"We are nearly there," he at length said.
Without lifting the veil, she glanced at a low wall on the left-hand sh.o.r.e, then at a landing, shaky from age and neglect, in front of a gate in the wall; and seeing it densely blockaded, she spoke:
"Please put me ash.o.r.e here. I have no time to lose."
The bank was soft and steep.
"You cannot make it."
"I can if you will give me your oar for a step."
"I will."
In a few minutes she was on land. Pausing then to toss the gold piece to the boatman, she heard his thanks, and started hastily for the gate.
Within the Cynegion, she fell in with some persons walking rapidly, and talking of the coming event as if it were a comedy.
"He is a Russian, you say?"
"Yes, and what is strange, he is the very man who got the Prince of India"s negro"--
"The giant?"
"Yes--who got him to drown that fine young fellow Demedes."
"Where is the negro now?"
"In a cell here."
"Why didn"t they give him to the lion?"
"Oh, he had a friend--the Princess Irene."
"What is to be done with him?"
"Afterwhile, when the affair of the cistern is forgotten, he will be given a purse, and set free."
"Pity! For what sport to have seen him in front of the old Tartar!"
"Yes, he"s a fighter." In the midst of this conversation, the party came in sight of the central building, externally a series of arches supporting a deep cornice handsomely bal.u.s.traded, and called the Gallery.
"Here we are!--But see the people on the top! I was afraid we would be too late. Let us hurry."
"Which gate?"
"The western--it"s the nearest."
"Can"t we get in under the grand stand?"
"No, it"s guarded."
These loquacious persons turned off to make the western gate; but the woman in brown kept on, and ere long was brought to the grand stand on the north. An arched tunnel, amply wide, ran under it, with a gate at the further end admitting directly to the arena. A soldier of the foreign legion held the mouth of the tunnel.
"Good friend," she began, in a low, beseeching tone, "is the heretic who is to suffer here yet?"
"He was brought out last night."
"Poor man! I am a friend of his"--her voice trembled--"may I see him?"
"My orders are to admit no one--and I do not know which cell he is in."
The supplicant, sobbing and wringing her hands, stood awhile silent.
Then a roar, very deep and hoa.r.s.e, apparently from the arena, startled her and she trembled.
"Tamerlane!" said the soldier.
"O G.o.d!" she exclaimed. "Is the lion turned in already?"
"Not yet. He is in his den. They have not fed him for three days."
She stayed her agitation, and asked: "What are your orders?"
"Not to admit any one."
"To the cells?"
"The cells, and the arena also."
"Oh, I see! You can let me stand at the gate yonder?"
"Well--yes. But if you are the monk"s friend, why do you want to see him die?"
She made no reply, but took from a pocket a bezant, and contrived to throw its yellow gleam in the sentinel"s eyes.
"Is the gate locked?"
"No, it is barred on this side."
"Does it open into the arena?"
"Yes."
"I do not ask you to violate your orders," she continued, calmly; "only let me go to the gate, and see the man when he is brought out."
She offered him the money, and he took it, saying: "Very well. I can see no harm in that. Go."
The gate in question was open barred, and permitted a view of nearly the whole circular interior. The spectacle presented was so startling she caught one of the bars for support. Throwing back the veil, she looked, breathing sighs which were almost gasps. The arena was clear, and thickly strewn with wet sand. There were the walls shutting it in, like a pit, and on top of them, on the ascending seats back to the last one--was it a cloud she beheld? A second glance, and she recognized the body of spectators, men, women and children, compacted against the sky.
How many of them there were! Thousands and thousands! She clasped her hands, and prayed.
Twelve o"clock was the hour for the expiation.