It was the room in which, by the glare of the evanescent lightning, he had seen that black square upon the dirty floor.
For a few instants all was dark. At length the candle was brought by the man in the fustian coat.
The youth glanced wildly around him, and speedily recognised that room.
He remembered how deep a sensation of horror seized him when that black square upon the floor first caught his eyes.
He raised himself upon his left arm, and once more looked around.
Great God! was it possible?
That ominous blackness—that sinister square was the mouth of a yawning gulf, the trap-door of which was raised.
A fetid smell rose from the depths below, and the gurgling of a current was faintly heard.
The dread truth was in a moment made apparent to that unhappy boy—much more quickly than it occupies to relate or read. He started from his supine posture, and fell upon his knees at the feet of those merciless villains who had borne him thither.
"Mercy, mercy! I implore you! Oh! do not devote me to so horrible a death! Do not—do not murder me!"