“Possessed of a character so depraved, she did not long confine her affections to one object. Soon after her arrival at the castle, the Baron’s younger brother attracted her notice by his strong-marked features, gigantic stature, and Herculean limbs. She was not of an humour to keep her inclinations long unknown; but she found in Otto von Lindenberg her equal in depravity. He returned her passion just sufficiently to increase it; and when he had worked it up to the desired pitch, he fixed the price of his love at his brother’s murder. The wretch consented to this horrible agreement. A night was pitched upon for perpetrating the deed. Otto, who resided on a small estate a few miles distant from the castle, promised that at one in the morning he would be waiting for her at Lindenberg Hole; that he would bring with him a party of chosen friends, by whose aid he doubted not being able to make himself master of the castle; and that his next step should be the uniting her hand to his. It was this last promise, which overruled every scruple of Beatrice, since in spite of his affection for her, the Baron had declared positively that he never would make her his wife.