Rage followed close upon the heels of my stupor--a horrible suspicion flashed through my mind. I bolted from the inside the room in which I was; with a violent thrust of my shoulder--rage multiplied my strength a hundredfold--I broke down one of the boards of the partition, and suddenly I stood before the eyes of the startled Bohemian. With one hand I seized her and threw her upon her knees, with the other I took one of the two heavy iron lamps, and raising it over the woman's head I cried: "I shall shatter your skull if you do not immediately confess your crimes!" Kidda believed she read the decree of her death in my face. She grew livid and murmured: "Kill me not! I shall speak!" "You are Kidda, the Bohemian girl?" "Yes--I am Kidda." "You were formerly at Mayence--and, as the price of your favors, you exacted of Victorin that he dishonor my wife Ellen?" "Yes--that is so!" "You were acting under orders of Tetrik?" "No, I never spoke to him." "Whose orders were you, then, following?" "Of Tetrik's equerry." "The man is cautious," I thought to myself. "And the soldier who on that fateful night announced to me that a heinous crime was being perpetrated in my house--do you know who he was?" "It was Captain Marion's companion in arms, he was a former blacksmith, like Marion." "Did Tetrik also know that soldier?" "No, it was Tetrik's equerry who had secret conferences with him at Mayence." "And where is that soldier now?" "He died." "After Tetrik employed him to assassinate Captain Marion?" The girl looked puzzled. "Did Tetrik cause him to be put to death? Answer!" "I think so!" "And it is that same equerry who sent you to this house under the guise of Mora, the Mauritanian? Was it in order to disguise yourself that you painted your face?" "Yes--that is all so." "You were to spy upon your mistress, were you not?--and then poison her? Speak! If you believe in a God--if your infernal soul dares at this supreme moment to implore his help--you have but a minute to live--Speak!" "Have pity upon me!" "Confess your crime--you committed it under orders of Tetrik? Speak!" "Yes, I was ordered by Tetrik." "When--how did he give you the order to execute that crime?" "When I entered the room the second time--after I was sent to bring Captain Paul, who was to arrest Tetrik." "And the poison--you poured it into the drink that you were to present to your mistress?" "Yes--it happened that way." "And on that same day," I added, my recollections now thronging to my mind, "when I sent you to my wife, you purloined a parchment that lay on my table and that I had written upon?" "Yes, Tetrik ordered me to--he heard Victoria refer to the parchment." "Why, after the crime was committed, did you stay in this house down to to-day?" "So as to awaken no suspicions." "What induced you to poison your mistress?" "The gift of these jewels that I was entertaining myself with putting on when you broke in upon me. I thought I was alone!"