It does not please me to excuse you." I may have paled a little before the sinister smile with which he accompanied his words, but I stood my ground boldly.
"It is not," said I, "a question of what a vow may be to you and yours, but of what a vow is to me.

It is a thing I cannot break." "Sangue di Cristo!" he snarled, "we will break it for you, then--that or your bones.

Resolve yourself, beast, the motley or the rack--or yet, if you prefer it, there is the cord yonder." And he pointed to the far end of the chamber where some ropes were hanging from a pulley, the implements of the ghastly torture of the cord.

Of such a nature was this monster that he made a torture-chamber of his dining-hall.
"Let the rogue make acquaintance with it," laughed Lampugnani, showing a mouthful of yellow teeth behind the black beard that bushed his lips.
"I'll swear his dancing would afford us more amusement than his quips.
Swing him up, Illustrious." But the Illustrious seemed to ponder the matter.
"You shall have five minutes in which to decide," he informed me presently.

"They say that I am cruel.