of Margrave, watching with him the process at work in the caldron, when I
felt the ground slightly vibrate beneath my feet, and, looking up, it
seemed as if all the plains beyond the circle were heaving like the swell
of the sea, and as if in the air itself there was a perceptible tremor.

I placed my hand on Margrave's shoulder and whispered, "To me earth and
air seem to vibrate. Do they seem to vibrate to you?"

"I know not, I care not," he answered impetuously. "The essence is
bursting the shell that confined it. Here are my air and my earth!
Trouble me not. Look to the circle! feed the lamps if they fail."

I passed by the Veiled Woman as I walked towards a place in the ring in
which the flame was waning dim; and I whispered to her the same question
which I had whispered to Margrave. She looked slowly around, and
answered, "So is it before the Invisible make themselves visible! Did I
not bid him forbear?" Her head again drooped on her breast, and her watch
was again fixed on the fire.

I advanced to the circle and stooped to replenish the light where it
waned. As I did so, on my arm, which stretched somewhat beyond the line
of the ring, I felt a shock like that of electricity. The arm fell to my
side numbed and nerveless, and from my hand dropped, but within the ring,
the vessel that contained the fluid. Recovering my surprise or my stun,
hastily with the other hand I caught up the vessel, but some of the scanty
liquid was already spilled on the sward; and I saw with a thrill of
dismay, that contrasted indeed the tranquil indifference with which I had
first undertaken my charge, how small a supply was now left.

I went back to Margrave, and told him of the shock, and of its consequence