On this he started, sighed deeply, and looked wildly round on me. This gave me a scare, so that I let go of his sleeve, and took a step back from him. I perceived I had awakened the lad from a sort of trance.
“I beg your pardon ...” I began.
“Tirralirra,” cried he, in his shrill voice, “he begs pardon of Dominic! He ought to beg pardon of the great magician.”
“What mean you?” asked I; but he stood stock still, his head fallen upon his breast, and, when I bent forward, peering into his eyes, I saw that the lifeless and filmy look had returned upon them, and that the lad was fallen back into his strange trance.
Presently he stirred, and began to walk on with the same slow and dreamy motion as before.
I let him go his way, and went mine.
CHAPTER XXX.
HOW NOW?
As I awoke on the morrow, I felt a weight come over me: ’twas the day on which, by order of the Doctor, Ambrose was to die.
Nay, I could have wept to think that the poor man was already dead.
I got up, and, not staying for breakfast, hasted forth. I went to Ambrose’s cell; but found it empty, and nobody in the passage. I went out, and quickly traversed the wood. Coming forth upon the cliff, I saw a strange sight. The nearer slope of the rising ground hard by the fortifications, and a great semicircle of the ground below, was all covered with pirates standing or seated on the grass.