from him altogether with a decided movement of haughty rejection.  I could not see her face,—­but her attire was regal and splendid, and on her head there shone a jewelled diadem.  Her lover stood apart for a moment with bent head—­then he threw himself on his knees before her and caught her hand in an evident outburst of passionate entreaty.  And while they stood thus together, I saw the phantom-like figure of another woman moving towards them—­she came directly into the foreground of the picture, her white garments clinging round her, her fair hair flung loosely over her shoulders, and her whole demeanour expressing eagerness and fear.  As she approached, the man sprang up from his knees and, with a gesture of fury, drew a dagger from his belt and plunged it into her heart!  I saw her reel back from the blow—­I saw the red blood well up through the whiteness of her clothing, and as she turned towards her murderer, with a last look of appeal, I recognised my own face in hers!—­and in his the face of Santoris!  I uttered a cry,—­or thought I uttered it—­a darkness swept over me—­and the vision vanished!

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*

Another vivid flash struck my eyes, and I found myself looking upon the crowded thoroughfares of a great city.  Towers and temples, palaces and bridges, presented themselves to my gaze in a network of interminable width and architectural splendour, moving and swaying before me like a wave glittering with a thousand sparkles uplifted to the light.  Presently this unsteadiness of movement resolved itself into form and order, and I became, as it were, one unobserved spectator among thousands, of a scene of picturesque magnificence.  It seemed that I stood in the enormous audience hall of a great palace, where there were crowds of slaves, attendants and armed men,—­on all sides arose huge pillars of stone on which were carved the winged heads of monsters and fabulous gods,—­and looming out of the shadows I saw the shapes of four giant Sphinxes which guarded a throne set high above the crowd.  A lambent light played quiveringly on the gorgeous picture, growing more and more vivid as I looked, and throbbing with colour and motion,—­and I saw that on the throne there sat a woman crowned and veiled,—­her right hand held a sceptre blazing with gold and gems.  Slaves clad in costumes of the richest workmanship and design abased themselves on either side of her, and I heard the clash of brazen cymbals and war-like music, as the crowd of people surged and swayed, and murmured and shouted, all apparently moved by some special excitement or interest.  Suddenly I perceived the object on which the general attention was fixed—­the swooning body of a man, heavily bound in chains and lying at the foot of the throne.  Beside him stood a tall black slave, clad in vivid scarlet and masked,—­this sinister-looking creature held a gleaming dagger uplifted