That grating slants upwards, and looks to the west, so that any one confined in that dreary dungeon might be tantalized, on a sweet summer’s day, by seeing the sweet blue sky, and occasionally the white clouds flitting by in that freedom which he cannot hope for.

The carol of a bird, too, might reach him there.  Alas! sad remembrance of life, and joy, and liberty.

But now all is deepening gloom.  The prisoner sees nothing—­hears nothing; and the sky is not quite dark.  That small grating looks like a strange light-patch in the dungeon wall.

Hark! some footstep sounds upon his ear.  The creaking of a door follows—­a gleam of light shines into the dungeon, and the tall mysterious-looking figure in the cloak stands before the occupant of that wretched place.

Then comes in the other man, and he carries in his hand writing materials.  He stoops to the stone couch on which the prisoner lies, and offers him a pen, as he raises him partially from the miserable damp pallet.

But there is no speculation in the eyes of that oppressed man.  In vain the pen is repeatedly placed in his grasp, and a document of some length, written on parchment, spread out before him to sign.  In vain is he held up now by both the men, who have thus mysteriously sought him in his dungeon; he has not power to do as they would wish him.  The pen falls from his nerveless grasp, and, with a deep sigh, when they cease to hold him up, he falls heavily back upon the stone couch.

Then the two men looked at each other for about a minute silently; after which he who was the shorter of the two raised one hand, and, in a voice of such concentrated hatred and passion as was horrible to hear, he said,—­

“D—­n!”

The reply of the other was a laugh; and then he took the light from the floor, and motioned the one who seemed so little able to control his feelings of bitterness and disappointment to leave the place with him.

With a haste and vehemence, then, which showed how much angered he was, the shorter man of the two now rolled up the parchment, and placed it in a breast-pocket of his coat.

He cast a withering look of intense hatred on the form of the nearly-unconscious prisoner, and then prepared to follow the other.

But when they reached the door of the dungeon, the taller man of the two paused, and appeared for a moment or two to be in deep thought; after which he handed the lamp he carried to his companion, and approached the pallet of the prisoner.

He took from his pocket a small bottle, and, raising the head of the feeble and wounded man, he poured some portion of the contents into his mouth, and watched him swallow it.

The other looked on in silence, and then they both slowly left the dreary dungeon.

* * *

The wind rose, and the night had deepened into the utmost darkness.  The blackness of a night, unillumined by the moon, which would not now rise for some hours, was upon the ancient ruins.  All was calm and still, and no one would have supposed that aught human was within those ancient, dreary looking walls.