Page:Story of Blue Beard, or, The effects of female curiosity.pdf/12

 raising his arm---Just at this instant a loud knocking was heard at the gates, which made Blue Beard wait for a moment to see who it was. The gates were opened, and two officers, dressed in their regimentals, entered, and, with their swords in their hands ran instantly to Blue Beard; who seeing they were his wife’s brothers, endeavoured to escape from their presence; but they pursued and seized him before he had gone twenty steps; and, plunging their swords into his body, he immediately fell down dead at their feet.

The poor wife who was almost as dead as her husband, was unable at first to rise and, embrace her brothers. She soon, however, recovered; and as Blue Beard had no heirs, she found herself the lawful possessor of his great riches.

She employed a portion of her vast fortune in giving a marriage dowry to her sister Ann, who soon after became the wife of a young gentleman by whom she had long been beloved. Another part she employed in buying captains’ commissions for her two brothers; and the rest she presented to a most worthy gentleman, whom she married soon after, and whose kind treatment soon made her forget Blue Beard’s cruelty.