CHAPTER X.THE PAGE, THE FIRES, AND THE FALL.
The night was intensely dark when Sir Norman got into it once more; and to any one else would have been intensely dismal, but to Sir Norman all was bright as the fair hills of Beulah.

When all is bright within, we see no darkness without; and just at that moment our young knight had got into one of those green and golden glimpses of sunshine that here and there checker life's rather dark pathway, and with Leoline beside him would have thought the dreary shores of the Dead Sea itself a very paradise.
It was now near midnight, and there was an unusual concourse of people in the streets, waiting for St.Paul's to give the signal to light the fires.

He looked around for Ormiston; but Ormiston was nowhere to be seen--horse and rider had disappeared.

His own horse stood tethered where he had left him.

Anxious as he was to ride back to the ruin, and see the play played out, he could not resist the temptation of lingering a brief period in the city, to behold the grand spectacle of the myriad fires.