The fears that pierced my heart may well be imagined.

Should I find Stella living or dead?
Should I find her at all?
Well, we should soon know now.

We stumbled on up the stony watercourse; notwithstanding the weight of Tota I led the way, for suspense lent me wings.

Now we were through, and an extraordinary scene lay before us.

We were in a great natural amphitheatre, only it was three times the size of any amphitheatre ever shaped by man, and the walls were formed of precipitous cliffs, ranging from one to two hundred feet in height.
For the rest, the space thus enclosed was level, studded with park-like trees, brilliant with flowers, and having a stream running through the centre of it, that, as I afterwards discovered, welled up from the ground at the head of the open space.
We spread ourselves out in a line, searching everywhere, for Tota was too overcome to be able to tell us where Stella was hidden away.