"I would he were among them! An I could have killed him before I went"-- "I had devised a way to do it long ago, had not your lordship's conscience been so tender.

And yet, before now, our enemies--yours and mine, my lord--have met with sudden and mysterious death.

Men stared, but they ended by calling it a dispensation of Providence." He broke off to laugh with silent, hateful laughter, as mirthful as the grin of a death's-head.
"I know, I know!" said my lord impatiently.

"We are not overnice, Nicolo.

But between me and those who then stood in my way there had passed no challenge.