"So I would fain die!" "And I!" Count Hannibal returned, showing his teeth in a grim smile.

"I too! Yet I will not! I will not! Because so to die were to die unwillingly, and give them triumph.

Be dragged to death?
No, old dog, if die we must, we will go to death! We will die grandly, highly, as becomes Tavannes! That when we are gone they may say, 'There died a man!'" "_She_ may say!" Bigot muttered, scowling.
Count Hannibal heard and glared at him, but presently thought better of it, and after a pause-- "Ay, she too!" he said.

"Why not?
As we have played the game--for her--so, though we lose, we will play it to the end; nor because we lose throw down the cards! Besides, man, die in the corner, die biting, and he dies too!" "And why not ?" Bigot asked, rising in a fury.

"Why not?
Whose work is it we lie here, snared by these clowns of fisherfolk?
Who led us wrong and betrayed us?
He die?
Would the devil had taken him a year ago! Would he were within my reach now! I would kill him with my bare fingers! He die?
And why not ?" "Why, because, fool, his death would not save me!" Count Hannibal answered coolly.