But so full of horrible ideas was his mind at that moment, that it appeared to him as if he had been drinking blood!
He rose from his seat once more, and groped up and down the dungeon, careless of the almost stunning blows which he gave his head, and the violent contusions which his limbs received, against the uneven walls.
Hark! suddenly voices fell upon his ears.
He listened with mingled fear and joy,—fear of being discovered, and joy at the sound of human tones in the midst of that subterranean solitude.
Those voices came from the lower window of the dwelling on the other side of the ditch.
"How silent and quiet everything has been lately in the old home opposite," said a female.
"Last night—or rather early this morning, I heard singing there," replied another voice, which was evidently that of a young woman.
Oh! never had the human tones sounded so sweet and musical upon the murderer's ears before!
"It is very seldom that any one ever goes into that old house now," said the first speaker.
"Strange rumours are abroad concerning it: I heard that there are subterranean places in which men can conceal themselves, and no power on earth could find them save those in the secret."