Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 4).djvu/246

 rally attendant on a conviction of crimes, at once took from her all the courage she had assumed. "Stop, stop," she cried, and falling on her knees, "Save me from a prison, preserve me from punishment, and I will confess all."

That moment Fatima, who stood near her, snatched a dagger from her side, and quick as thought stabbed Dupree, and then plunged it into her own bosom; both fell. The action was so sudden, so unexpected, that no one was in time to prevent her.

Ferdinand was inexpressibly alarmed; he ran to her, as the Count did to Dupree:—"Rash, unhappy Fatima! what have you done? Let some one fly for a surgeon."

"He is at hand," said she, faintly, "death will soon preserve me from the shame of detection and punishment; that abandoned wretch is the cause of this, she suggested the scheme to ruin you. I lived long enough in Turkey to learn the use of a dagger."