d at being so unexpectedly left alone. She
called out to him, but there was no answer; she sought for some
outlet, but no trace was visible whereby he could have departed from
the chamber. As she was stooping down, suddenly the light was blown
out, and she felt herself seized by invisible hands.

"Be silent for thy life," said a strange whisper in her ear. She was
hurried on through vaults and passages; the cold damp air struck
chilly on her, and she felt as though descending into some unknown
depths, beneath the very foundations of her own dwelling. Darkness was
still about their steps; but she was borne along, at a swift pace, by
persons evidently accustomed to this subterraneous line of
communication.

"No harm shall happen thee," said the same whisper in her ear as
before. Suddenly a vivid light flashed out from an aperture or window,
and she heard a groaning or rumbling and the clank of chains; but this
was passed, and a pale dull light showed a low vaulted chamber, into
which Alice was conveyed. An iron lamp hung from the ceiling in what
seemed to have been one of the cellars of the old house, though she
was unaware beforetime of such a dangerous proximity. The door was
closed upon her, and again she was left alone. So confused and
agitated was she for a while that she felt unable to survey the
objects that encompassed her. By degrees, however, she regained
sufficient fortitude to make the examination. Her astonishment was
extreme when she beheld, ranged round the vault, coffers full of
coin--heaps of surprising magnitude exposed, the least of which would
have been a king's ransom; fair and glistering too, apparently fresh
from the hands of some cunning artificer. Her curiosity in some
measure getting the better of her fears, she ventured to touch one of
these tempting heaps--not being sure but that her night visions were
answerable for the illusion. She laid her hand on a hoard of bright
nobles. Another and another succeeded, yet each coffer held some fresh
denomination of coin. There were moneys of various nations, even to
the Spanish pistole and Turkish bezant. Such exhaustless wealth it had
never yet entered into her imagination to conceive--the very idea was
too boundless even for fancy to present. "Surely," thought she, "I am
in some fairy palace, where the combined wealth of every clime is
accumulated; and the king of the genii, or some old and ugly ogre, has
certes fallen in love with me, and means to pr