enever it crumbled and fell, this new Babel that he longed
to rear to the Olympus of the temple roof, with a resolute patience and
perseverance that no failure or fatigue could overcome.

It was the dearest purpose of his dreamy superstition to surround
himself with innumerable deities, as well as to assemble innumerable
worshippers; to make the sacred place of his habitation a mighty
Pantheon, as well as a point of juncture for the scattered
congregations of the Pagan world. This was the ambition in which his
madness expanded to the fiercest fanaticism; and as he now stood erect
with his captives beneath him, his glaring eyes looked awe-struck when
he fixed them on his idols; he uplifted his arms in solemn, ecstatic
triumph, and in low tones poured forth his invocations, wild,
intermingled, and fragmentary, as the barbarous altar which his
solitary exertions had reared.

Whatever was the effect on Numerian of his savage and confused
ejaculations, they were unnoticed, even unheard, by Antonina; for now,
while the madman's voice softened to an undertone, and while she hid
all surrounding objects from her eyes, her senses were awakened to
sounds in the temple which she had never remarked before.

The rapid current of the Tiber washed the foundation walls of one side
of the building, within which the clear, lulling bubble of the water
was audible with singular distinctness. But besides this another and a
shriller sound caught the ear. On the summit of the temple roof still
remained several rows of little gilt bells, originally placed there,
partly with the intention of ornamenting this portion of the outer
structure, partly in order that the noise they produced, when agitated
by the wind, might scare birds from settling in their flight on the
consecrated edifice. The sounds produced by these bells were silvery
and high pitched; now, when the breeze was strong, they rang together
merrily and continuously; now, when it fell, their notes were faint,
separate, and irregular, almost plaintive in their pure metallic
softness. But, however their tone might vary under the capricious
influences of the wind, it seemed always wonderfully mingled within the
temple with the low, eternal bubbling of the river, which filled up the
slightest pauses in the pleasant chiming of the bells, and ever
preserved its gentle and monotonous harmony just audible beneath them.

There was something in this quaint, unwonted combination of sounds