, even from the
boards of the scaffold, through the herd of these misguided maniacs.
"Remember," I said, "who I am; and be well assured that I shall not die
unavenged. Your legal magistrate, the Lord Protector, knew of my design,
and is aware that I am here; the cry of blood will reach him, and you and
your miserable victims will long lament the tragedy you are about to act."

My antagonist did not deign to reply, even by a look;--"You know your
duty," he said to his comrades,--"obey."

In a moment I was thrown on the earth, bound, blindfolded, and hurried away
--liberty of limb and sight was only restored to me, when, surrounded by
dungeon-walls, dark and impervious, I found myself a prisoner and alone.

Such was the result of my attempt to gain over the proselyte of this man of
crime; I could not conceive that he would dare put me to death.--Yet I
was in his hands; the path of his ambition had ever been dark and cruel;
his power was founded upon fear; the one word which might cause me to die,
unheard, unseen, in the obscurity of my dungeon, might be easier to speak
than the deed of mercy to act. He would not risk probably a public
execution; but a private assassination would at once terrify any of my
companions from attempting a like feat, at the same time that a cautious
line of conduct might enable him to avoid the enquiries and the vengeance
of Adrian.

Two months ago, in a vault more obscure than the one I now inhabited, I had
revolved the design of quietly laying me down to die; now I shuddered at
the approach of fate. My imagination was busied in shaping forth the kind
of death he would inflict. Would he allow me to wear out life with famine;
or was the food administered to me to be medicined with death? Would he
steal on me in my sleep; or should I contend to the last with my murderers,
knowing, even while I struggled, that I must be overcome? I lived upon an
earth whose diminished population a child's arithmetic might number; I had
lived through long months with death stalking close at my side, while at
intervals the shadow of his skeleton-shape darkened my path. I had believed
that I despised the grim phantom, and laughed his power to scorn.

Any other fate I should have met with courage, nay, have gone out gallantly
to encounter. But to be murdered thus at the midnight hour by cold-blooded
assassins, no friendly hand to close my eyes, or receive my parting
blessing--to die in combat, hate and execration--