"Do you not know that my word is law,—my anger, death! Have you never reflected that the terrible Black Mask, whose career of blood cannot be spoken of without a shudder, seconds my designs, and seems as intimately connected with me as if he were my shadow? Have you never paused to think that there are hosts and hosts all around us who have no desire or duty but to execute my wishes? As you have doubtless discovered, I execute many of my plans in a mystical manner, for the gratification of astonishing the every-day fools around us; but you know that I am not the less deadly when I have a deadly purpose to fulfil"
"But, Mercado! Speak of him. Even now the executioner may be suspending the fatal axe over his head!"
"Do not be alarmed; your lover will not be beheaded until I have rung the bell twice more,—twice more, my dear Lucretia!"
"Demon! what would you do?"
"Spare your epithets, and listen. Time flies; this business must: be settled. Now mark me, and mark well. There is only one way to save the life of Mercado: your promise to be mine is the only medium of his salvation! I love you, have loved you for years, and have sworn to make you mine. You have scorned me; you have dared to cross my wishes; but let that pass. You now understand that I have a way to gain my wishes. Decide, and at once! Swear, by your mother's soul, to be mine, or in less than sixty seconds your lover will have ceased to exist!"
"O, God! what an alternative!" cried Donna Lucretia, as pale as death, and trembling in every limb. She
