"I could send a messenger with my proposal."
"The message would never reach him; or at least not until it would be too late."
"There is then no hope?" said Marcellus mournfully.
"None."
"And you absolutely refuse to grant my request?"
"Alas, Marcellus, how can I be guilty of the death of my friend? You have no mercy on me. Forgive me if I refuse so unreasonable a proposal."
"The will of the Lord be done," said Marcellus. "I must hasten back. Alas! how can I carry with me this message of despair?"
The two friends embraced in silence, and Marcellus departed, leaving Lucullus overcome with amazement at this proposal.
Marcellus returned to the Catacombs in safety. The brethren there who knew of his errand received him again with mournful joy. The lady Caecilia still lay in a kind of stupor, only half conscious of surrounding events. At times her mind would wander, and in her delirium she would talk of happy scenes in her early life.
But the life which she had led in the Catacombs, the alternating hope and fear, joy and sorrow, the ever present anxiety, and the oppressive air of the place itself, had overcome both mind and body. Her delicate nature sank beneath the fury of such an ordeal, and this last heavy blow completed her prostration. She could not rally from its effects.