It was like a church--like some old deserted church, filled with the chill atmosphere of the grave; and the slow movement of the wind-shaken tapestries, the glimmer of the ghostly white stairs in the dim distance, and the solemnity of the huge pillars of black marble, made me think of those God-cursed cities of the "Thousand and One Nights," whose silence is only broken by the voice of the one survivor chanting the melancholy verses of the Koran. Bianca, overpowered by this mute spectacle of a dead past, clung convulsively to my arm with faltering prayers on her lips, and I became afraid lest, by a feeling of sympathy, her terror should unnerve me also, so with a cheerful laugh, which echoed dismally through the vast vestibule, I led her onward towards the grand staircase. "Come, Signorina, do not be afraid. You are quite safe with me." "Yes, yes! Guiseppe! Guiseppe!" We slowly ascended the staircase, gained the corridor, and at length arrived at the second flight of shallow steps leading to the secret room. Here Bianca, seeing the darkness, nearly fainted with nervous fear, for, deeply imbued with grim Italian superstitions, she beheld unseen terrors in every shadowy corner. I again wanted her to return, but with wilful obstinacy she refused, so, as I luckily had a pocket-flask of brandy with me, I made her take a little to revive her. The fiery spirit put new life into her sinking limbs, and, after lighting my candle as usual, I led her up the steps, through the short corridor, through the tapestried ante-chamber, until at last we stood in the fatal room. "Here, Signor Hugo!" "Yes!" She flung back her veil with a feverish gesture, and peered into the darkness, which was hardly broken by the feeble light of the small candle I carried. Suddenly a thought struck me which I at once put into execution, and lighted all the tapers yet remaining in the candelabra on the table. To the darkness succeeded a blaze of mellow light, and Bianca, with a look of surprise on her face, gazed round the singular room with the white pillars, the ominous blood-red hangings, and the banquet of the dead set forth with such splendid display on the gilt table. "What a strange room!" she said timidly. "Signor Hugo! what does it mean?" "I have told you all I know, Signorina. Your lover was lured to this room. I saw him pass through that door, and then I was drugged as I have said." "You did not then see who received him here?" "No! I did not." The first part of the lie was difficult to utter on account of a choking feeling in my throat, but the last sentence came out with tolerable grace. "And you do not think Guiseppe left this room again?" "I'm afraid not, Signorina!" "Then, where can he be?" she asked with an anxious look around. "I think he is concealed in some secret cell, the entrance to which is from this apartment." "Oh, Signor Hugo, let us look for it at once." "Certainly!"