. The sorceress of Rome. lings. Farther and farther she wandered awayfrom the inhabited part of the building, when her ear suddenlycaught a metallic sound, sharp, like the striking of a gong. For a moment she remained rooted to the spot, staringstraight before her as one dazed. Then she retraced her stepstowards the Pavilion, whence came singing voices and soundsof high revels. Sometime after she had left her chamber, two Africansentered it, picked up the lifeless body of the Chamberlain, and,after carrying it to a remote part of the building, flung it intothe river. The yellow Tiber hissed in
. The sorceress of Rome. lings. Farther and farther she wandered awayfrom the inhabited part of the building, when her ear suddenlycaught a metallic sound, sharp, like the striking of a gong. For a moment she remained rooted to the spot, staringstraight before her as one dazed. Then she retraced her stepstowards the Pavilion, whence came singing voices and soundsof high revels. Sometime after she had left her chamber, two Africansentered it, picked up the lifeless body of the Chamberlain, and,after carrying it to a remote part of the building, flung it intothe river. The yellow Tiber hissed in white foam over the spot, whereBenilo sank. The mad current dragged his body down to thesUme of the river-bed, picked it up again in its swirl, tossed itin mocking sport from one foam-crested wave to another, andfinally flung it, to rot, on some lonely bank, where the gullsscreamed above it and the gray foxes of the Maremmas gnawedand snapped and snarled over the bleached bones in the moon-Ught. 406 CHAPTER XVII NEMESIS. HILE these events, so closelytouching his own life, trans-pired in the Groves of Theodora,while a Mple traitor met hislong-deferred doom, and atrembling woman cowered fear-struck and tortured by terribleforebodings in her chambers,Eckhardt sat in the shadedloggia of his palace, broodingover the great mystery of his life and its impending solution;meditating upon his course in the final act of the weird one resolution stood out clearly defined in all the chaosof his thoughts. He would not leave Rome ere he had brokendown behind him every bridge leading back into the past. It had been a day such as the oldest inhabitants of Romeremembered none at this late season. The very heavensseemed to smoke with heat. The grass in the gardens was dryand brittle, as if it had been scorched by passing flames. Asingularly profoimd stillness reigned everjrwhere, there beingnot the slightest breeze to stir the faintest rustle among thedry foliage. How long Eckhardt had
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