To his right was the great body of Klosterheim cavaliers, a score of students and young officers pressing forward to the front; but in advance of the whole, the Landgrave of X––, haughty, lowering, and throwing out looks of defiance. These were the positions and attitudes in which the first discovery of The Masque had surprised them; and these they still retained. Less dignified spectators were looking downwards from the galleries.

»Surrender!« was the first word by which silence was broken; it came from the Landgrave.

»Or die!« exclaimed Adorni.

»He dies in any case,« rejoined the Prince.

The Masque still raised his hand with the action of one who bespeaks attention. Adorni he deigned not to notice. Slightly inclining his head to the Landgrave, in a tone to which it might be the head-dress of elaborate steel-work that gave a sepulchral tone, he replied, –

»The Masque, who rules in Klosterheim by night, surrenders not. He can die. But first he will complete the ceremony of the night, he will reveal himself.«

»That is superfluous,« exclaimed Adorni; »we need no further revelations. – Seize him, and lead him out to death!«

»Dog of an Italian!« replied The Masque, drawing a dag5 from his belt, »die first yourself!« And so saying, he slowly turned and levelled the barrel at Adorni, who fled with two bounds to the soldiers in the rear. Then, withdrawing the weapon hastily, he added in a tone of cool contempt, »Or bridle that coward's tongue.«

But this was not the minister's intention. »Seize him!« he cried again impetuously to the soldiers, laying his hand on the arm of the foremost, and pointing them forward to their prey.

»No!« said the Landgrave, with a commanding voice; »Halt! I bid you.« Something there was in the tone, or it might be that there was something in his private recollections, or something in the general mystery, which promised a discovery that he feared to lose by the too precipitate vengeance of the Italian. »What is it, mysterious being, that you would reveal? Or who is it that you now believe interested in your revelations?«

»Yourself. – Prince, it would seem that you have me at your mercy: wherefore then the coward haste of this Venetian hound? I am one; you are many. Lead me then out; shoot me. But no: Freely I entered this hall; freely I will leave it. If I must die, I will die as a soldier. Such I am; and neither runagate from a foreign land; nor« – turning to Adorni – »a base mechanic.«

»But a murderer!« shrieked Adorni: »but a murderer; and with hands yet reeking from innocent blood!«

»Blood, Adorni, that I will yet avenge. – Prince, you demand the nature of my revelations. I will reveal my name, my quality, and my mission.«

»And to whom?«

»To yourself, and none beside. And, as a pledge for the sincerity of my discoveries, I will first of all communicate a dreadful secret, known, as you fondly believe, to none but your Highness. Prince, dare you receive my revelations?«

Speaking thus, The Masque took one step to the rear, turning his back upon the room, and by a gesture, signified his wish that the Landgrave should accompany him. But at this motion, ten or a dozen of the foremost among the young cavaliers started forward in advance of the Landgrave, in part forming a half circle about his person, and in part commanding the open doorway.

»He is armed!« they exclaimed; »and trebly armed: will your Highness approach him too nearly?«

»I fear him not,« said the Landgrave, with something of a contemptuous tone.

»Wherefore should you fear me?« retorted The Masque, with a manner so tranquil and serene as involuntarily to disarm suspicion: »Were it possible that I should seek the life of any man here in particular, in that case (pointing to the firearms in his belt), why should I need to come nearer? Were it possible that any should find in my conduct here a motive to a personal vengeance upon myself, which of you is not near enough? Has your Highness the courage to trample on such terrors?«

Thus challenged as it were to a trial of his courage before the assembled rank of Klosterheim, the Landgrave waved off all who would have stepped forward officiously to his support. If he felt any tremors, he was now sensible that pride and princely honour called upon him to dissemble them. And, probably, that sort of tremors which he felt in reality did not point in a direction to which physical support, such as was now tendered, could have been available. He hesitated no longer, but strode forward to meet The Masque. His Highness and The Masque met near the archway of the door, in the very centre of the groups.

With a thrilling tone, deep – piercing – full of alarm, The Masque began thus: –

»To win your confidence, for ever to establish credit with your Highness, I will first of all reveal the name of that murderer who this night dared to pollute your palace with an old man's blood. Prince, bend your ear a little this way.«

With a shudder, and a visible effort of self-command, the Landgrave inclined his ear to The Masque, who added, –

»Your Highness will be shocked to hear it«: then, in a lower tone, »Who could have believed it? – It was –.« All was pronounced clearly and strongly, except the last word – the name of the murderer: that was made audible only to the Landgrave's ear.

Sudden and tremendous was the effect upon the prince: he reeled a few paces off; put his hand to the hilt of his sword; smote his forehead; threw frenzied looks upon The Masque, – now half imploring, now dark with vindictive wrath. Then succeeded a pause of profoundest silence, during which all the twelve hundred visitors, whom he had himself assembled, as if expressly to make them witnesses of this extraordinary scene, and of the power with which a stranger could shake him to and fro in a tempestuous strife of passions, were looking and hearkening with senses on the stretch to pierce the veil of silence and of distance. At last the Landgrave mastered his emotions sufficiently to say, »Well, sir, what next?«

»Next comes a revelation of another kind; and I warn you, sir, that it will not be less trying to the nerves. For this first I needed your ear; now I shall need your eyes. Think again, Prince, whether you will stand the trial.«

»Pshaw! sir, you trifle with me; again I tell you –« But here the Landgrave spoke with an affectation of composure and with an effort that did not escape notice; – »again I tell you that I fear you not.