thought they had got into some wrong branch of the cavern, and feared some new danger. Caphtor would have gone forward to encounter it, but Sephora begged that whatever befel them they might remain together.

They did not remain long in this anxious situation, for on advancing a little farther she had the comfort of laying her hand upon her woollen hyke, and following it with her touch till she found where it was shut into the door, she proclaimed the welcome news of their being arrived at the extremity of the cavern. The hyke had kept the door from being quite closed, and but for this circumstance they had probably found it impossible to open it. This also it was that had occasioned the rush of air that extinguished their torches.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

THE thankfulness of their hearts when they had passed this last barrier and closed the stone portal could scarcely be expressed. Excitement had given Sephora a temporary strength, but now all intermediate danger was passed, she became sensible how completely she was exhausted, and felt that she must rest. Caphtor proposed they should remain where they were till there was light enough to guide them, and wrapping her round in her friendly hyke and burnoose, made her promise to close her eyes and endeavour to sleep, while he and Arbelio kept

watch.

When the sun was risen, they resumed their way towards the place where they had pitched their tent. Caphtor said they were not more than eight hours from it, and he had marked the way so well, that though he passed it by moonlight, he thought he should

VOL. II.

I

be able to find it again. Their thoughts had yet been too tumultuous to allow of any regular narration of the events that led them to the robber's cave, but now that their feelings were more calm, and their situation more secure, they were each impatient to hear the other's adventures.

At

Sephora related hers first; and then Caphtor began with describing the misery of his mind at missing her, and the various fancies that possessed him. Sometimes he thought she had fallen into the sea or over precipices, then, that she must have become the prey of robbers or wild beasts. length he traced her steps to the entrance of the shrubby glen, and when he saw it, readily imagined she might have been tempted to wander down it. He followed the same path she had taken, calling out her name, and often fancying, in the roar of the distant cataract, or the reverberation of the rocks, that he heard her voice.

He went forward till he came to the cave where the Arabs had seized her: and here the certainty of her fate flashed at once upon

him. The gathered flowers that had fallen from her hand, the place where the horses had been standing, the remains of the unfinished meal, told the whole truth to his distracted mind. Yet a ray of hope broke through his despair: he could trace the print of the horses' feet on the turf, and he might yet pursue and rescue her. He gathered up the provisions which he thought seemed providentially left in the cave, and went eagerly forward, following the steps of the coursers with a speed that would almost have left them behind. He continued his way with unabated swiftness for almost two hours, when the light failing, he could no longer trace his road, and he was constrained to sit down and wait till the tedious night was past, well knowing that if he once lost his only guide, all hopes of recovering her would be gone for ever.

The sense of his own calamity, and the dangers to which she might be exposed, now came upon his mind with redoubled keenness. During the speed of pursuit, there was scarcely time for any regular chain of

thought, and his misery found some relief in the vigorous exertions he was making to recover his lost treasure. But now that he was left to solitude and inaction, the bitterness of his grief became almost intolerable, and would have been utterly so, but for that alleviation he found in fervent and unceasing prayer-it seemed the only stiptic for his bleeding heart.

He was not left very long in this situation, for two robbers who were prowling about these deserts had caught sight of him from the heights, and darted on him as their prey. He offered no resistance; he even hailed their approach, for he looked on them as guides who would conduct him more quickly to Sephora. He questioned them about what luck they had had that day before, but could gain no satisfactory intelligence. He renewed his inquiries when he got to the cave, but with no better success. And when he found that she was not there, the whole bent of his mind was to accomplish his escape, and he only dissembled his grief that he might the more surely attain his