. The sorceress of Rome. d or parley! The Saxon spearmen who had guarded the approach to theavenue gathered hurriedly round them. For at that momentthe great bell of the Capitol, whose tolling had ceased for atime, began its clamour anew and the shouts of the masses,subdued and hushed during the interval, rose with increasedfury. They drowned the great sob of anguish, which hadwelled up from Stephanias heart, but when Otto, his attentiondistracted for the nonce by the uproar, turned round, thewoman had gone. Nor did Eckhardt, inwardly rejoicing over the revelation, 372 THE LAST TRYST grant him
. The sorceress of Rome. d or parley! The Saxon spearmen who had guarded the approach to theavenue gathered hurriedly round them. For at that momentthe great bell of the Capitol, whose tolling had ceased for atime, began its clamour anew and the shouts of the masses,subdued and hushed during the interval, rose with increasedfury. They drowned the great sob of anguish, which hadwelled up from Stephanias heart, but when Otto, his attentiondistracted for the nonce by the uproar, turned round, thewoman had gone. Nor did Eckhardt, inwardly rejoicing over the revelation, 372 THE LAST TRYST grant him one moments respite. Surroimded by his trustySaxon spears, Otto felt himself hurried along towards the gatesof his palace, which they reached in safety, the insurrectionhaving not yet spread to that region. Vainly had he strained his gaze into the haze of the moonlitnight. The end had come, — Stephania had gone. When he reached his chamber, Otto sank senseless on thefloor. 379 CHAPTER XV THE STORM OF CASTEL SAN ANGELO. HE sun of autumn hung Iik«9a bloody circle over Rome, butseemed to give neither Ught norwarmth. The city itself pre-sented a seething cauldron ofrebellion. The gates had beenclosed the advancingGermans and when, with thefirst streak of dawn, Haco hadarrived under the Marianhill with the contingents from Tivoli, they found them-selves before a city, which had to be reconquered ere theycould even join the comparatively weak garrison on theAventine, where Otto was a prisoner in his own palace. Duringthe night Eckhardt had assayed to reach a place of concealmenton the Tiburtine road, where he awaited the arrival of hisforces, which he had immediately marshalled in their respectivepositions. Castel San Angelo rested on; an impregnable rock,but Eckhardt had sworn a terrible oath, that he would scaleits walls before the sim of another day rose behind the Albanhills; and although a rain of arrows and bolts, so dense anddeadly that it threatened to break the
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