e widow.

"No, my beautiful lady, no," said Croustillac, "I was thinking that it
must be very pleasant to die thus of laughter!"

"Faith, you are right, brother, one had better die so than as the last
husband died." And the buccaneer shuddered with horror.

"It appears that the death of the latter must have been more terrible
than the former," said Croustillac, with affected carelessness.

"As to that story, comrade, I will not tell you that, you would be
afraid."

"I? afraid?" and the Gascon shrugged his shoulders.

Blue Beard leaned over and whispered again to the Gascon, "Let him tell
it, friend; this tale, at least, is worth the trouble. I am going to
trap Rendsoul."

Then, addressing herself to the buccaneer, "Well, go on; speak! Why do
you not speak? Do not pause in the middle of the road. You see the
chevalier is listening with all his ears--go on, speak. I do not wish
him to buy, as they say, a 'a cat in a bag.'"

"You should say a tigress in a bag," replied, laughingly, the buccaneer.
"Ah, well, sir," addressing Croustillac, "Fancy this third husband a
man, handsome, of dark complexion, thirty-six years of age, a Spaniard
by birth. We came across him at Havana."

"Heavens! tell it quickly," said the widow, "the chevalier is impatient
to hear."

"It was not a gray powder that he tasted, this one," replied the
buccaneer, "but a drop, one drop only, of a pretty green liquid
contained in the smallest flask I ever saw in my life, for it was made
of a single hollow ruby."

"That is simple enough," said Angela, "the strength of this liquid was
such that it would dissolve or break any flask which was not made of a
ruby or a diamond."

"You can judge, after that, chevalier," said the hunter, "of the
pleasure which this liquid must have given our third husband. Certainly
I am neither over-tender nor timid, but, after all, it is difficult to
become accustomed to seeing a man who looks at you with green eyes,
luminous, and set so deep in their orbit that they have the effect of a
glowworm in the depths of a subterranean cave."

"The fact is," said Croustillac, who could not prevent a slight shudder,
"the fact is that at first this would appear strange."

"That is not all; listen to the rest," said the widow with an air of
perfect self-satisfaction.

The buccaneer continued: "That was only his usual condition, poor man,
having eyes like a glowworm, but what was most frightful was when madame
gave a suppe