duty," he said to his comrades,--"obey."

In a moment I was thrown on the earth, bound, blindfolded, and hurried away

--liberty of limb and sight was only restored to me, when, surrounded by

dungeon-walls, dark and impervious, I found myself a prisoner and alone.

Such was the result of my attempt to gain over the proselyte of this man of

crime; I could not conceive that he would dare put me to death.--Yet I

was in his hands; the path of his ambition had ever been dark and cruel;

his power was founded upon fear; the one word which might cause me to die,

unheard, unseen, in the obscurity of my dungeon, might be easier to speak

than the deed of mercy to act. He would not risk probably a public

execution; but a private assassination would at once terrify any of my

companions from attempting a like feat, at the same time that a cautious

line of conduct might enable him to avoid the enquiries and the vengeance

of Adrian.

Two months ago, in a vault more obscure than the one I now inhabited, I had

revolved the design of quietly laying me down to die; now I shuddered at

the approach of fate. My imagination was busied in shaping forth the kind

of death he would inflict. Would he allow me to wear out life with famine;

or was the food administered to me to be medicined with death? Would he

steal on me in my sleep; or should I contend to the last with my murderers,

knowing, even while I struggled, that I must be overcome? I lived upon an

earth whose diminished population a child's arithmetic might number; I had

lived through long months with death stalking close at my side, while at

513

The Last Man