Page:The Necromancer, or, The Tale of the Black Forest Vol. 2.djvu/143

 that few of my criminal deeds were known. Although I had been betrayed several times by my associates, and reprimanded by my superiors, yet I always suffered myself to be blinded by the too powerful charms of gold and false ambition, and was ever ready to lend my assistance to deeds of the blackest hue."

"One day the widow of an honest citizen sent for me, and, having bribed me by some pieces of gold, requested me to assist her in the execution of a most criminal design."

"Her husband, lately deceased, so she told me, had promised her daughter in marriage to a man, whom she could not suffer to become her son-in-law, because he had behaved very disrespectfully towards her while her husband had been living, and scorned to apply for her consent; moreover, she told me, he was a lazy drunkard and a gambler; in one word, a good-for-nothing fellow."