much fumbling and more cursing,
managed to extricate his head from the napkin in which it was completely
folded--stared round--and discovered that he was in the dark.

'What, ho! Nydia; the lamp is gone. Ah, traitress; and thou art gone
too; but I'll catch thee--thou shalt smart for this!' The slave groped
his way to the door; it was bolted from without: he was a prisoner
instead of Nydia. What could he do? He did not dare to knock loud--to
call out--lest Arbaces should overhear him, and discover how he had been
duped; and Nydia, meanwhile, had probably already gained the
garden-gate, and was fast on her escape.

'But,' thought he, 'she will go home, or, at least, be somewhere in the
city. To-morrow, at dawn, when the slaves are at work in the peristyle,
I can make myself heard; then I can go forth and seek her. I shall be
sure to find and bring her back, before Arbaces knows a word of the
matter. Ah! that's the best plan. Little traitress, my fingers itch at
thee: and to leave only a bowl of water, too! Had it been wine, it
would have been some comfort.'

While Sosia, thus entrapped, was lamenting his fate, and revolving his
schemes to repossess himself of Nydia, the blind girl, with that
singular precision and dexterous rapidity of motion, which, we have
before observed, was peculiar to her, had passed lightly along the
peristyle, threaded the opposite passage that led into the garden, and,
with a beating heart, was about to proceed towards the gate, when she
suddenly heard the sound of approaching steps, and distinguished the
dreaded voice of Arbaces himself. She paused for a moment in doubt and
terror; then suddenly it flashed across her recollection that there was
another passage which was little used except for the admission of the
fair partakers of the Egyptian's secret revels, and which wound along
the basement of that massive fabric towards a door which also
communicated with the garden. By good fortune it might be open. At
that thought, she hastily retraced her steps, descended the narrow
stairs at the right, and was soon at the entrance of the passage. Alas!
the door at the entrance was closed and secured. While she was yet
assuring herself that it was indeed locked, she heard behind her the
voice of Calenus, and, a moment after, that of Arbaces in low reply.
She could not stay there; they were probably passing to that very door.
She sprang onward, and felt herself in unknown ground. The air grew