But that was impossible.

He had given himself up as if he were determined to die.

He had been out of his mind, beside himself, stark mad, in his fear that Don John might bring harm upon his daughter.

That was why he had killed him--there could be no other reason, unless he had guessed that she was in the locked room, and had judged her then and at once, and forever.

The thought had not crossed her mind till then, and it was a new torture now, so that she shrank under it as under a bodily blow; and her grasp tightened violently upon her sister's arm, rousing the half-fainting girl again to the full consciousness of pain.
It was no wonder that Mendoza should have done such a deed, since he had believed her ruined and lost to honour beyond salvation.