Page:Iron shroud, or, Italian revenge (2).pdf/11

 he turned his eyes, hot and inflamed with watching, towards them. There were ! He could see only four; but it might be that some intervening object prevented the fifth from becoming percptible; and he walked impatiently to ascertain if it were so. As the light strengthened, however, and penetrated every corner of the cell, other objects of amazement struck his sight. On the ground lay the broken fragments of the pitcher he had used the day before, and at a small distance from them, nearer the wall, stood the one he had noticed the first night. It was filled with water, and beside it was his food. He was now certain, that, by some mechanical contrivance, an opening was obtained through the iron wall, and that through this opening the current of air had found entrance. But how noisless! For had a feather almost waved at the time, he must have heard it. Again he examined that part of the wall; but both to sight and touch it appeared one even and uniform surface, while to repeated and violent blows, there was no reverberating sound indicative of hollowness.

This perplexing mystery had for a time withdrawn his thoughts from the windows; but now directing his eyes again towards them, he saw that the fifth had disappeared in the same manner as the preceeding two, without the least distinguishable alteration of external appearances. The remaining four looked as