“Ah, forgive me,” she murmured, taking his hand and drooping her head; “my wrongs are great, my desire for vengeance uncontrollable. But to you, my lord, my master, I would be gentle as the dove. Could I but see this villain writhing in the throes of death, I should watch him with joy in my heart, and when he was dead, I should feel that my mission was ended, and henceforth it was poor Haidee’s duty to be only your loving slave.” “Not slave, Haidee, but sister; though you should remember that you are a woman, and this terrible feeling which you are nursing is not good--it is unwomanly. Leave this wretch to the retribution that is sure, sooner or later, to overtake him.” She let his hand fall, and recoiled with a cry of mingled pain and rage, and was the fury again. “Would you play me false, now that I have saved you? Is it not out of my very womanhood that my desire for vengeance comes? Does not the mad cry of my father still ring in my ears? Does not the blood of my murdered sister, and brother, and lover, cry aloud for vengeance? Let my heart turn to steel, let my own blood become a burning poison that shall gall and canker me night and day if I allow my slaughtered kin to go unavenged. You have promised to right my wrongs--you dare not break that promise. Your life is mine, since I gave it back to you. I snatch you from the jaws of death--have I not a right to demand something in return? Remember that in my veins runs the hot blood of an Eastern woman; my country people are not as yours are. We can melt with love, or rise to a passion of wrath which you English people know nothing of.” Her stern energy startled Harper. It was like the sudden bursting of a thunder-cloud, where, a moment before, all was serenity. Yet even in her passion she looked beautiful, if dangerous; and her nature, strange as it was, aroused in the young officer a feeling of enthusiastic admiration. “You mistake me, Haidee,” he said, softly. “I acknowledge freely that to you I owe my escape from a cruel end, and therefore you have a right to demand any service from me that is not absolutely dishonourable; and such service I will freely render. You said, a little while ago, when you first entered my prison, that you were a woman. I may answer you now in similar language, and say I am a man. And in my heart lives all that feeling which it would be impossible not to feel for a lovely and much-wronged lady.” His words touched the springs of her nature, and her long lashes dripped with tears. In an instant she was on her knees at his feet, and her soft and burning cheek was laid against his hand. “Oh, forgive me, if I have hurt you; but Haidee’s sorrows are great. I know now that your heart is true, and your hand strong to strike in cause of sullied honour. You thrill me with your words, and my pulse throbs for you alone.” They were suddenly startled by the cry of a multitude, and the sullen boom of the guns. Harper rushed to the window, and exclaimed--