gigantic and almost unrecognisable form, following him waveringly like a
malevolent spirit. His footsteps woke hollow reverberations; the water
gurgled and sobbed, and an odor suggestive of the tomb added to the
impression that he was wandering in some unexplored catacomb. He could
proceed but slowly, and the low temperature chilled him to the bone, but
he pushed on resolutely as it seemed to him for interminable hours. "I
shall go mad," he thought, "if there is no change in this deadly
monotony," and at that instant the vault echoed with the beat of
hurrying footsteps.

Brandilancia could see the distant flare of torches, and he knew that
his candle was as plainly visible to his pursuers. He dared not
extinguish it, but quickened his pace to a run, slipping, almost falling
into the water as he dashed recklessly forward. Suddenly, but not an
instant too soon, he halted before a void. The pathway had disappeared;
another step and he would have plunged into a reservoir of unknown depth
which yawned without a barrier before him.

As he lifted his candle and peered across the wide expanse he saw that
the tunnel was closed directly opposite him by a wall of solid masonry,
and in his dismay almost a minute elapsed before he discovered to the
left an open archway which indicated that the tunnel here turned at an
angle. But how should he cross to this doorway? The coping which
separated the cistern from the canal in the centre of the tunnel was too
narrow and the water poured over it noisily. He was about to attempt
swimming when he noticed that he was standing upon a plank, evidently
placed here to be used as a bridge. He retreated a few steps and pushed
it cautiously forward. It reached across the cistern and rested upon the
sill of the arched doorway.

In the brief interval thus consumed the footsteps had gained upon him
and in the light of the approaching torches he plainly recognised
Radicofani, who shouted to him to surrender. Thus beset he ventured the
crossing, but the plank was rotten and broke under his weight, falling
with him into the reservoir. He struck out in the direction in which he
imagined the archway to be, by good fortune found it by feeling along
the wall, and clambered upon the ledge which ran along the side of the
conduit as in the first tunnel.

He had suffered no other harm than the thorough wetting and the loss of
his candles, and the torches of his pursuers, who had now reached the
opposite sid