after what seemed an eternity of pain, "Not to the villa! no, no,
not there! You shall not take me--my curse on him who disobeys me!"

I remember then a fearful sensation, as of being dragged into a deep
whirlpool, from whence I stretched up appealing hands and eyes to
the monk who stood above me--I caught a drowning glimpse of a silver
crucifix glittering before my gaze, and at last, with one loud cry
for help, I sunk--down--down! into an abyss of black night and
nothingness!




CHAPTER III.


There followed a long drowsy time of stillness and shadow. I seemed
to have fallen in some deep well of delicious oblivion and
obscurity. Dream-like images still flitted before my fancy--these
were at first undefinable, but after awhile they took more certain
shapes. Strange fluttering creatures hovered about me--lonely eyes
stared at me from a visible deep gloom; long white bony fingers
grasping at nothing made signs to me of warning or menace. Then--
very gradually, there dawned upon my sense of vision a cloudy red
mist like a stormy sunset, and from the middle of the blood-like
haze a huge black hand descended toward me. It pounced upon my
chest--it grasped my throat in its monstrous clutch, and held me
down with a weight of iron. I struggled violently--I strove to cry
out, but that terrific pressure took from me all power of utterance.
I twisted myself to right and left in an endeavor to escape--but my