Page:In Maremma, by Ouida (vol 1).djvu/137

 faithful slave; the master must lie beyond; it was only the humble whose bodies were burned.'

Learning was not with her to shed light on her from its lamp; she had no other guide than instinct, and instinct here was naturally curiosity. In her temper timidity had no place. In front of her, in the wall of this entrance-chamber was a stone door, a double, or, as it is commonly termed, folding door, tight closed. She crossed the rock-floor of the place, while a great grand-duke owl, roused and alarmed, flew heavily by her, as owls fly when daybreak overtakes them, and strings of bats hanging to the stone jambs of the roof, clinging to each other by their claws, in a string, like so many onions, now awakened from their winter sleep, swayed to and fro uneasily, and uttered their shrill sibilation of annoyance and fear. Probably for thousands of years, generation after generation of cheiroptera had there made their daily bed, their winter's refuge, undisturbed by man, at nightfall finding their way through the tangle of the shrubs and flying on their moth-hunting quest over the wide face of the moor.

'It is like the cavern of S. Giovanni