"Silence!" cried Polidori, suddenly, and listening. "I just now thought I heard a carriage stop at the door--and I was not mistaken! Now I hear a sound of voices in the courtyard." "You want to deceive me," said Jacques; "but I am not so easily deceived." "But, unhappy man, listen--listen! Don't you hear?" "Let me go! Cecily is up-stairs; she calls me. Do not make me furious! And now I say to you, mind--beware!" "You shall not go out!" "Take care!" "You shall not go out. It is for my interest that you should remain." "You would hinder me from seeking Cecily, and it is my interest that you should die. There--there!" said the notary, in a gloomy tone. Polidori uttered a cry. "Wretch! You have stabbed me in the arm. But your hand was weak--the wound is slight--and you shall not escape me." "Your wound is mortal, for it was given by the poisoned stiletto of Cecily, which I always carried about me. Await the effects of its poison--Ah! You release me! Then now you are about to die! I was not to be hindered from going up above to find Cecily!" added Jacques, endeavouring to grope his way in darkness to the door. "Oh," murmured Polidori, "my arm becomes benumbed--a deathlike coldness seizes on me--my knees tremble under me--my blood freezes in my veins--my head whirls around. Help, help! I die!" And he fainted. The crash of glass doors, opened with so much violence that several panes of glass were broken to atoms, the resounding voice of Rodolph, and the noise of hastily approaching steps, seemed to reply to Polidori's cry of anguish. Jacques Ferrand having at length discovered the lock of the door, opened it suddenly, with his dangerous stiletto in his hand. At the same instant, as menacing and formidable as the genius of vengeance, the prince entered the apartment from the other side. "Monster!" he exclaimed, advancing towards Jacques Ferrand, "it was my daughter whom you have killed! You are going--" The prince could not conclude, but recoiled in amazement. It would seem as if his words had been a thunderbolt to Ferrand, for, casting away his dagger, and raising both his hands to his eyes, the unhappy wretch fell with his face to the ground, uttering a cry that was scarcely human. To complete the phenomenon which we have attempted to describe, and the action which profound obscurity had suspended, when Jacques Ferrand entered the apartment so brilliantly lighted up, he was struck with an overwhelming vertigo, just as though he had been suddenly cast into the midst of a torrent of light as blazing as the disk of the sun. It was a fearful spectacle to see the agony of this man, who was twisting in convulsions, tearing the floor with his nails, as if he would have dug himself a hole to escape from the atrocious tortures occasioned by this powerful light. Rodolph, one of his servants, and the porter of the house, who had been compelled to guide the prince hither, were struck with horror.