“A dagger!” he exclaimed, with a shudder, and a recoil. “Madame, are you talking of murder?”
“I told you!” she said, through her closed teeth, and with her eyes flaming like fire, “that ridding the earth of that fiend incarnate would be a good deed, and no murder! I would do it myself if I could take him off his guard; but he never is that with me; and then my arm is not strong enough to reach his black heart through all that mass of brawn, and blood, and muscle. No, Sir Norman, Doom has allotted it to you—obey, and I swear to you, you shall go free; refuse—and in ten minutes your head will roll under the executioner's axe!”
“Better that than the freedom you offer! Madame, I cannot murder!”
“Coward!” she passionately cried; “you fear to do it, and yet you have but a life to lose, and that is lost to you now!”
Sir Norman raised his head; and even in the darkness she saw the haughty flush that crimsoned his face.
“I fear no man living; but, madame, I fear One who is higher than man!”
“But you will die if you refuse; and I repeat, again and again, there is no risk. These guards will not let you out; but there are more ways of leaving a room than through the door, and I can lead you up behind the tapestry to where he is standing, and you can stab him through the back, and escape with me! Quick, quick, there is no time to lose!”
“I cannot do it!” he said, resolutely, drawing back and folding his arms. “In short, I will not do it!”
There was such a terrible look in the beautiful eyes, that he half expected to see her spring at him like a wild cat, and bury the dagger in his own breast. But the rule of life works by contraries: expect a blow and you will get a kiss, look for an embrace, and you will be startled by a kick. When the virago spoke, her voice was calm, compared with what it had been before, even mild.
“You refuse! Well, a willful man must have him way; and since you are so qualmish about a little bloodletting, we must try another plan. If I release you—for short as the time is, I can do it—will you promise me to go direct to the king this very night, and inform him of all you've seen and heard here?”