How now, Firmilian!—I am scant of breath;

These steps have pumped the ether from my lungs,

And made the bead-drops cluster on my brow.

A strange, unusual rendezvous is this—

An old saint’s pillar, which no human foot

Hath scaled this hundred years!

Firmilian.

Aye—it is strange!

Haverillo.

’Faith, sir, the bats considered it as such: