losed round as it was with jutting and sharp crags, yawned
before her: she went several yards along this gloomy path, which sloped
gradually downwards, as if towards the bowels of the earth, and, lifting
a stone, deposited her treasure in a hole beneath, which, as the lamp
pierced its secrets, seemed already to contain coins of various value,
wrung from the credulity or gratitude of her visitors.

'I love to look at you,' said she, apostrophising the moneys; 'for when
I see you I feel that I am indeed of power. And I am to have twenty
years' longer life to increase your store! O thou great Hermes!'

She replaced the stone, and continued her path onward for some paces,
when she stopped before a deep irregular fissure in the earth. Here, as
she bent--strange, rumbling, hoarse, and distant sounds might be heard,
while ever and anon, with a loud and grating noise which, to use a
homely but faithful simile, seemed to resemble the grinding of steel
upon wheels, volumes of streaming and dark smoke issued forth, and
rushed spirally along the cavern.

'The Shades are noisier than their wont,' said the hag, shaking her grey
locks; and, looking into the cavity, she beheld, far down, glimpses of a
long streak of light, intensely but darkly red. 'Strange!' she said,
shrinking back; 'it is only within the last two days that dull, deep
light hath been visible--what can it portend?'

The fox, who had attended the steps of his fell mistress, uttered a
dismal howl, and ran cowering back to the inner cave; a cold shuddering
seized the hag herself at the cry of the animal, which, causeless as it
seemed, the superstitions of the time considered deeply ominous. She
muttered her placatory charm, and tottered back into her cavern, where,
amidst her herbs and incantations, she prepared to execute the orders of
the Egyptian.

'He called me dotard,' said she, as the smoke curled from the hissing
cauldron: 'when the jaws drop, and the grinders fall, and the heart
scarce beats, it is a pitiable thing to dote; but when,' she added, with
a savage and exulting grin, 'the young, and the beautiful, and the
strong, are suddenly smitten into idiocy--ah, that is terrible! Burn,
flame--simmer herb--swelter toad--I cursed him, and he shall be cursed!'

On that night, and at the same hour which witnessed the dark and unholy
interview between Arbaces and the Saga, Apaecides was baptized.

Chapter XI

PROGRESS OF EVENTS. THE PLOT THICKENS. THE W