I heard the hush of a thousand people all craning their necks to look round the heads of their neighbors, and the hum of whispered comment reach farther and farther back, till it lapped against the walls and ebbed out into the street from the great open door of the Hall of Judgment.

It was a surprising sight, this great trial--the gloomy hall, black with age and deeds of darkness, lit by the rays of sunlight falling through windows of red glass, the faces of men flecked as with blood where the evening sunlight streamed luridly upon them.
In the midst there was a clear four-square space.

A lictor, with a bundle of rods, stood at each corner.

I looked, and there, alone in the centre, attired in white, the cynosure of eyes, I beheld--Helene..