Both sentences were spoken in Spanish. Suddenly, like an inspiration, I remembered the portrait of the young cavalier which bore, it was said, a striking resemblance to me, and whose costume I had copied for the fancy dress ball. It had belonged to my mother’s family, and there was a vague tradition that the young fellow had accompanied Don Juan D’Aguila on a Spanish expedition to Ireland in the time of Queen Elizabeth, and had fallen in that country. It was he, then, whom I had mistaken for myself.
And now he was bending over the white hand, and he kissed it again and again. I had recovered from my first shock, and so lifelike was it all that I became embarrassed when the wondrous eyes of the beautiful woman for a second rested on mine. I rose from the chair, feeling like an intruder, but before I could move a step, swift as light a sword-blade descended on the youth’s neck. The severed head fell with a thud upon the floor. An ear-piercing scream, which has never since left my memory followed. Once more the lightning’s radiance blinded me, and, after a deep-mouthed roar, the rage of the thunderstorm again seemed to spend itself above the house, that trembled as if it had been stricken.
In a half-defiant mood I rushed to the shutters and flung them open. The grey light of the morning had already come, and faint streaks of gold were shining in the east. I turned from the window and looked for the murdered man and the lady of the wondrous eyes—I was the sole occupant of the room!
A loud, swift, ‘Rap! rap! rap!’ at the door, and a cry of “Open, for God’s sake!” brought me to it. I undid the bolt, and O’Driscoll tumbled in pale as a ghost.
“What was it?” he gasped—“that awful scream? It came from here.”
I knew not what to answer, and said aimlessly:—“There is no one here save myself.”
O’Driscoll opened the window, and the cool fragrant air calmed both him and me. “I was dreaming, I suppose,” he said, “but you have not been to bed!” He had not until then perceived that I was fully dressed.
“Oh, I remained up reading,” I replied.
“And did you hear nothing?” he asked.