"Dog, still!" replied Hayward, his eyes flashing with indignation.
"Hayward, I will save you, if possible," said Alibamo. "Branch, you say you love me. Release Captain Hayward, and I will become your wife."
"Alibamo!" shrieked Hayward, "unsay those words or I will give you my dying curse! Would you kill your brother? He loves you as dearly as I love my sister. If I thought, Alibamo, that you would marry that vile wretch, with these chains I would dash your brains out!"
"Drag him upon the scaffold!" shouted Branch.
"Farewell, Mamie—farewell!"
Hayward clasped his sister, but was torn from her, and dragged upon the scaffold, where his chains were removed.
"She has fainted—thank God!" said Hayward, as they placed the fatal noose about his neck.
"The Body-guard! The Body-guard!"
"What shouts are those?" yelled Branch.
At that moment a horseman dashed up, and cried: