d find no cause, unless it were bred of what
the Emperor and his servants had said to me. So I remembered their
words--namely, that I should tarry till dawn to enter the house.

"There, then, I tarried, seated on the ground before the gateway, and
feeling as though, yet alive, I had descended among the dead. Indeed,
the silence was that of the dead. No voice spoke, no hound barked, no
leaf stirred. Only far above me I heard a continual soughing, as though
winged souls passed to and fro. Never in my life had I felt so much
alone, never so much afraid.

"At length the dawn broke, and oh, glad was I to see its light, for fear
lest I should die in darkness! Now I saw that I was on a hilltop
where grew great groves of cedar trees, and that set amid them was a
black-tiled temple, surrounded by a wall built of black brick.

"It was not a great place, although the gateway, which was surmounted by
two black dragons of stone or iron, was very great, so great that a tall
ship could have sailed through it and left its arch untouched.

"I kneeled down and prayed to the blessed Saints and the guardian angels
to protect me. Then I arose, crossed myself to scare off all evil things
by that holy sign, and set forward toward the mighty gateway. Oh, never,
never till that hour had I understood how lowly a thing is man! On that
broad road, travelling toward the awful, dragon-guarded arch, beyond
which lay I knew not what, it seemed to me that I was the only man
left in the world, I, whose hour had come to enter the portals of
destruction.

"I passed into the cold shadow of the gateway, unchallenged by any
watchman, and found myself in a courtyard surrounded by a wall also
built of black brick, which had doors in it that seemed to be of dark
stone or iron. Whither these doors led I do not know, since the wall cut
off the sight of any buildings that may have lain beyond. In the centre
of this courtyard was a pool of still, black water, and at the head of
the pool a chair of black marble."

Sir Andrew paused, and Hugh said:

"A plain place for a temple, Father, without adornments or images. But
perhaps this was the outer court, and the temple stood within."

"Ay, son, the plainest temple that ever I saw, who have seen many in
all lands, though what was beyond it I do not know. And yet--terrible,
terrible, terrible!--I tell you that those black walls and that black
water were more fearsome to look on than any churchyard vault grim
wit