But save me from the strappado, from the torment of the rack.

I am an old man and could not endure." The Lady Ysolinde looked at him, and her emerald eyes held a steely glitter in their depths.
"I am neither judge nor"-- I think she was going to say "executioner," but she remembered in time and for my sake was silent, which I thought was both gracious and charming of her.

She resumed in a softer tone: "What sentence, then, would you desire, thus confessing your guilt ?" "That I might end myself over the cliff there!" said the innkeeper, pointing to the wall of rock along the edge of which we were riding.
"See, then, that he is well ended!" said the Princess, briefly, to Jorian.
"Good!" said Jorian, saluting.
And very coolly betook himself to the edge of the cliff, where he primed his piece anew, and blew up his match.
"Loose the man and stand back!" cried the Princess.
A moment the innkeeper stood nerving himself.

A moment he hung on the thin edge of his resolve.

The slack gray face worked convulsively, the white lips moved, the hands were gripped close to his sides as though to run a race.