The voice again!--the voice was heard again!--"Sacrifice to me in
secret, as thy brethren sacrifice! Give me the living where the living
are, and the dead where the dead!" The air came up cold, and the voice
ceased, and the lamp was like sun, and moon, and stars--it gave no light
in the place of darkness!'
While he spoke, the loose metal again clashed in the vault, for the wind
was strengthening as the evening advanced. 'Hark! the signal to prepare
the sacrifice!' cried the Pagan, turning abruptly to Numerian. 'Listen,
bondman! the living and the dead are within our reach. The breath of
the Invisible strikes them in the street and in the house; they stagger
in the highways, and drop at the temple steps. When the hour comes we
shall go forth and find them. Under my hand they go down into the
cavern beneath. Whether they are hurled dead, or whether they go down
living, they fall through to the iron bars, where the water leaps and
rejoices to receive them! It is mine to sacrifice them above, and thine
to wait for them below, to lift the bars and give them to the river to
be swallowed up! The dead drop down first, the living that are slain by
the Destroyer follow after!'
Here he paused suddenly.
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