On
this point I feel secure, and bid you defiance. To think now, that,
having chiefly effected the escape of the youth, I would place him again
within your power, argues a degree of stupidity in me that is wantonly
insulting. I tell you he has fled, by this time, beyond your reach. I
say no more. It is enough that he is in safety; before a word of mine
puts him in danger, I'll perish by your hands, or any hands."
"Then shall you perish, fool!" cried the ruffian; and his hand, hurried
by the ferocious impulse of his rage, was again uplifted, when, in her
struggles at freedom, a new object met his sight in the chain and
portrait which Ralph had flung about her neck, and which, now falling
from her bosom, arrested his attention, and seemed to awaken some
recognition in his mind. His hold relaxed upon her arm, and with eager
haste he seized the portrait, tearing it away with a single wrench from
the rich chain to which it was appended, and which now in broken
fragments was strewed upon the floor.
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