oble,
should respect what, if my suspicions were true, was worse than the
ordinary deceptions of priestcraft. I could not tell how far he might be
led to countenance, and otherwise support their doings, before he should
find cause to repent bitterly of his error. I watched the new procession
yet more keenly, if possible, than the former. This time, the central
figure was a girl; and, at the close, I observed, yet more indubitably,
the shrinking back, and the crowding push. What happened to the victims,
I never learned; but I had learned enough, and I could bear it no
longer. I stooped, and whispered to the young girl who stood by me, to
lend me her white garment. I wanted it, that I might not be entirely
out of keeping with the solemnity, but might have at least this help to
passing unquestioned. She looked up, half-amused and half-bewildered, as
if doubting whether I was in earnest or not. But in her perplexity, she
permitted me to unfasten it, and slip it down from her shoulders.

I easily got possession of it; and, sinking down on my knees in the
crowd, I rose apparently in the habit of one of the worshippers.

Giving my battle-axe to the girl, to hold in pledge for the return of
her stole, for I wished to test the matter unarmed, and, if it was a man
that sat upon the throne, to attack him with hands bare, as I supposed
his must be, I made my way through the crowd to the front, while the
singing yet continued, desirous of reaching the platform while it was
unoccupied by any of the priests. I was permitted to walk up the long
avenue of white robes unmolested, though I saw questioning looks in many
of the faces as I passed. I presume my coolness aided my passage; for
I felt quite indifferent as to my own fate; not feeling, after the
late events of my history, that I was at all worth taking care of; and
enjoying, perhaps, something of an evil satisfaction, in the revenge
I was thus taking upon the self which had fooled me so long. When I
arrived on the platform, the song had just ceased, and I felt as if all
were looking towards me. But instead of kneeling at its foot, I walked
right up the stairs to the throne, laid hold of a great wooden image
that seemed to sit upon it, and tried to hurl it from its seat. In this
I failed at first, for I found it firmly fixed. But in dread lest, the
first shock of amazement passing away, the guards would rush upon me
before I had effected my purpose, I strained with all my might; an