“Ask, indeed! I command you to do it! Down on your knees, and swear that you will forever hold your tongue on this subject.”
“No, no, no! I can’t swear that, at all, at all. Maybe I’ll have to tell some time, to save me own life.”
“Swear!”
“No—oh, no!”
“Idiot! do you refuse?”
“Yis, Jamie, I’ll have to refuse.”
“Then, by the gods, you shall die! Do you hear? you shall die! Look at this knife! It shall cut your infernal heart out, unless you immediately swear secrecy—”
“Oh, don’t—don’t! In the name iv the Howly Vargin, ye wouldn’t be afther murtherin’ iv me? Don’t, dear cousin; pl’ase don’t!”
“Then you will swear?”