios, and worked his disgrace and banishment to Pamax.'
"'What know ye of Kios?'
"'Speak the words that clear his name, or die,' I thundered.
"'Then, in this, I admit that I swore falsely, and conspired to ruin an—innocent—man.'
"'Further; you know full well the rest.'
"'And that I did this thing to save myself from his just wrath, having ruined his only child,' he continued, amidst a growing storm of indignation.
"'Now will we speak of Volinè; she whom you have so foully wronged and slandered. Say that you lied in the Hall of Judgment, and to the King. Say that Volinè's honour is as untarnished as the mountain snow.'
"'Never!' he hissed. 'Thou hast humbled me enough. Curse thee!'
"'I am not here to parley. Say this. By the great God, you shall say it on your bended knees, or my sword shall sheath itself in your heart,' I shouted, waxing wroth as I thought of my darling's undeserved disgrace from the mouth of this scoundrel.
"'My words were lies,' he hissed rather than spoke, as he sank upon, his knees, forced thereto at the point of my naked sword; and a look of malignant hatred stole over his face, as he glared at me with his bloodshot, glittering eyes in impotent rage, like some wild-beast helpless in the hunter's toils.