But no! For right over the dim battlements, as the wind chased away a mass of clouds, he beheld a star, and moreover, by an earnest concentration of his sight, was soon able to discern even the darkened shrine itself.

There was no obscurity around the tower; no infirmity of his own vision.

The flame had exhausted its supply of oil, and become extinct.

But where was Hilda?
A man in a cloak happened to be passing; and Kenyon--anxious to distrust the testimony of his senses, if he could get more acceptable evidence on the other side--appealed to him.
"Do me the favor, Signore," said he, "to look at the top of yonder tower, and tell me whether you see the lamp burning at the Virgin's shrine." "The lamp, Signore ?" answered the man, without at first troubling himself to look up.

"The lamp that has burned these four hundred years! How is it possible, Signore, that it should not be burning now ?" "But look!" said the sculptor impatiently.