ested, and Ellen
replied:

"I do not know, so much would depend on circumstances; but that I would
abhor the actors in the scene of barbarous cruelty, I can well imagine."

This was not the kind of a reply expected, and Durant changed his discourse
from an insinuating tone to a direct manner.

"I perceive it will be necessary for me to render my meaning more explicit,
and I now change the form of my query, and beg to know how you would
probably feel, were you compelled to witness the burning of your lover at
the stake?"

A momentary paleness blanched the cheek of the fair girl, as this heartless
interrogation was fully comprehended, but recovering herself quickly from
the rude shock, she replied:

"I doubt not the sight would be a harrowing one, but I do not anticipate
such an unlikely event."

"Pardon me, but I may as well tell you at first, that this fate is in store
for you."

"Why do you persist in this attempt at refinement of cruelty? Bad as you
are, I give you credit for too much humanity to believe your words are more
than an idle threat, which you have no intention of putting into
execution."

"Then you have given me credit for more humanity than is justly my due; for
I never was more earnest in my life, and it is my fixed determination to do
exactly what I have intimated."

Ellen, who had all the time been really alarmed, now gave way, in her
reduced strength of body, to the feelings which, until now, she had kept in
subjection; and, changing her tone, commenced pleading with the miscreant:

"Mr. Hamilton has never harmed you, and can, therefore, only be hated by
you through me; do not, then, make him the object of your wrath, but let it
fall on me. I will readily burn at the stake to save him."

This last remark, as it showed the depths and tenderness of her love for
his rival, only excited him the more, and he repeated his intention of
burning Hamilton at the stake in her presence, with many additions,
purposely introduced to make a more horrifying impression. In vain she
pleaded for her lover, and offered herself as the sacrifice; the only
effect of her prayers was to render him more savage and determined in his
intentions and avowals. The excitement of the interview, however, in her
case, superinduced a state of fever, which bid fair, for a few days, to
render her recovery very doubtful. This result was not expected by Durant,
and he in turn became alarmed, lest his dearly bought vengeance sho