Like a caged, wild beast he paced up and down in the darkness.
The torch had fallen from his grasp and continued to glimmer on the sand.
Had it lain within his power he would have shaken down the mighty rock over his head and buried himself with the hapless victim chained to the stone.
In vain he tried to order his chaotic thoughts.
Monstrous deception she had practised upon him!
All her endearments, all her caresses, her kisses, her whisperings of love,—were they but the threads of the one vast fabric of a lie?
It seemed too monstrous to be true; it seemed too monstrous to grasp!
And all for what?
The fleeting phantom of dominion, which must vanish as it came—unsatisfied.
How long he remained thus, he knew not. His torch had well nigh burnt down when at length he roused himself from his deadly stupor. Groping his way to the entrance of the cave, he stepped into the open.