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all except the one belonging to the blue closet, and put them into his hand. He took the keys from her with seeming indifference, and after glancing at them minutely, said, rather sternly, "How is this, Fatima? I do not see the key of the blue closet here! Go and bring it to me instantly."
The poor girl feeling the crisis of her fate approaching, said, "I will go and search for it," and left the apartment in tears. She went straight to her sister's chamber, where they again tried every means, but in vain, to remove the blood from the key. She continued a few moments agitated and irresolute, but the voice of Blue Beard calling for her, left no time for her consideration, and she was forced to return to the apartment where she had left her husband, and reluctantly gave him the fatal key.
On receiving the key, Blue Beard, after examining it, burst into a terrible rage, and said with great harshness,—
"Pray, madam, how came this blood here?"
"I am sure I do not know," replied poor Fatima, trembling and turning pale.
"What! do you not know?" cried Blue Beard, in a voice like thunder, which made poor Fatima start with fear; "but I know well! You have been in the forbidden blue closet! And since you are so fond of prying into secrets, you shall take up your abode with the ladies you saw in that closet. Now, madam, expect no mercy, as nothing can alter your fate. The punishment you shall receive is only the just reward of your disobedience and imprudent curiosity."
Almost expiring with terror, the trembling Fatima sunk upon her knees, and implored him in the most piteous manner to forgive her. While supplicating him to spare her life, she looked so mournfully in his face, that it would have melted
