in cloaks,
who seemed to approach the spot with cautious steps, often turning
their heads aside to see whether anybody was following. The old woman
went up to them.

"Have you got the candles?" she askt hastily and with a gruff voice.

"Here they are," said one of the men: "you know the price; let us
settle the matter and have done with it."

The old woman seemed to be giving him some money, which he counted
over beneath his cloak. "I rely upon you," she again began, "that they
are made exactly according to rule, at the right time and place, so
that they cannot fail of their effect."

"You need not be uneasy on that score," returned the man, and hurried
away.

His companion, who staid behind, was a youth: he took the old woman by
the hand, and said: "Can it be true, Alexia, that certain rites and
spells, as those old wild stories, in which I could never put faith,
tell us, can fetter the free will of man, and make love and hatred grow
up in the heart?"

"Ay forsooth!" answered the scarlet woman; "but one and one must make
two, and many a one must be added thereto, before such mighty things
come to pass. It is not these candles alone, moulded beneath the
midnight darkness of the new moon, and drencht with human blood, it is
not the mere uttering magical words and incantations, that can give
you the mastery over the soul of another: there is much more belonging
to such works, as the initiated well know."

"I may depend upon you then!" cried the stranger.

"Tomorrow after midnight I am at your service," replied the old woman.
"You shall not be the first person that ever was dissatisfied with my
skill. Tonight, as you have heard, I have some one else in hand, one
whose senses and soul our art shall twist about whichever way we
choose, just as easily as I twist this hair out of my head."

These last words she uttered with a half grin; and they separated,
walking off in different directions.

Emilius came forth from the dark niche shuddering, and lifted his
looks to the image of the Virgin with the Child. "Before thine eyes,
thou mild and blessed one," he said half aloud, "are these miscreants
audaciously holding their market and trafficking in their infernal
drugs. But as thou embracest thy child with thy love, so doth heavenly
Love encircle us all with its protecting arms; we feel their touch;
and our poor hearts beat joyously and tremulously toward a greater
heart that will never forsake us."

Clouds were r