I have seen the blood that I have sworn to shed flowing under my
knife! My vengeance will be complete, and torments and death will be
to me as guests that I welcome, and as deliverers whom I await!'

Again she paused--the wild triumph of the fanatic on the burning pile
was flashing in her face--suddenly her eyes fell once more upon the
stained helmet-crest; then her expression changed again to despair, and
her voice grew low and moaning, when she thus resumed:--

'I am weary of my life; when the vengeance is done I shall be delivered
from this prison of the earth--in the world of shadows I shall see my
husband, and my little ones will gather round my knees again. The
living have no part in me; I yearn towards the spirits who wander in
the halls of the dead.'

For a few minutes more she continued to fix her tearless eyes on the
helmet-crest. But soon the influence of the evil spirit revived in all
its strength; she raised her head suddenly, remained for an instant
absorbed in deep thought, then began to retrace her steps rapidly in
the direction by which she had come.

Sometimes she whispered softly, 'I must be doing ere the time fail me:
my face must be hidden and my garments changed. Yonder, among the
houses, I must search, and search quickly!' Sometimes she reiterated
her denunciations of vengeance, her ejaculations of triumph in her
frantic project. At the recapitulation of these the remembrance of
Antonina was aroused; and then a bloodthirsty superstition darkened her
thoughts, and threw a vague and dreamy character over her speech.

When she spoke now, it was to murmur to herself that the victim who had
twice escaped her might yet be alive; that the supernatural influences
which had often guided the old Goths, on the day of retribution, might
still guide her; might still direct the stroke of her destroying
weapon--the last stroke ere she was discovered and slain--straight to
the girl's heart.

Thoughts such as these--wandering and obscure--arose in close, quick
succession within her; but whether she gave them expression in word and
action, or whether she suppressed them in silence, she never wavered or
halted in her rapid progress. Her energies were braced to all
emergencies, and her strong will suffered them not for an instant to
relax.

She gained a retired street in the deserted suburbs, and looking round
to see that she was unobserved, entered on of the houses abandoned by
its inhabitants on th