In his haste the poor youth slipped in some grease that had clung to the rushes.
In seeking to recover himself he tripped over the feet of one of the halberdiers that guarded me, and measured his length upon the floor at Ramiro's feet, flooding the Governor's legs with the wine he carried.
How shall I tell you of the horror that was the sequel?
For just one instant Ramiro looked down at the sprawling lad, his eyes glowing like a madman's.

Then suddenly he rose, stooped, and set one hand to the boy's belt, the other to the collar of his jerkin.

Feeling himself lifted, and knowing whose were the dread hands that held him, poor Beppo uttered a single scream of terror.

Then Ramiro swung him round with an ease that displayed the man's prodigious strength.

For just a second he seemed to hesitate how to dispose of the human bundle that he held.