the lamp gave light when sun, and moon, and stars
gave none! From the top steps I looked down, and saw the Powerful One
in his golden brightness; and approached not, but watched and listened
in fear. The voice again!--the voice was heard again!--"Sacrifice to
me in secret, as thy brethren sacrifice! Give me the living where the
living are, and the dead where the dead!" The air came up cold, and
the voice ceased, and the lamp was like sun, and moon, and stars--it
gave no light in the place of darkness!'

While he spoke, the loose metal again clashed in the vault, for the
wind was strengthening as the evening advanced. 'Hark! the signal to
prepare the sacrifice!' cried the Pagan, turning abruptly to Numerian.
'Listen, bondman! the living and the dead are within our reach. The
breath of the Invisible strikes them in the street and in the house;
they stagger in the highways, and drop at the temple steps. When the
hour comes we shall go forth and find them. Under my hand they go down
into the cavern beneath. Whether they are hurled dead, or whether they
go down living, they fall through to the iron bars, where the water
leaps and rejoices to receive them! It is mine to sacrifice them
above, and thine to wait for them below, to lift the bars and give them
to the river to be swallowed up! The dead drop down first, the living
that are slain by the Destroyer follow after!'

Here he paused suddenly. Now, for the first time, his eye rested on
Antonina, whose very existence he seemed hitherto to have forgotten. A
revolting smile of mingled cunning and satisfaction instantly changed
the whole character of his countenance as he gazed on her and then
looked round significantly to the vault. 'Here is one,' he whispered
to Numerian, taking her by the arm. 'Keep her captive--the hour is
near!'

Numerian had hitherto stood unheedful while he spoke; but when he
touched Antonina the bare action was enough to arouse the father to
resistance--hopeless though it was--once more. He shook off the grasp
of Ulpius from the girl's arm, and drew back with her--breathless,
vigilant, desperate--to the side-wall behind him.

The madman laughed in proud approval. 'My bondman obeys me and seizes
the captive!' he cried. 'He remembers that the hour is near and loosens
not his hold! Come,' he continued, 'come out into the hall beyond!--it
is time that we watch for more victims for the sacrifice till the sun
goes down. The Destroyer is