ame
to me as a revelation. It seemed to betray a bitter envy of the Count's
mere loveless and unloved right of possession; and it bespoke the
resolve that, if the Captain might not have her smiles, not even her
husband might be content in his rights. Such men will give a woman to
death rather than to any other man. As in a flash, then, I saw his
motive in working upon the Count's insane jealousy. Better the Count
should kill her than that even the Count should possess her. I shuddered
to think how near to murder the Count had been wrought up but a moment
since. At any time his impulse might pass the bounds. I now understood
Mathilde's apprehensions, and saw the need for haste in removing the
Countess far from the power of this madman and his malign instigator.

The Count, exhausted by his rush of feelings, drained his glass, and
almost immediately gave way to the sudden drowsiness which befalls
drinkers at a certain stage. He staggered to his seat, and fell back in
a kind of daze, the Captain watching him with cold patience. Thinking
they would soon be going to bed, I slipped back to my room.

A little after eleven, I went forth again. The hall was now dark, and
its silence betokened desertion. I groped my way to the door. The key
turned more noisily than I should have wished, and there was a bolt to
undo, which grated; but I heard no sound of alarm in the house. I
stepped out to the court-yard, closing the door after me. The court-yard
was bathed in moonlight. Keeping close to the house, so as not to be
visible from any upper window, I gained the shadow of the wall
separating the two court-yards. As noiselessly as a cat, I followed that
wall to its gateway; entered the second court-yard, and saw that the
door to the tower was open, a faint light coming from it. The tower
itself, obstructing the moon's rays, threw its shadow across the
paving-stones. I stepped into that shadow, which was only partial; drew
my sword and dagger, and darted straight for the tower entrance,
stopping just inside the doorway. By the light of a lantern hanging
against the wall, I saw a kind of small vestibule, beyond which was an
inner wall, and at one side of which was the beginning of a narrow
spiral staircase, that ran up between walls until it wound out of sight.
On a bench against the inner wall I have mentioned, sat a man, who rose
at sight of me, with one hand grasping a sword, and with the other a
pike that was leaning against the ben