was on the last step, he
felt some one climbing after him. The poor Frenchman's terror was then
at its height: he fancied the ladder slipping from under his feet, and,
grasping the wood still more tightly, in doing so he got his finger
pinched against the rock. In the exertion of releasing it, he nearly
overbalanced himself in reality, and again he screamed out with terror
and dismay! All this occurred in a brief instant; though, between his
tears and his heart throbbing, many minutes were consumed in the
narration.

[Sidenote: A HINT FOR THE LADIES.] I am not a little surprised that the
two ladies who accompanied the party had courage to descend into such a
place. In my opinion, excursions like these are by no means adapted to
either the mental or corporeal delicacy of the fair sex; and, however
disagreeable the position might have momentarily proved to them, it was
impossible to witness the tall slender figure of one of them, grasped in
the arms of a bearded swarthy Greek, now squeezed against the wall, now
almost astride upon his shoulders, without indulging in the laughter
such a spectacle was well calculated to inspire.

Thanks to the kind influence of the guardian genii of the cave, who
preserved us from falling victims to the perils of the way, we all got
safely out; and as each, begrimed with dirt, and black as a
chimney-sweep, emerged into upper air, enveloped in smoke, which now
issued in huge volumes from the cavern's mouth, he was received by his
companions with shouts of mirth that made the old vault echo again.
Verily, we could be likened to nothing but the devils in the opera of
Don Giovanni.

We now turned our steps again towards the village of Antiparos, and,
under the influence of those potent stimulants, hunger and thirst, got
over the ground more rapidly than might have been anticipated,
considering how exhausted the whole party felt previously to starting.
The time passed rapidly enough in the interchange of a good deal of
lively and amusing raillery on the truly laughable appearance which
every individual presented, with clothes rent almost to tatters, and
visage bedaubed with oil and soot; besides, each of us became the "hero
of his little tale," and could narrate a hundred perilous incidents and
hairbreadth escapes which he had encountered during his descent and
ascent from the "antres vast" of this extraordinary place.

It was eleven o'clock before we got on board, where all did ample homag