I asked.

"Certainly," he replied; "what other purpose do you suppose I could have
in visiting you here in the dead of night? Perhaps you thought I had
come to set you free and help you to rejoin your accursed countrymen?
No! I hate you all--you Englishmen--and _you_ especially; and I could
not deny myself the pleasure of looking in upon you to see how you face
the approach of a disgraceful death. I am rejoiced to see how pale and
haggard you look. It has told upon you, as it must necessarily tell
upon all cowards. Let me note carefully how you look, now; so that I
may compare it with your appearance a few hours hence, when you face the
muskets of your executioners. Pah! why you are quailing already, you
white-livered poltroon; what will it be in the morning?"

I had resolved the moment I perceived the villain's object, that nothing
he might say or do should wring any outward manifestation from me. But
as he went on, the apathy which had before possessed me gave way under
the influence of his taunts; my indignation was gradually aroused until
my blood boiled; and now, rising suddenly, I sprang upon him with the
bound of a tiger, clutching his sinewy neck with both hands and pressing
my thumbs with all my strength into his throat.

The ruffian was so completely taken by surprise by the suddenness and
violence of this unexpected attack that he went down unresistingly
before me, the back of his head striking violently upon the hard stone
bench upon which he had been seated.

I was now fully roused; I felt possessed of the strength and fury of a
demon; and, still retaining my vice-like grasp upon his throat, I raised
his head again and again and again, only to dash it with intensified
violence against the stones each time. The miserable wretch grasped at
the knife in his belt and drew it out; but before he had time to use it
I had dashed his head yet once more against the stones, with such
superhuman strength and violence that a dull crushing sound accompanied
the blow, the man uttered a deep groan, and the knife fell clinking on
the floor from his nerveless hand. Relaxing my grasp upon his throat, I
raised the lamp and allowed its rays to fall upon my victim's face. It
was of a livid purple hue. The tongue, hanging out of the mouth, was
bitten nearly through; his whiskers were wet with blood, which oozed in
two thin streams from his throat where I had grasped it; and a slowly
widening pool of blood was stead