and Raymond
had sprung forward, for there was a flash of keen steel, and the madman
had flung himself upon Gaston with inconceivable rapidity of motion.

For a moment there was a hideous scuffle. Blood was flowing, they knew
not whose. Gaston acted solely on the defensive. He would not raise his
hand against one who was old and lunatic, and near in blood to her whom
he held dear; but he wrestled valiantly in the iron grip of arms
stronger than his own, and he felt that some struggle was going on above
him, though for the moment his own breath seemed suspended, and his very
life pressed out of him.

Then came a sudden sense of release. His enemy had relaxed his bear-like
clasp. Gaston sprang to his feet to see his enemy falling backwards in a
helpless collapse, the hilt of a dagger clasped between his knotted
hands -- the sharp blade buried in his own heart.

"He has killed himself!" cried Constanza, with eyes dilated with horror,
as she sprang to Gaston's side. It had all been so quick that it was
hard to tell what had befallen in those few seconds of life-and-death
struggle. Gaston was bleeding from a slight flesh wound in the arm, but
that was the only hurt he had received; whilst his foe --

"He strove to plunge the dagger in thy breast, Gaston," said Raymond,
who was supporting the head of the dying man; "and failing that, he
thought to smother thee in his bear-like clasp, that has crushed the
life out of enemies before now, as we have ofttimes heard. When he felt
other foes around him unloosing that clasp, and knew himself balked of
his purpose, he clutched the weapon thou hadst dashed from his hand and
buried it in his own body. As he has lived, so has he died -- defiant to
the very end. But the madness-cloud may have hung long upon his spirit.
Perchance some of the worst of his crimes may not be laid to his charge."

As Raymond spoke, the dying man opened his eyes, and fixed them upon the
face bending over him. The light of sullen defiance which had shone
there but a few short moments ago changed to something strange and new
as he met the calm, compassionate glance of those expressive eyes now
fixed upon him. He seemed to give a slight start, and to strive to draw
himself away.

"Thou here!" he gasped -- "thou! Hast thou indeed come from the spirit
world to mock me in my last moments? I know thee now, Raymond de Brocas!
I have seen thee before -- thou knowest how and where. Methinks the very
angels of heav