her tears, she ran forward. So an
hour passed--many hours.

Often she thought that she must have lost the right direction, or she
would have reached the battlefield long ago. The wind had risen to a
tempest. Her heart beat with suffocating strength. Giddiness seized
her; she tottered; she must rest. Now, here, no Vandal could overtake
her to keep her by force from her sacred goal.

Just at that moment something white appeared above the sand close
beside her. It was the first break for hours in the monotonous yellow
surface. The object was no stone. Seizing it, Eugenia dragged it from
the sand. Oh, despair and horror! She shrieked aloud in desperation, in
terror, in the sense of cheerless, hopeless helplessness. It was her
own shoe, which she had lost hours before. She had been wandering in a
circle. Or had the wind borne it far away from the place where she lost
it? Yet, no! The shoe, which she now flung down, weeping, was swiftly
covered with sand, instead of being carried away by the wind. After
exhausting the last remnant of her strength, she was in the same spot.

To die--now--to give up all effort--to rest--to sleep--now sweet was
the temptation to the wearied limbs.

But, no! To him! What were the words? "And it _constrained_ the
faithful one and drew her to the grave of the dead hero." To him!

Eugenia raised herself with great difficulty, she was already so weak.
And when she had barely gained her feet, the storm blew her down once
more. Again she rose, trying to see if some human being, some house, if
not the path, was visible. Just then she perceived before her in the
north a sand-hill, higher than any of the others. It was probably more
than a hundred feet. If she could succeed in climbing it, she would be
able from the top to get a wide view. With inexpressible difficulty,
sinking knee-deep at nearly every step in the looser sand, until her
foot reached the older, firmer soil, she pressed upward, often falling
back several paces when she stumbled. While she did so the strangest,
most alarming thing happened,--at every slip the whole sand-hill
creaked, trembled, and began to slide down in every direction. At
first Eugenia stopped in terror; she thought the whole mountain would
sink with her. But she conquered her fear, and at last climbed
upward on her knees, for she could no longer stand; she thrust her
hands into the sand and dragged herself up. The wind--no, it was now a
hurricane--assisted her; it bl