The breath of the Invisible strikes them in the street and in the house; they stagger in the highways, and drop at the temple steps.

When the hour comes we shall go forth and find them.

Under my hand they go down into the cavern beneath.

Whether they are hurled dead, or whether they go down living, they fall through to the iron bars, where the water leaps and rejoices to receive them! It is mine to sacrifice them above, and thine to wait for them below, to lift the bars and give them to the river to be swallowed up! The dead drop down first, the living that are slain by the Destroyer follow after!' Here he paused suddenly.

Now, for the first time, his eye rested on Antonina, whose very existence he seemed hitherto to have forgotten.