said, 'Speak, wretch, if yet the power of speech is left thee; and
with thy latest breath declare, what advantage hast thou found of
all thy wicked life?'

Barbarico well knew that too bad had been that life, to leave the
least room for hope of mercy; and therefore, instead of an answer,
he gave another hideous yell, gnashing his horrid teeth, and again
rolling his ghastly eyes on all around.

Benefico seeing him thus impenitent and sullen, lifted on high the
mighty sword, and with one blow severed his odious head from his
enormous body.

The whole assembly gave a shout for joy; and Benefico holding in
his hand the monster's yet grinning head, thus addressed his
half-astonished companions: 'See here, my friends, the proper
conclusion of a rapacious cruel life. But let us hasten from this
monster's gloomy cave; and on the top of one of our highest
mountains, fixed on a pole, will I set up this joyful spectacle,
that all the country round may know themselves at liberty to
pursue their rural business or amusements, without the dread of
any annoyance from a devouring vile tormentor. And when his
treasures, which justly all belong to the good patient Mignon, are
removed, we will shut up the mouth of this abominable dwelling;
and, casting on the door a heap of earth, we'll hope, in time,
that both place and remembrance of this cruel savage may in time
be lost.'

Every one readily cried out, that to Benefico, the good Benefico,
alone belonged the tyrant's treasures; that Benefico should ever