The dwarf seized his opportunity, and once more spoke:
"I now see distinctly." he said, "what manner of people these
maskers are. They are a great king and his seven privy-councillors,- a
king who does not scruple to strike a defenceless girl and his seven
councillors who abet him in the outrage. As for myself, I am simply
Hop-Frog, the jester- and this is my last jest."
Owing to the high combustibility of both the flax and the tar to
which it adhered, the dwarf had scarcely made an end of his brief
speech before the work of vengeance was complete. The eight corpses
swung in their chains, a fetid, blackened, hideous, and
indistinguishable mass. The cripple hurled his torch at them,
clambered leisurely to the ceiling, and disappeared through the
sky-light.
It is supposed that Trippetta, stationed on the roof of the
saloon, had been the accomplice of her friend in his fiery revenge,
and that, together, they effected their escape to their own country:
for neither was seen again.
THE END
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