the gag and bandages were
removed.

"Where am I?" Aziel asked.

"In the vaults of the temple," answered the priests as they left the
prison, barring its great door behind them.

CHAPTER XIII

THE SACRILEGE OF AZIEL

How long he lay in his dungeon, lost in bitter thought and tormented by
fears for Elissa, Aziel could not tell, for no light came there to
mark the passage of the hours. In the tumult of his mind, one terrible
thought grew clear and ever clearer; he and Elissa had been taken
red-handed, and must pay the price of their sin against the religious
customs of the city. For the Baaltis to be found with any man who was
not her husband meant death to him and her, a doom from which there was
little chance of escape.

Well, to his own fate he was almost indifferent, but for Elissa and
Issachar he mourned bitterly. Truly the Levite and Metem had been wise
when they cautioned him, for her sake and his own, to have nothing to do
with a priestess of Baal. But he had not listened; his heart would
not let him listen--and now, unless they were saved by a miracle--or
Metem--in the fulness of their youth and love, the lives of both of them
were forfeited.

Worn out with sore fears and vain regrets Aziel fell at length into a
heavy sleep. He was awakened by the opening of the door of his dungeon,
and the entry of priests--grim, silent men who seized and blindfolded
him. Then they led him away up many stairs, and along paths so steep
that from time to time they paused to rest, till at length he knew, by
the sound of voices, that he had reached some place where people were
assembled. Here the bandage was removed from his eyes. He stepped
backwards, recoiling involuntarily at the glare of light that poured
upon him from the setting sun, whereon, uttering an exclamation, those
who stood near seized and held him. Presently he saw the reason. He was
standing on the brink of a precipice at the back of and dominating the
dim and shadow-clad city, while far beneath him lay a gloomy rift along
which ran the trade road to the coast.

Here in this dizzy spot was a wide space of rock, walled in upon three
sides. The precipice formed the fourth side of its square, in which,
seated upon stones that seemed to have been set there in semi-circles to
serve as judgment chairs, were gathered the head priests and priestesses
of El and Baaltis, clad in their sacerdotal robes. To the right and left
of these stood knots of favoured spect