d came to the end of their life on
earth; or was there some great event impending on the city and its
inhabitants, for which the time had now come? Had the words anything to
do with Caesar's visit? Had the dead come back to life to witness the
scenes which they saw approaching with eyes clearer than those of
mortals?

And then she remembered Korinna, whose fair, pale face had been strangely
lighted up by the lamp she carried; and, again, the Magian's assurance
that the souls of the departed were endowed with every faculty possessed
by the living, and that "those who knew" could see them and converse with
them.

Then Serapion had been right in saying this; and her hand trembled in her
lover's as she thought to herself that the danger which now threatened
Philip was estrangement from the living through intercourse with the
dead. Her own dead mother, perhaps, had floated past among these
wandering souls, and she grieved to think that she had neglected to look
for her and give her a loving greeting. Even Diodoros, who was not
generally given to silent meditation, had his own thoughts to pursue; and
so they walked on in silence till suddenly they heard a dull murmur of
voices. This startled them, and looking up they saw before them the rocky
cliffs in which the Egyptians long since, and now in later times the
Christians, had hewn caves and tombs. From the door of one of these, only
a few paces beyond where they stood, light streamed out; and as they were
about to pass it a large dog barked. Immediately on this a man came out,
and in a rough, deep voice asked them the pass-word. Diodoros, seized
with sudden terror of the dark figure, which he believed to be a risen
ghost, took to his heels, dragging Melissa with him. The dog flew after
them, barking loudly; and when the youth stooped to pick up a stone to
scare him off, the angry brute sprang on him and dragged him down.

Melissa screamed for help, but the gruff voice angrily bade her be
silent. Far from obeying him, the girl shouted louder than ever; and now,
out of the entrance to the cave, close behind the scene of the disaster,
came a number of men with lamps and tapers. They were the same daimons
whose song she had heard in the street; she could not be mistaken. On her
knees, by the side of her lover as he lay on the ground, she stared up at
the apparitions. A stone flew at the dog to scare him off, and a second,
larger than the first, whisked past her and hit Diodoros