sparks upwards towards the sky.
And long, long after that, when the flames were towering upwards in each
other's embrace above the ruins of the house, it seemed to many as if
they heard, arising from the deepest depths of this furnace of blazing
embers, the half-smothered sound of a deep sonorous voice intoning the
vesper hymn. Perchance it was only imagination, only a delusion of the
senses. Nobody _could_ be singing there now, except it were the _soul_
of the headsman. In a short half-hour the roof collapsed between the
four walls, burying in a burning tomb all that lay beneath it, and
millions of sparks rose straight up into the air.

"So there we have settled your account for you!" cried Dame Zudar, as
the hellish glare of the fire lit up her passion-distorted face. "And
now comes the turn of the castle!"

"Oh, my father! my poor father!" wailed the child, who lay fast bound at
the bottom of the cart beneath a covering of rushes.

The furious virago gazed at her with gnashing teeth.

"Your father indeed! Your _real_ father's turn will come later, my
chicken. And now, my lads, let's be up and doing elsewhere!"

And, with that, she leaped upon the car, seized the reins in her hands
and whipped up the horses, and before and behind her tore the savage,
bloodthirsty mob with torches and pitchforks. There she stood in the
midst of them with dishevelled, storm-tossed tresses like the Genius of
War and Devastation rapt along on frantic steeds, with coiling snakes
for hair, a terrible escort of evil beasts and semi-bestial men, and
ruin and malediction before and behind her.

* * * * *

Zudar, as soon as he had guessed the hellish design of his enemies,
hastily abandoned all attempts to stave in the door, and rushed to the
rear-most room of the house with the intention of escaping into the
garden through the window.

But what was his horror when he perceived that here also the windows
were covered with a fence of dry reeds and faggots, through which the
hissing flames were already beginning to wriggle like fiery
serpents--clouds of smoke were already coming through the shattered
windows.

Back again he hastened into the front room, the windows of which were
guarded by iron shutters, which stopped the intrusion of the flames.
Outside resounded the furious howling of the rioters, and all round
about him too was to be heard the soft hissing fizz of the burning reeds
and the licking of