triumph, just behind him, exclaimed:

"Now we have snared our scoffer! The fox should not stop to kill the hare
when the hunters are at his heels!"

"Zminis!" gasped Alexander. He understood in a flash that life and
liberty were at stake.

Like a stag hemmed in by dogs, he turned his head to this side and that,
seeking a way of escape; and when he looked again where his antagonist
had stood, the spot was clear; the nimble rascal had taken to his heels
and vanished among the throng. But a pair of eyes met the painter's gaze,
which at once restored him to self-possession, and reminded him that he
must collect his wits and presence of mind. They were those of his sister
Melissa, who, as she made her way onward with her companion, had
recognized her brother's voice. In spite of the old woman's earnest
advice not to mix in the crowd, she had pushed her way through, and, as
the men-at-arms dispersed the mob, she came nearer to her favorite but
too reckless brother.

Alexander still held Agatha's hand. The poor girl herself, trembling with
terror, did not know what had befallen her. Her venerable escort was a
young man--a liar. What was she to think of the deaconess, who was his
confederate; what of this handsome youth who had unmasked the deceiver,
and saved her perhaps from some fearful fate?

As in a thunder-storm flash follows flash, so, in this dreadful night,
one horror had followed another, to bewilder the brain of a maiden who
had always lived a quiet life among good and quiet men and women. And now
the guardians of the peace had laid hands on the man who had so bravely
taken her part, and whose bright eyes had looked into her own with such
truth and devotion. He was to be dragged to prison; so he, too, no doubt,
was a criminal. At this thought she tried to release her hand, but he
would not let it go; for the deaconess had come close to Agatha, and, in
a tone of sanctimonious wrath, desired her to quit this scene.

What was she to do? Terrified and undecided, with deceit on one hand and
on the other peril and perhaps disaster, she looked first at Elizabeth
and then at Alexander, who, in spite of the threats of the man-at-arms,
gazed in turns at her and at the spot where his sister had stood.

The lictors who were keeping off the mob had stopped Melissa too; but
while Alexander had been gazing into Agatha's imploring eyes, feeling as
though all his blood had rushed to his heart and face, Melissa had
contrived to