Victoria entered the house amidst the religious silence of the soldiers who stood grouped without. Captain Marion and Tetrik followed her in. She motioned to them to remain outside of the death room, where she wished to be left alone with me and Sampso. At the sight of my wife, lying dead upon the floor, I fell upon my knees sobbing beside her. I raised her beautiful head, now pale and cold; closed her eyes; and taking the beloved body in my arms I laid it on my bed. Again I knelt down, and with my head resting upon the pillow on which hers reclined, I could no longer restrain my grief. I sobbed and moaned. I remained there long weeping and disconsolate; I could hear the suppressed sobs of Victoria. Finally her voice recalled me to myself; I thought of what she must be suffering; I looked around. She was seated on the floor near the corpse of Victorin, whose head rested on her maternal knees. "Schanvoch," said my foster-sister as she gently brushed back with her hands the hair that fell over Victorin's forehead, "my son is no more; I may weep over him, despite his crime. Here he lies dead--dead--dead and not yet twenty-three years old!" "Dead--and killed by me--who loved him as my son!" "Brother, you avenged your honor--you have my pardon and pity--" "Alas! I struck Victorin in the dark--I struck him in a fit of blind rage--I struck him without knowing that it was he! Hesus is my witness! Had I recognized your son, Oh, sister! I would have cursed him, but my sword would have dropped at my feet--" Victoria gazed at me in silence. My words seemed to lift a heavy weight from her heart. She looked relieved at learning that I had killed her son without knowing him. She reached out her hand to me feelingly, and I carried it respectfully to my lips. For several minutes we remained silent. She then said to Ellen's sister: "Sampso, were you here this fatal night? Speak, I pray you. What happened?" "It was midnight," Sampso answered in a voice broken with sobs. "Schanvoch had left the house two hours before on his journey. I was lying here beside my sister--I heard a rap at the house door--I threw a cloak over my shoulders and went to the door to ask who it was. A woman's voice with a foreign accent answered--" "A woman's voice?" I asked in a tone of surprise shared by Victoria. "Are you sure it was a woman's voice that answered you, Sampso?" "Yes; that was the snare. The voice said to me: 'I come from Victoria with a very important message for Ellen, the wife of Schanvoch, who left on a journey two hours ago.'" At these words of Sampso's, Victoria and I exchanged looks of increasing astonishment. Sampso proceeded: