Declared himself “floored.”
Wept by turns and entreated, then ranted and roared;
She still was disdainful,
And said “it was painful
To witness the friend of her brother so lowered.”
Till, maddened with fury, he seized her, and said—
“Be mine, or thou’rt numbered this night with the dead.
No maiden has yet refused Rupert the Red!”
That instant there rang through the castle a shriek—
Compared with which e’en Madame Celeste’s are weak—