r the captain was
about to stand on his guard. 'If I had chosen, you would have drawn
your last breath long before this. Do you suppose I did not hear you
outside when you were opening the iron gate, and had I wished for your
blood I had but to shed it then and there. I own I was very near doing
so. But I was not able. _She_ would not suffer it,' and he hurriedly
pointed to the picture. 'If you have still the heart to love your life
you may thank _her_ for it.'

"'Domenico,' said the captain, 'let there be an end to this. You are in
my house, and I cannot tolerate your playing the master here, and
acting as if I was at your mercy. I will have no gift from him who
plotted to deprive me of the dearest thing I had on earth. You had no
right to the girl, none--that she herself assured me. And as
nevertheless you murdered her, and are now seeking after my life, why
you are nothing better than a wild beast, and whoever renders you
harmless does a good work. It is pure mercy on my part not to avail
myself of my advantage, and shoot you down before you can lift your gun
from the floor. But I feel sorry for you. I can understand how one
might lose one's reason for that girl's sake, and not recover it after
her death. Therefore I offer you honourable terms. Take up your gun.
When I have counted three--one or both of us will have ceased to live.'

"Domenico never stirred. 'Do as you will,' he said, 'I shall not fire.
If I were to kill you, what better should I be? I am a miserable man. I
have murdered the fairest woman in the world, like a wild beast that I
was; you do well to call me one. I thought I should be happier if I got
you too out of the world. I was a fool. If you were to meet her again
up yonder, rage and jealousy at not being able to part you any more,
would devour my heart till I went down to hell damned beyond
redemption. No, make an end of me as you said. See, I stand quite
still. This gun,' he pushed it away from him with his foot, 'I will not
touch. Fire, captain, and with my last breath I will forgive you. For
by God's holy blood the life I have led was purgatory, and now it would
be hell itself since I have seen _her_ again, and _you_ whom she
loved.' While so speaking, his strength seemed to fail him, he fell on
his knees before the picture, and hid his face in his hands, his whole
body, as it were, convulsed.

"At last the conflict ended. He sobbed aloud, wailed and writhed like
one mortally wounded, then t