He ceased, and swaying forward, fell, . . a shiver ran through his limbs...one deep, gasping sigh...and all was over. The band of torturers gathered round the body, uttering fierce oaths and exclamations of dismay.
"Both dead!" said one of the individuals in white.. "'Tis a most fatal augury!"
"Fatal indeed!" said another, and turning to the men with the blood stained axes, he added angrily--"Ye were too swift and lavish of your weapons--ye should have let these criminals suffer slowly inch by inch, and yet have left them life enough wherewith to linger on in anguish many hours."
The wretches thus addressed looked sullen and humiliated, and approaching the two corpses, would have brutally inflicted fresh wounds on them, had not the seeming chief of the party interfered.
"Let be.. let be!" he said austerely--"Ye cannot cause the dead to feel, . . would that it were possible! Then might the glorious and god like thirst of vengeance in our great High Priestess be somewhat more appeased in this matter. For the unlawful communion of love between a vestal virgin and an anointed priest cannot be too utterly abhorred and condemned,--and these twain, who thus did foully violate their vows, have perished far too easily. The sanctity of the Temple has been outraged, . . Lysia will not be satisfied, . . and how shall we pacify her righteous wrath, concerning this too tranquil death of the undeserving and impure?"
Drawing all together in a close group they held a whispered consultation, and finally, appearing to have come to some sort of decision, they took up the dead bodies one after another, and flung them carelessly into the dark aperture lately unclosed. As they did this, a stealthy, rustling sound was heard, as of some great creature moving to and fro in the far interior, but they soon locked and barred the iron portal once more, and then took their departure rather hurriedly, leaving the vault by the way Theos had entered it--namely, up the stone stairway that led into Lysia's palace-gardens. As the last echo of their retreating steps died away and the last glimmer of their lurid torches vanished, Theos sprang out from his hiding-place,--his venerable companion slowly followed.
"Oh, God! Can such things be!" he cried loudly, reckless of all possible risk for himself as his voice rang penetratingly through the deep silence--"Were these brute-murderers actual men?--or but the wandering, grim shadows of some long past crime? ... Nay,-- surely I do but dream!--and ghouls and demons born out of nightmare-sleep do vex my troubled spirit! Justice! ... justice for the innocent! ... Is there none in all Al-Kyris?"