From the rapid pace and the attention which the pair seemed to bestow upon the approaching galley below, Afer concluded that they were proceeding down to the southern landing‐place, to watch the movements of the vessel, in accordance with the severe and rigorous guard which was kept over the Emperor’s island home. A few words, overheard as they passed, at a very short distance from him, confirmed this conjecture. The natural bent of his inclination to know as much as possible of what was going on around him was in the greatest measure stimulated by the monotony of island life. The growing sharpness of the evening air, moreover, prompted action, so he rose and followed in the same direction, as soon as he could do so without being observed. The night shades were falling, and objects were beginning to wear an indistinct and uncertain shape. The Campanian shores were already dim, but the mountains behind heaved in dark purple masses against the clear heavens. The valley of Capreae lay in the dusk of its groves, backed by the clear‐cut, towering peak of the island mountain, over which hung the slender crescent of a young silver moon in the luminous flush of the western sky. The faint, wan rays of the satellite rendered the light only more ghostly and uncertain, save on the uplifted summit of the cliffs, where the white masonry of the villa Jovis gleamed with a pale illumination. Following the footsteps of Martialis and his companion, Afer, with scarcely less rapid step, soon quitted the cliffs, and, after crossing a small valley, arrived at the foot of one of those conical hills before mentioned. Skirting the base of this, he came out upon an elevation, wherefrom he could see to which point the vessel was tending. Having satisfied himself on this point, that she was undoubtedly making for the landing‐place below, he once more made his devious and steep, not to say difficult, way down to the rocky strand. He debouched at last, by a zigzag flight of steps cut out of the rock, upon a little strip of stony beach, encumbered by large boulders, of which one or two were fragments of huge dimensions. To the westward loomed the large forms of the three detached rocks lying in the sea, one beyond the other, like gigantic stepping‐stones, and passing now by these the knight observed the slowly approaching galley. It was as much as he was able to do, for the gloom was fast merging into darkness. Several fishing‐boats were drawn up on the pebbly beach, and, at the foot of the steps, a portion of rock had been excavated and turned into a shelter‐house, or coastguard station. In the dark shadow of this Afer noticed, as he expected, the forms of some watchers, and as he was already sufficiently near to hear and see all that occurred, he quietly arrested his steps, and refrained from subjecting himself to an inquisitive scrutiny. The watchers awaited in silence, broken only by whispers, and listened to the slow measured clank of the