"Live, to be sure," cried the Baron. "Think you I would die while grapes grow beside the Rhine, or the roe deer bounds upon the mountain? Ask what you will, I will answer."
"Speak without pause or hesitation, then," said the Black Rider. "If he falter but at a word, sweep off his head. Now, mark well! Did the Count of Ehrenstein, some sixteen years ago, send you with your men to seize, near Ulm, a lady and her child?"
"He did," replied the Baron; "but 'tis well nigh seventeen years, I think."
"Did he give you a bond for the payment, in three years, of two thousand ducats for the deed?" asked the voice.
"Ay, did he; and he paid all but two hundred ducats," answered the Baron; "that, he would not pay till I proved that I had done all that he required."
"What more did he require than their mere seizure?" inquired the voice.
The Baron hesitated, and the Black Rider instantly exclaimed, "Strike him on the neck!" The swordsman raised his weapon; but the Baron exclaimed, "Stay, in Heaven's name! I did but think of all the matters. They are long gone."
"What more did he require?" thundered the voice.
"That I should plunge them in the Danube, as if by accident, and let them perish there," replied the Baron.
There was a pause of more than a minute, during which every one remained profoundly silent, and then the Black Rider demanded, "And did you do this deed?"