At length, able to bear no more, I left my hiding-place and went into the garden behind the chapel.

Here, at least, were natural things.

Here flowers, tended by the prisoners, bloomed as they might have done in some less accursed spot.

Here the free birds sang and nested in the trees, for what to them were the high surrounding walls?
I sat myself down upon a seat in the shade.

Presently, as I had expected, Nicephorus, the priest-Caesar, and his four brethren came into the garden.