’Nor will I, by my right hand!  I, too, have taken that terrible oath of secrecy.’

‘Oath! what are oaths to men like us?’

’True oaths of a common fashion; but this!’—­and the stalwart priest shuddered as he spoke.  ‘Yet,’ he continued, in emptying a huge cup of unmixed wine, ’I own to thee, that it is not so much the oath that I dread as the vengeance of him who proposed it.  By the gods! he is a mighty sorcerer, and could draw my confession from the moon, did I dare to make it to her.  Talk no more of this.  By Pollux! wild as those banquets are which I enjoy with him, I am never quite at my ease there.  I love, my boy, one jolly hour with thee, and one of the plain, unsophisticated, laughing girls that I meet in this chamber, all smoke-dried though it be, better than whole nights of those magnificent debauches.’

’Ho! sayest thou so!  To-morrow night, please the gods, we will have then a snug carousal.’

‘With all my heart,’ said the priest, rubbing his hands, and drawing himself nearer to the table.

At this moment they heard a slight noise at the door, as of one feeling the handle.  The priest lowered the hood over his head.

‘Tush!’ whispered the host, ‘it is but the blind girl,’ as Nydia opened the door, and entered the apartment.

’Ho! girl, and how durst thou? thou lookest pale—­thou hast kept late revels?  No matter, the young must be always the young,’ said Burbo, encouragingly.

The girl made no answer, but she dropped on one of the seats with an air of lassitude.  Her color went and came rapidly:  she beat the floor impatiently with her small feet, then she suddenly raised her face, and said with a determined voice: 

’Master, you may starve me if you will—­you may beat me—­you may threaten me with death—­but I will go no more to that unholy place!’

‘How, fool!’ said Burbo, in a savage voice, and his heavy brows met darkly over his fierce and bloodshot eyes; ‘how, rebellious!  Take care.’

‘I have said it,’ said the poor girl, crossing her hands on her breast.

’What! my modest one, sweet vestal, thou wilt go no more!  Very well, thou shalt be carried.’

‘I will raise the city with my cries,’ said she, passionately; and the color mounted to her brow.

‘We will take care of that too; thou shalt go gagged.’

‘Then may the gods help me!’ said Nydia, rising; ’I will appeal to the magistrates.’

‘Thine oath remember!’ said a hollow voice, as for the first time Calenus joined in the dialogue.

At these words a trembling shook the frame of the unfortunate girl; she clasped her hands imploringly.  ‘Wretch that I am!’ she cried, and burst violently into sobs.

Whether or not it was the sound of that vehement sorrow which brought the gentle Stratonice to the spot, her grisly form at this moment appeared in the chamber.

‘How now? what hast thou been doing with my slave, brute?’ said she, angrily, to Burbo.