"It is Mercado," he quietly remarked. "Observe him well!"
"The bearer of the lantern is followed by two more men; they are followed by the fourth; and he—my God! the fourth bears a block and an axe!"
"The fourth does bear a block and an axe," chimed in Borgia. "Again observe!"
"He sets the block down; he speaks to Mercado, who has arisen; Mercado kneels, and seems resigning himself to his fate; now he rises, and now—O, heavens! he lays his neck upon the block!"
"He does, he does, dear Lucretia!" hissed Borgia, in the ears of the fair girl. "And now listen to what I have to say. You behold this bell-cord, at my right hand. It connects with a bell in the vicinity of your lover's dungeon. If I ring it three times, the executioner will immediately behead him; for such is the signal agreed upon, and thus is a third of it given!"
As he spoke, he jerked the bell-cord.
"Father—Pope—Alexander Borgia! What do you intend to do? Would you murder my lover in cold blood?" and again she looked through the glass socket. "Ha! the executioner has seized his bloody axe, at the sound of the bell, and approaches Mercado! O, fiend, devil! prevent this hellish work from going on, or I will strike you dead at my feet!"
Borgia laughed.
"Think you that I should not have time to ring the bell twice more before I die?" he asked, with an undisguised sneer. "You do not seem to realize the power of the man you are trifling with."
"I do—I do!"
