She wound her arms round him as she spoke, and he roused himself from
his world out of earth again. Though he could bring no comfort, there
was something, at least, to the forlorn one, in his words of love, in
his tears of pity.

They sat down together, side by side, as the evening darkened,--the
Eureka forgotten in the hour of its perfection! They noted not the
torches which flashed below, reddened at intervals the walls of their
chamber, and gave a glow to the gay gilding and bright hues of the
gaudy model. Yet those torches flickered round the litter that was to
convey Henry the Peaceful to the battlefield, which was to decide the
dynasty of his realm! The torches vanished, and forth from the dark
fortress went the captive king.

Night succeeded to eve, when again the red glare shot upward on the
Eureka, playing with fantastic smile on its quaint aspect. Steps and
voices, and the clatter of arms, sounded in the yard, on the stairs,
in the adjoining chamber; and suddenly the door was flung open, and,
followed by some half score soldiers, strode in the terrible friar.

"Aha, Master Adam! who is the greater nigromancer now? Seize him!
Away! And help you, Master Sergeant, to bear this piece of the foul
fiend's cunning devising. Ho, ho! see you how it is tricked out and
furbished up,--all for the battle, I warrant ye!"

The soldiers had already seized upon Adam, who, stupefied by
astonishment rather than fear, uttered no sound, and attempted no
struggle. But it was in vain they sought to tear from him Sibyll's
clinging and protecting arms. A supernatural strength, inspired by a
kind of superstition that no harm could chance to him while she was