here. We will not, however, say
any more about which of us is the victim; only I must know whether some
hellish arts were not employed in the adventures of last night, and
therefore you must give me an account of these goblets."

"Gracious heavens! I am lost!" exclaimed Bona, without looking at the
goblets, and clasping her hands together. Tausdorf went on:--

"This, with the white sediment at the bottom, stood before Rasselwitz,
who still lies motionless on the seat, bound up in a death-like
slumber. This, with the black dregs, I emptied, and I can now well
explain the ebullition which threw me into your arms. Strumpet! have we
drank poison at your hands?"

The beautiful sinner started up proudly, glanced at the knight with
noble anger, and exclaimed, "Contemptible suspicion!" and snatched at
the goblet with intent to empty it; but Tausdorf put back her hand--

"No! I would not place any soul before the judgment-seat ere the
Creator calls for it."

He took the goblet from the table, and having flung it out of the
window, walked up and down the room in silence; Bona wept.

"You would drink of it?" he continued. "There was then no poison in the
goblet? But what else? For, by heaven, all is not right with this
wine."

Bona hid her face in the pillows of the bed, and was silent.

"A love-draught, perhaps, for the chosen victim of your desires, and an
opiate for the troublesome witness--is it not so?"

Bona started as if a blow had struck her heart, and was still silent.

"In the name of heaven, woman, what made you seek out me in particular?
You are fair enough, unfortunately, to be able to dispense with such
means with thousands of my sex. Why must you fling into my breast the
scorpion--which must poison the peace of my future days?"

"I loved you, as I now abhor you," was hollowly murmured from beneath
the pillows.

"Profane not the sacred word," retorted Tausdorf indignantly; "I
cannot, besides, rest contented with this answer. What you did
yesterday, the way in which you prepared and accomplished it, the
danger to which you exposed yourself if discovered, all this points to
something very different. You had some great, and, as my warning angel
tells me, some terrible, design upon me, and that it is which you must
confess this very hour."

At this Bona started up with wild looks, and her long auburn locks hung
down in disorder, like so many living snakes, about her fair pale face,
and gave it the convul