It had all passed in so short a space, and the dwarf had been so desperately frantic, that the rest had paused involuntarily, and were still looking on.

Missing the count, he glanced around the room, and discovered him standing on Miranda's throne, looking over the company with the cool air of a conqueror.

Miranda, aroused, as she very well might be by all this screaming and fighting, had partly raised herself upon her elbow, and was looking wildly about her.

As her eye fell on Sir Norman, she sat fairly erect, with a cry of exultation and joy.
"You have come, you have come, as I knew you would," she excitedly cried, "and the hour of retribution is at hand!" At the words of one who, a few moments before, they had supposed to be dead, an awestruck silence fell; and the count, taking advantage of it, waved his hand, and cried, "Yield yourselves prisoners, I command you! The royal guards are without; and the first of you who offers the slightest resistance will die like a dog! Ho, guards! enter, and seize your prisoners!" Quick as thought the room was full of soldiers! but the rest of the order was easier said than obeyed.

The robbers, knowing their doom was death, fought with the fury of desperation, and a short, wild, and terrible conflict ensued.