"Gracious Heavens! what does this mean?" groaned Christopher; but at the instant he felt a tighter pressure of the hand about his throat, and the daggers pricked him in the region of the heart.
"Still!" whispered one of the masks. "A loud word, a cry for help, sends you in the same moment to hell. We are here to sit in judgment on you, though, indeed, in a fairer way than your father used three years since. It has cost no little time, and trouble, and gold--nay, even two journies to Bohemia--to penetrate your tricks and blinds; but at last all has become clearer to us than the day. We had paid you a visit long before this, but that the noble Althea prayed so irresistibly for you, that during her life we could not undertake any thing against you. Now at last she has sunk under the grief for her betrothed: Tausdorf's old father has to weep for his daughter, and the last chain is snapped in which our revenge lay bound. Your father has to answer to the emperor for his notorious crimes; but you have done and concealed your deed with equal cunning, and no earthly court of justice will ever be able to convict you of it. You must, therefore, answer to our _secret tribunal_, of which we are ourselves the chief and the judges, the accuser and the executioner. You have had intercourse with the Netherlandress at the nurseryman's in the park; and this very woman wanted to hound me on to your brother's murder."
"By Heavens! I know nothing of it," whined Christopher.
"Still!" continued the mask. "Failing in that, she has a long conversation with you in private. Upon this you invite Tausdorf to your murderous banquet, and, while you promise Althea that your brother shall not be present, you secretly induce him, through a third hand, to appear: then comes the Netherlandress, masked, to your party. After a conversation with her, the most violent wrath is perceived on the face of Francis. You pour him out another glass of wine, like oil in the flame, upon which he allures into the park Tausdorf, whom he had never seen before, and that event takes place which thousands of honest people lament. Now then answer for yourself, but with a low voice, or we strike you down on the spot."
"How can I answer for all the unlucky events, the chain of which has cost me a beloved brother?" whispered Christopher, in a voice which, from fear of the daggers, was scarcely audible. "What motives could I have to destroy Tausdorf, who had never offended me? Why, too, should I particularly fix on my brother as the instrument of my evil purpose? By the----"