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WHAT words of terror, yet of hope, had Nydia overheard! The next day / Glaucus was to be condemned; yet there lived one who could save him, and / adjudge Arbaces to his doom, and that one breathed within a few steps of / her hiding-place! She caught his cries and shrieks -- his / imprecations -- his prayers, though they fell choked and muffled on her / ear. He was imprisoned, but she knew the secret of his cell: could she / but escape -- could she but seek the praetor he might yet in time be given / to light, and preserve the Athenian. Her emotions almost stifled her; / her brain reeled -- she felt her sense give way -- but by a violent effort / she mastered herself, -- and, after listening intently for several / minutes, till she was convinced that Arbaces had left the space to / solitude and herself, she crept on as her ear guided her to the very / door that had closed upon Calenus. Here she more distinctly caught his / accents of terror and despair. Thrice she attempted to speak, and / thrice her voice failed to penetrate the folds of the heavy door. At / length finding the lock, she applied her lips to its small aperture, and / the prisoner distinctly heard a soft tone breathe his name.
His blood curdled -- his hair stood on end. That awful solitude, what / mysterious and preternatural being could penetrate! 'Who's there? ' he / cried, in new alarm; 'what spectre -- what dread larva, calls upon the / lost Calenus?'