ve so, since otherwise we suffer
much in vain. Now tell me, how and when do I die?"

"I hope you will not die at all, Olaf. Certain plans are laid which
even here I dare not whisper. To-morrow I hear they will lead you again
before the judges, who, by Irene's clemency, will change your sentence
to one of banishment, with secret orders to kill you on the voyage. But
you will never make that voyage. Other schemes are afoot; you'll learn
of them afterwards."

"Yet, Martina, if you know these plots the Augusta knows them also,
since you and she are one."

"When those dagger points were thrust into your eyes, Olaf, they cut the
thread that bound us, and now Irene and I are more far apart than
hell and heaven. I tell you that for your sake I hate her and work her
downfall. Am I not your god-mother, Olaf?"

Then again she kissed my hand and presently was gone.

On the following morning, as I supposed it to be, my jailers came and
said to me that I must appear before the judges to hear some revision of
my sentence. They dressed me in my soldier's gear, and even allowed me
to gird my sword about me, knowing, doubtless, that, save to himself, a
blind man could do no mischief with a sword. Then they led me I know
not whither by passages which turned now here, now there. At length we
entered some place, for doors were closed behind us.

"This is the Hall of Judgment," said one of them, "but the judges
have not yet come. It is a great room and bare. There is nothing in it
against which you can hurt yourself. Therefore, if it pleases you after
being cramped so long in that narrow cell, you may walk to and fro,
keeping your hands in front of you so that you will know when you touch
the further wall and must turn."

I thanked them and, glad enough to avail myself of this grace for
my limbs were stiff with want of exercise, began to walk joyfully. I
thought that the room must be one of those numberless apartments which
opened on to the terrace, since distinctly I could hear the wash of the
sea coming from far beneath, doubtless through the open window-places.

Forward I stepped boldly, but at a certain point in my march this
curious thing happened. A hand seemed to seize my own and draw me to the
left. Wondering, I followed the guidance of the hand, which presently
left hold of mine. Thereon I continued my march, and as I did so,
thought that I heard another sound, like to that of a suppressed murmur
of human voices. Twenty