e proceeded. For the first and the last
time the sword protruded harmless from the monster's throat when the
monk pressed the fatal stair, before stepping on it, with his iron bar.
The same day the machine was destroyed and cast into the Tiber, where
its victims had been thrown before it in former years.

* * * * *

Some minutes have elapsed since we left the father and daughter
standing by the Pagan's side before the mouth of the vault; and as yet
there appears no change in the several positions of the three. But
already, while Ulpius still looks down steadfastly into the cavity at
his feet, his voice, as he continues to speak, grows louder, and his
words become more distinct. Fearful recollections associated with the
place are beginning to stir his weary memory, to lift the darkness of
oblivion from his idle thoughts.

'They go down, far down there!' he abruptly exclaimed, pointing into
the black depths of the vault, 'and never arise again to the light of
the upper earth! The great Destroyer is watchful in his solitude
beneath, and looks through the darkness for their approach! Hark! the
hissing of his breath is like to the clash of weapons in a deadly
strife!'

At this moment the wind moved the loose scales of the dragon. During
an instant Ulpius remained silent, listening to the noise they
produced. For the first time an expression of dread appeared on his
face. His memory was obscurely reviving the incidents of his discovery
of the deadly machinery in the vault when he first made his sojourn in
the temple, when--filled with the confused remembrance of the
mysterious rites and incantations, the secret sacrifices which he had
witnessed and performed at Alexandria--he had found and followed the
subterranean passage which led to the iron grating beneath the dragon.
As the wind lulled again, and the clashing of the metal ceased with it,
he began to give these recollections expression in words, uttering them
in slow, solemn accents to himself.

'I have seen the Destroyer; the Invisible has revealed himself to me!'
he murmured. 'I stood on the iron bars; the restless waters toiled and
struggled beneath my feet as I looked up into the place of darkness. A
voice called to me, "Get light, and behold me from above! Get light!
get light!" Sun, and moon, and stars gave no light there! but lamps
burnt in the city, in the houses of the dead, when I walked by them in
the night-time; and