A crowd quickly gathered around the bruised and bleeding form. His case was notorious in Antionum, and it was generally believed that his dumbness was brought upon him through sorcery; hence, even while he was shunned by the people, there were many who sympathized with him, so far, at least, as execrating those who had been the means, as they thought, of bringing the evil upon him. Corianton ran to the man and raised him to a sitting posture, but he never regained consciousness; a few painful gasps, and the body sank back into the arms of the young man, limp and lifeless. One of the guards of the city came up to the crowd, and, recognizing the body as that of the dumb, half-crazed beggar, he took charge of it, and finally interred it. As Corianton walked away with the mangled form of the once bold anti-Christ vividly pictured in his mind, he muttered half aloud--"This is one of the judgments of God--cruel, infinitely cruel! He above all others could have been generous and have pardoned him before his justice," and he fairly hissed the word, "had turned to cruelty!" By this time he had reached his lodgings, one of the finest palaces in all that city, and strange enough, it was the home of one of the chief Zoramites who had been especially pleased, or at least feigned to be especially pleased, with Corianton, and had invited him to make his house his home. At the entrance to the walk leading up to the house, he was met by a woman, who asked if he was one of the Nephite prophets that had come to preach the doctrines of the Nephites to the Zoramites. Corianton answered that he was of that party. "And is your name Corianton?" "Yes, that is my name." "Then at last I have found you!" CHAPTER SEVEN. JOAN. Was the woman who accosted Corianton at the gate of his lodging, young, beautiful? He could not tell; the twilight had deepened too much into the shadow of night, to permit him to see clearly; but there was a fascination in the full, sweet tones of her voice, and he was thrilled by the touch of her soft hand, as she laid it gently on his arm, as if to detain him while asking the questions with which the last chapter closed. "You are going to Seantum's?" "Yes, that is where I lodge." "I will go with you." He hesitated, and was not a little astonished at her perfect self-possession, which, to his thinking, bordered on boldness. It must be remembered that among the Nephites, one of the chief characteristics of their women, so far as one is able to judge from their annals, was modesty--an excellent thing in woman, when not feigned or prudish. The freedom, therefore, with which this woman had accosted him, a perfect stranger, and now proposed to go with him, uninvited, to the place where he lodged, was a boldness to which Corianton was unaccustomed. She observed that he hesitated, and broke out into a light, silvery laugh.