"Beauty! generosity! wealth! all fallen under the blade of a wretch! What is man's life?
He, however, will in heaven, with God, be indemnified for his horrible death.
And we?
But the present is not the time for reflections and lamentations; my pity will not restore this corpse to life.

I must now close my eyes to the future, and fulfil my horrible task." He knelt behind the chair, passed his arm under it, and turned a screw.
The springs opened and loosed their hold upon the inanimate body.
Julio held it by the arms and dragged it through the hall until he reached a staircase conducting to a cellar.

There he left the corpse, entered an adjoining room, and returned with a lamp.

Holding the light in his hand, he descended until he reached a subterranean passage.

Very deep under the ground, and at the end of this passage, was a kind of vaulted cellar closed by a heavy door.