no treacherous sleep should
again betray him. Instead of seeking his bed of straw, he continued
to walk up and down his dungeon till daylight, straining his eyes in
every direction through the darkness, to watch for any appearances
that might explain these mysteries. While thus engaged, and as nearly
as he could judge (by the time that afterwards elapsed before the
morning came in), about two o'clock, there was a slight tremulous
motion of the floors. He stooped. The motion lasted nearly a minute;
but it was so extremely gentle, that he almost doubted whether it was
real, or only imaginary. He listened. Not a sound could be heard.
Presently, however, he felt a rush of cold air blow upon him; and
dashing towards the quarter whence it seemed to proceed, he stumbled
over something which he judged to be the water ewer. The rush of cold
air was no longer perceptible; and as Vivenzio stretched out his
hands, he found himself close to the walls. He remained motionless for
a considerable time; but nothing occurred during the remainder of the
night to excite his attention, though he continued to watch with
unabated vigilance.

The first approaches of the morning were visible through the grated
windows, breaking, with faint divisions of light, the darkness that
still pervaded every other part, long before Vivenzio was enabled to
distinguish any object in his dungeon. Instinctively and fearfully he
turned his eyes, hot and inflamed with watching, towards them. There
were FOUR! He could _see_ only four: but it might be that some
intervening object prevented the fifth from becoming perceptible; and
he waited impatiently to ascertain if it were so. As the light
strengthened, however, and penetrated every corner of the cell, other
objects of amazement struck his sight. On the ground lay the broken
fragments of the pitcher he had used the day before, and at a small
distance from them, nearer to the wall, stood the one he had noticed
the first night. It was filled with water, and beside it was his food.
He was now certain that, by some mechanical contrivance, an opening
was obtained through the iron wall, and that through this opening the
current of air had found entrance. But how noiseless! For had a
feather almost waved at the time, he must have heard it. Again he
examined that part of the wall; but both to sight and touch it
appeared one even and uniform surface, while to repeated and violent
blows there was no reverberating sound