“No, no!” pleaded the girl. “Any one but Carl.”
“I should please you if I sent for Bainbridge, only that worthy is dead.”
“Was it true,” said Katrine, turning her tearful eyes upon him. “Is he indeed dead? Tell me when and by whose hand. I heard you say that he was dead. Until then, I thought it was _his_ voice.”
“He died by his own hand,” was the pitiless reply. “Boston Bainbridge is no more. The man whose voice you heard was Lieutenant Robert Holmes. Leave the room.”
Katrine obeyed, passing into the next apartment and closing the door. She took the precaution to bolt the door upon the inside, so that Carl, who had uttered fearful threats since she had been a prisoner, could not enter. He came soon and rattled at the door, but she would not let him in.
In the next room Joseph and Theresa stood face to face. There was a settled gloom upon the face of the man. His fate was following him so close that it appalled him. He begun to doubt if, after all, he should succeed in his undertaking. Ho grew desperate, as he looked at the girl, who was wonderfully calm in his presence.
“I come to speak for your good, Theresa. I have told you many times that love for you had taken a deep root in my heart. Do what you can, be cold or disdainful, the feeling is the same. You have made me a desperate man. I have you utterly in my power, you and Katrine. One thing only will open yonder doors, and set you free.”
“Is to take a solemn oath upon this holy sign” (making the cross on his breast) “that you will never marry another while I live, and that you will be my wife when I ask it.”
“If you had studied all your life to devise a cruel sentence, your study could not have brought to life a more wicked one than this. No, Joseph Van Zandt, you have had my answer. I have nerved myself to meet death, if it must be, sooner than be your wife.”
“You must swear it upon the cross,” he rejoined, “lest a worse fate come to you. Reflect, and tell me if there is not at least one thing worse than death. Reflect, too, that this fate shall be yours, and that of the sniveling fool in the next room, if you refuse. The threat of what I would do has driven your brave friend away from the house. I have sworn to do it, and I will keep my word.”