“How the old torment flames up in me at the last! I think I gave my soul to the wanton and I thought I had hers in exchange. What inspired fools love makes of us! My castle in Cloudland stood firm till that month after Modred’s birth. Then all in a day--a minute--it dissolved and vanished. I came upon her secretly gloating over a portrait--the miniature of a man. I saw--suspected--wrenched half the truth from her. Half the truth only, Renalt. When I wedded with her she had a child living. She whose love I had looked upon as a precious possession was all base and hollow, behind her beautiful personality. More--she had borne me three children; yet what affection she was capable of clung about the memory of her first passion. True, this spark had wearied of her, had dismissed her from his service--his service, you understand? And from the face of her child. Yet the long years of my passionate devotion weighed as nothing in the balance. I was the means ready to make of her an honest woman--that was all. An honest woman--my God!” His teeth snapped together with a click; his dying eyes shone out, but their inspiration was demoniacal. “In one thing only,” he went on in a low, hard voice, “the poor frail wretch was stable. That portrait--the miniature--she died refusing to reveal to me its identity. No threats, no cruelty availed. She kept her secret to the last.” As he now continued his left hand clutched and tightened upon the bedclothes and a dark shadow seemed to grow out of his face. “I shut her close in the room below. There, with only the voice of the wheel for company, I swore she should remain till she confessed. Each day I brought her food and water, and each day I said, ‘Give me his name,’ but she was always silent. She had been weak and ailing from caring for her baby Modred, and she faded before my eyes. Yet I was merciless. A little more, I thought, and so worthless, fragile a thing must needs yield and answer me. It was will against will, and hers conquered.” He paused a moment, and I could see drops of sweat freckling his forehead.