For, as soon as he left the tree, a second figure rose from the trench, and reached the shade of the cypress in three leaps. "I have won, Johannes! This time fortune favours the younger brother!" said this personage. And he cautiously followed the man, who was rapidly walking on. But suddenly he lost sight of him; it seemed as if the earth had swallowed him up. And when he had reached the outer wall of the church, where the man had disappeared, the Armenian (for it was Perseus) could discover neither door nor any other opening. "No doubt about it," he said to himself, "the appointment has been made within the temple. I must follow." But at that place the wall could not be climbed. The spy turned a corner, feeling the stones. In vain. The wall was of the same height everywhere. He lost about a quarter of an hour in this search. At last he found a gap; with difficulty he squeezed himself through. And now he found himself in the outer court of the old temple, across which the thick Doric columns threw broad shadows, under cover of which he succeeded in reaching the centre and principal building. He peeped through a chink in the wall, which a current of air had betrayed to him. Within all was dark. But suddenly he was blinded by a dazzling light. When he again opened his eyes, he saw a bright stripe amid the darkness; it issued from a dark lantern, the light of which had been suddenly uncovered. He could distinctly see whatever stood in the line of light; but not the bearer of the lantern. He saw Cethegus the Prefect, who stood close to the statue of the Apostle, and appeared to be leaning against it. In front of him stood a second form, that of a slender woman, upon whose auburn hair fell the glittering light of the lantern. "The lovely Queen of the Goths, by Eros and Anteros!" said the spy to himself. "No disagreeable meeting, be it for love or politics! Hark! she speaks. What a pity that I came too late to hear the beginning of the conversation!" "Therefore, mark well," he heard the Queen say, "the day after to-morrow some great danger is planned to take place on the road before the Tiburtinian Gate." "Good; but what!" asked the voice of the Prefect. "I could learn nothing more exactly. And I can communicate nothing more to you, even if I should hear anything. I dare not meet you here again, for----" She now spoke in a lower tone. Perseus pressed his ear hard against the chink; his sword rattled against the stone, and immediately a ray of the lantern fell upon him. "Hark!" cried a third voice--it was a female voice, that of the bearer of the lantern, who now showed herself in its rays as she quickly turned in the direction of the wall where stood the spy. Perseus recognised a slave in Moorish costume. For one moment all in the temple were silent. Perseus held his breath. He felt that his life was at stake. For Cethegus grasped his sword.