"Her name, Theodora?"
"Thou art indeed instructed in this affair—how cam'st thou by the knowledge?"—and he cast a terrible look on the trembling Roque.
"Señor," cried Roque, "as I hope for salvation, I——"
"Silence, Sirrah!" exclaimed his master.
"Nay," observed the renegade, "blame not yon trembler; it is true that I applied to him before I resolved upon offering you my services personally; but from fear, or some other reason, he paid no regard to my proposal. I therefore waved all further ceremony, and knowing the crisis to be at hand, I have seized this opportunity to address you."
"And what proposition hast thou to make?" demanded Don Lope.
"To remove from your path this obstacle to your ambition; to rid you immediately of Theodora."
"Fiend!" fiercely cried Gomez Arias, "thou darest not propose murder to me?"
"No, Christian," calmly returned Bermudo "dark as my form may be, and unseemly as my features are, yet I would scorn to imbrue my hands in the blood of a woman: no, though a ruffian, I am not yet sunk to the despicable wretch you suppose me. Theodora shall not suffer any indignity from me, but merely be removed from Granada."
"And what security wouldst thou afford of thy adherence to this promise, should I be inclined to enter into arrangements?"