by a narrow but deep cliff somewhat
in shape of a wedge. The workmen, wishing to hew out a series
of chambers, made their entry in the north face of the cleft,
and worked in, leaving a ceiling of the natural stone; delving farther,
they executed the cells V., IV., III., II., I., with no connection with
number VI. except through number V. In like manner, they constructed the
passage and stairs to the floor above. The process of the work was
precisely that resorted to in carving out the Tombs of the Kings,
yet to be seen a short distance north of Jerusalem; only when the
cutting was done, cell VI. was enclosed on its outer side by a wall
of prodigious stones, in which, for ventilation, narrow apertures
were left bevelled like modern port-holes. Herod, when he took
hold of the Temple and Tower, put a facing yet more massive upon
this outer wall, and shut up all the apertures but one, which yet
admitted a little vitalizing air, and a ray of light not nearly
strong enough to redeem the room from darkness.

Such was cell VI.

Startle not now!

The description of the blind and tongueless wretch just liberated
from cell V. may be accepted to break the horror of what is coming.

The two women are grouped close by the aperture; one is seated,
the other is half reclining against her; there is nothing between
them and the bare rock. The light, slanting upwards, strikes them
with ghastly effect, and we cannot avoid seeing they are without
vesture or covering. At the same time we are helped to the knowledge
that love is there yet, for the two are in each other's arms.
Riches take wings, comforts vanish, hope withers away, but love
stays with us. Love is God.

Where the two are thus grouped the stony floor is polished shining
smooth. Who shall say how much of the eight years they have spent
in that space there in front of the aperture, nursing their hope
of rescue by that timid yet friendly ray of light? When the
brightness came creeping in, they knew it was dawn; when it
began to fade, they knew the world was hushing for the night,
which could not be anywhere so long and utterly dark as with them.
The world! Through that crevice, as if it were broad and high as
a king's gate, they went to the world in thought, and passed the
weary time going up and down as spirits go, looking and asking,
the one for her son, the other for her brother. On the seas they
sought him, and on the islands of the seas; to-day he was in this
city, to-