tempts him to dare the vengeance of a Monarch, as well as of a husband."
"True, there is danger—perhaps to both of us," she replied, "but it daunts us not."
"No;—but it is at hand."
"What mean you, Glinski?"
"We are betrayed."
"How?—by whom?"
"How, or by whom, it matters little; but that subtle demon, Count Laski, knows that which in his hands is a warrant for our destruction."
"What is to be done? We will bribe him. All my jewels, all my hoards shall go to purchase his silence."
"Bribe Laski! bribe the north wind! bribe destiny itself, whose nature it is to distribute good and ill, but to feel neither. No, but I would have a dagger in his throat before the night were passed, but that his short light slumbers are guarded by a slave of singular power, whom the villains fear to attack. I had meant to beg or buy of him this same fierce automaton, but something broke off the treaty."
"We will poison the mind of the king against him: he shall be dismissed from all his offices."