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THE second night of the trial had set in; and it was nearly the time in / which Sosia was to brave the dread Unknown, when there entered, at that / very garden-gate which the slave had left ajar -- not, indeed, one of the / mysterious spirits of earth or air, but the heavy and most human form of / Calenus, the priest of Isis. He scarcely noted the humble offerings of / indifferent fruit, and still more indifferent wine, which the pious / Sosia had deemed good enough for the invisible stranger they were / intended to allure. 'Some tribute,' thought he, 'to the garden god. By / my father's head! if his deityship were never better served, he would do / well to give up the godly profession. Ah! were it not for us priests, / the gods would have a sad time of it. And now for Arbaces -- I am / treading a quicksand, but it ought to cover a mine. I have the / Egyptian's life in my power -- what will he value it at?'
As he thus soliloquised, he crossed through the open court into the / peristyle, where a few lamps here and there broke upon the empire of the / starlit night; and issuing from one of the chambers that bordered the / colonnade, suddenly encountered Arbaces.