girl took up his glass and with lips quivering with passion cried
out, "And this glass for love!"

The words recalled Banfy from his bewilderment to the present
surroundings.

"For me there is no love!"

"Your heart has been full of lofty plans. Fate had determined you to
be the ruler of a country and perhaps the hero of half a world,--a man
who should fill a page of history with his name."

"All that is past," said Banfy, "I am nobody and nothing!"

"Ah!" cried Azraele. "Have your enemies triumphed over you?"

"A curse upon their heads! I had sympathy and I fell."

"Is Csaki among them?"

"Yes, he pursues me most bitterly."

"And have all your faithful friends left you?"

"The fallen has no faithful friends."

"You could hire mercenaries and begin the fight. You certainly are
rich enough for that."

"My wealth has gone!"

"You might get help from a foreign country."

"I have fallen, and know what is before me--I must die! Yet my enemies
shall not have the triumph of making my death a festival and of
laughing when I am pale with death. I will die alone!"

"I will show you something!" and with these words she drew aside the
rug, lifted a trap-door and there was a low room, with thick short
columns among which casks were ranged.

"True," said Banfy, "that is the powder I hid there after John
Kemeny's fall."

"See this long fuse," said Azraele, drawing forth a thick woolen cord
connected with the casks; "while all is still here below and above is
the roaring of the storm and your enemies, there shall come an
earth-shaking thunder which shall send the rocks crashing against one
another and carry word to heaven and hell that nobody need seek you
here on earth!"

"Azraele, you are a demon!"

An hour later the hall was dark; no light was visible except a glow as
of a fiery-eyed monster piercing the smoke, and a slowly creeping
snake of fire which ran along the length of the room. Banfy slept for
a long time then suddenly awakened. All was dark about him. His
bewildered brain required some time to recall who he was and why he
was there. He felt a cold breath of wind through the room and
presently he discovered that the door was open and the outer air was
pouring in. Gradually he recalled it all, and taking some coals from
the fire lighted a wax candle. This single light was not sufficient to
let him see through the entire room, but the first thing he saw was
the fuse cut in two. Pierced through with t