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"They will destroy all three of us!" said the count "Believe me, the

knife is already sharpened for our throats! Believe also, Cecil, that

I tremble not from fear of death But I fear for Natalie! Ah, I already

seem to see the approach of her murderers, to see them seize her with

their bloody hands, and I shall not be there to protect her!"

While Count Paulo thus spoke, with a sad, foreboding soul, those two

ly watched and listened to Natalie

and her friend, still remained under the wall

The one still held the dagger in his hand, and was unquietly walking

back and forth near his coround

"You did wrong to hinder rily said "It would have

been best to have finished them at once The occasion could not have

been htly stillness and

obscurity Ah, one bloould have done the business!"

"Well, and what if the gentleman who sat near her had seized you before

the bloas struck? How then?" asked the other "You are yet but a