The scene before the altar of idols was fast proceeding to its fatal
climax.
The Pagan's frenzy had exhausted itself in its own fury--his insanity
was assuming a quieter and a more dangerous form; his eye grew cunning
and suspicious; a stealthy deliberation and watchfulness appeared in all
his actions. He now slowly lifted his foot from Goisvintha's breast,
and raised his hands at the same time to strike her back if she should
attempt to escape. Seeing that she lay senseless from her fall, he left
her; retired to one of the corners of the temple, took from it a rope
that lay there, and returning, bound her arms behind her at the hands
and wrists. The rope cut deep through the skin--the pain restored her
to her senses; she suffered the sharp agony in her own body, in the same
place where she had inflicted it on the young chieftain at the farm-
house beyond the suburbs.
The minute after, she felt herself dragged along the ground, farther
into the interior of the building. The madman drew her up to the iron
gates of the passage through the partition, and fastening the end of the
rope to them, left her there.
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