Few know that you live in this place, except a handful of weak-brained women who will fear to speak--puppets that must dance when I pull the string--and I'll see that no soul shall come near these walls.

Choose, then, between death and all its terrors or life and all its hopes." On the table there stood a wooden bowl filled with roses.

Emlyn drew it to her, and taking the roses into her hands, threw them to the floor.
Then she waited for the water to steady, saying-- "The riddle is hard; perhaps, if in truth I have such power, I shall find its answer here." Presently, as he gazed at her, fascinated, she breathed upon the water and stared into it for a long while.

At length she looked up, and said-- "Death or Life; that was the choice you gave me.

Well, Clement Maldonado, on behalf of myself and the Lady Cicely, and her husband Sir Christopher, and the child that shall be born, and of God who directs all these things, I choose--death." There was a solemn silence.