disenchanted, I surveyed more calmly the extent
of the actual peril with which we were threatened,
and the peril seemed less, so surveyed.

It is true, all the Bush-land behind, almost up
to the bed of the creek, was on fire; but the
grasses, through which the flame spread so
rapidly, ceased at the opposite marge of the
creek. Watery pools were still, at intervals,
left in the bed of the creek, shining tremulous,
like waves of fire, in the glare reflected from the
burning land; and even, where the water failed,
the stony course of the exhausted rivulet was a
barrier against the march of the conflagration.
Thus, unless the wind, now still, should rise,
and waft some sparks to the parched combustible
herbage immediately around us, we were
saved from the fire, and our work might yet be
achieved.

l whispered to Ayesha the conclusion to which
I came.

"Thinkest thou," she answered, without raising
her mournful head, "that the Agencies of
Nature are the movements of chance. The
Spirits I invoked to his aid are leagued with the
hosts that assail. A Mightier than I am has
doomed him!"

Scarcely had she uttered these words before
Margrave exclaimed, "Behold how the Rose of
the alchemist's dream enlarges its bloom from
the folds of its petals! I shall live, I shall live!"

I looked, and the liquid which glowed in the
caldron had now taken a splendour that mocked
all comparisons borrowed from the lustre of
gems. In its prevalent colour it had, indeed, the
dazzle and flash of the ruby; but, out from the
mass of the molten red, broke corruscations of all
prismal hues, shooting, shifting, in a play that
made the wavelets themselves seem living things
sensible of their joy. No longer was there scum
or film upon the surface; only ever and anon a
light rosy vapour floating up, and quick lost in
the haggard, heavy, sulphurous air, hot with the
conflagration, rushing towards us from behind.
And these corruscations formed, on the surface
of the molten ruby, literally the shape of a Rose,
its leaves made distinct in their outlines by sparks
of emerald, and diamond, and sapphire.

Even while gazing on this animate liquid
lustre, a buoyant delight seemed infused into
my senses; all terrors, conceived before, were
annulled; the phantoms, whose armies had filled
the wide spaces in front, were forgotten; the
crash of the forest behind was unheard. In the
reflexion of that glory, Margrave's wan cheek
seemed already restored to the radiance it wore
when I saw it first in the framework of blooms.

As I gazed, thus enchanted, a cold hand
touched my own.

"Hush!" whispered Ayesha, from the black
veil, against which the rays from the caldron
fell blunt, and absorbed into Dark.
"Behind us, the light of the circle is extinct, but,
there, we are guarded from all save the brutal
and soulless destroyers. But, before!—but,
before!—see! two of the lamps have died out!—
see the blank of the gap in the ring! Guard
that breach—there, the demons will enter."

"Not a drop is there left in this vessel by
which to replenish the lamps on the ring."

"Advance, then; thou hast still the light of
the soul, and the demons may recoil before a
soul that is dauntless and guiltless. If not,
Three are lost!—as it is, One is doomed."

Thus adjured, silently, involuntarily, I passed
from the Veiled Woman's side, over the sere
lines on the turf which had been traced by the
triangles of light long since extinguished, and
towards the verge of the circle. As I advanced,
overhead rushed a dark cloud of wings, birds
dislodged from the forest on fire, and screaming,
in dissonant terror, as they flew towards the
furthermost mountains: close by my feet hissed
and glided the snakes, driven forth from their
blazing coverts, and glancing through the ring,
unscared by its waning lamps; all undulating by
me, bright-eyed and hissing; all made innocuous
by fear: even the terrible Death-adder, which
I trampled on as I halted at the verge of the
circle, did not turn to bite, but crept harmless
away. I halted at the gap between the two
dead lamps, and bowed my head to look again
into the crystal vessel. Were there, indeed, no
lingering drops yet left, if but to recruit the
lamps for some priceless minutes more? As I
thus stood, right into the gap between the two
dead lamps, strode a gigantic Foot. All the
rest of the form was unseen; only, as volume
after volume of smoke poured on from the
burning land behind, it seemed as if one great
column of vapour, eddying round, settled itself
aloft from the circle, and that out from that
column strode the giant Foot. And, as strode
the Foot, so with it came, like the sound of its
tread, a roll of muttered thunder.

I recoiled, with a cry that rang loud through
the lurid air.

"Courage!" said the voice of Ayesha.
"Trembling soul, yield not an inch to the
demon!"

At the charm, the wonderful charm, in the
tone of the Veiled Woman's voice, my will
seemed to take a force more sublime than its
own. I folded my arms on my breast, and stood
as if rooted to the spot, confronting the column
of smoke and the stride of the giant Foot. And
the Foot halted, mute.

Again, in the momentary hush of that
suspense, I heard a voice—it was Margrave's.

"The last hour expires—the work is
accomplished! Come! come!—aid me to take the
caldron from the fire—and, quick! or a drop
may be wasted in vapour, the Elixir of Life,
from the caldron!"

At that cry I receded, and the Foot advanced.

And at that moment, suddenly, unawares, from
behind, I was stricken down. Over me, as I
lay, swept a whirlwind of trampling hoofs and
glancing horns. The herds, in their flight from
the burning pastures, had rushed over the bed of
the watercourse—scaled the slopes of the banks.