'T will be
safer."
"You think the larger dose might give me too much strength--ha! What say
you to fifty, or a hundred?"
"It must not be, my lady--it must not be. You will destroy yourself. It
is my duty to prevent you. I must insist upon your giving me back the
phial, unless you will consent to obey my orders."
"But I tell you, man, I will have a hundred drops of the cordial," she
cried pertinaciously.
"And I say you shall not, my lady," he rejoined, unable in his anger to
maintain the semblance of respect he had hitherto preserved, and
endeavouring to obtain forcible possession of the phial.
But she was too quick for him. And as he stretched out his hand for the
purpose, the dagger gleamed before his eyes.
"Back, miscreant!" she cried; "your over-eagerness has betrayed you. I
now fully believe what I have hitherto doubted, that this is a
counter-poison, and that I may safely use it. It is time to unmask you,
and to let you know that your villanies are discovered. I am aware of
the malignant practices you have resorted to, and that my daughter and
myself would have been destroyed by your poisonous preparations. But I
now feel some security in the antidote I have obtained; and if I do
perish I have the satisfaction of knowing that I shall not die
unavenged, but that certain punishment awaits you and your employers."
On this she poured out half the contents of the phial into the glass,
saying as she drank it, "I reserve the other half for Lady Roos.
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