I hesitated, as I said, and attempted to look behind me;
but there was no time: the next step discovered two assassins
lying in covert, waiting for blood. "Coward, we are ruined!" cried
my indignant friend; and that moment my piece was discharged.
The effect was as might have been expected: the old man first
stumbled to one side, and then fell on his back. We kept our
places, and I perceived my companion's eyes gleaming with an
unnatural joy. The wounded man raised himself from the bank to
a sitting posture, and I beheld his eyes swimming; he however
appeared sensible, for we heard him saying in a low and rattling
voice: "Alas, alas! whom have I offended, that they should have
been driven to an act like this! Come forth and shew yourselves,
that I may either forgive you before I die, or curse you in the
name of the Lord." He then fell a-groping with both hands on the
ground, as if feeling for something he had lost manifestly in the
agonies of death; and, with a solemn and interrupted prayer for
forgiveness, he breathed his last.
I had become rigid as a statue, whereas my associate appeared to
be elevated above measure.
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