From the first, since you force me to say it, I had no liking for
him. Afterwards, when I knew his errand, I hated him for your sake:
I hated him so that in my rage I strained all duty towards a hostage
that I might insult him. Marc'antonio will bear me witness."
"The Princess is speaking the truth before God," said Marc'antonio,
gravely. "She made the man a keeper of swine yonder." He waved a
hand toward the sty. "And he is, as I understand, a cavalier in his
own country."
"I did more than that," the Princess went on. "Having strained the
compact, I tempted him to break it--to shoot me or to shoot
Marc'antonio, so that one or other of us might be free to kill him."
She paused, again with her eyes on Marc'antonio, who nodded.
"And that also is the truth," he said. "She put a gun into his
hands, that he might kill me for having killed his friend.
I did not understand at the time."
"A pretty coward!" The young man flung this taunt out at me
viciously; but I had enough to do to hold myself steady, there by the
grave's edge, and did not heed him.
"I do not think he is a coward," said she.
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