"Did I not aye say I would die for my lord?" said the gentle lady, and
placed herself at the block.

Sir Raoul de Barbazure seized up the long ringlets of her raven hair.
"Now!" shouted he to the executioner, with a stamp of his foot--"Now
strike!"

The man (who knew his trade) advanced at once, and poised himself to
deliver his blow: and making his flashing sword sing in the air, with
one irresistible, rapid stroke, it sheared clean off the head of the
furious, the bloodthirsty, the implacable Baron de Barbazure!

Thus he fell a victim to his own jealousy: and the agitation of the Lady
Fatima may be imagined, when the executioner, flinging off his mask,
knelt gracefully at her feet, and revealed to her the well-known
features of Romane de Clos-Vougeot.




LORDS AND LIVERIES.

BY THE AUTHORESS OF "DUKES AND DEJEUNERS," "HEARTS AND DIAMONDS,"
"MARCHIONESSES AND MILLINERS," ETC. ETC.


I.


"CORBLEU! What a lovely creature that was in the Fitzbattleaxe box