elded to fear and
despair--sank prostrate under a paralysing, superstitious dread. The
misery that she had inflicted on others recoiled in retribution on
herself, as she now shuddered under the consciousness of the first
emotions of helpless terror that she had ever felt.

Ulpius instantly rose from the vault, and advanced straight through the
darkness to the gates of the partition; but he passed his prisoner
without stopping for an instant, and hastening into the outer apartment
of the temple, began to grope over the floor for the knife which the
woman had dropped when he bound her. He was laughing to himself once
more, for the evil spirit was prompting him to a new project, tempting
him to a pitiless refinement of cruelty and deceit.

He found the knife, and returning with it to Goisvintha, cut the rope
that confined her wrists. Then she became silent when the first
sharpness of her suffering was assuaged; he whispered softly in her
ear, 'Follow me, and escape!'

Bewildered and daunted by the darkness and mystery around her, she
vainly strained her eyes to look through the obscurity as Ulpius drew
her on into the recess. He placed her at the mouth of the vault, and
here she strove to speak; but low, inarticulate sounds alone proceeded
from her powerless utterance. Still there was no light; still the
burning, gnawing agony at her wrists (relieved but for an instant when
the rope was cut) continued and increased; and still she felt the
presence of the unseen being at her side, whom no darkness could blind,
and who bound and loosed at his arbitrary will.

By nature fierce, resolute, and vindictive under injury, she was a
terrible evidence of the debasing power of crime, as she now stood,
enfeebled by the weight of her own avenging guilt, upraised to crush
her in the hour of her pride; by the agency of Darkness, whose perils
the innocent and the weak have been known to brave; by Suspense, whose
agony they have resisted; by Pain, whose infliction they have endured
in patience.

'Go down, far down the steep steps, and escape!' whispered the madman,
in soft, beguiling tones. 'The darkness above leads to the light below!
Go down, far down!'

He quitted his hold of her as he spoke. She hesitated, shuddered, and
drew back; but again she was urged forward, and again she heard the
whisper, 'The darkness above leads to the light below! Go down, far
down!'

Despair gave the firmness to proceed, and dread the hope