Enter now swiftly before some prowling priest happens upon you, and pray that you may come out as sound as you go in.

Oh! what a sight! A prince of Israel and an aged Levite of established reputation going to keep a tryst at midnight with the high-priestess of Baaltis in the sanctuary of her god! Nay, answer not; there is no time"-- and he was gone.
***** Having passed the gate, Aziel and Issachar crept down the winding passages of stone, groping their path by such light as fell from the narrow line of sky above them, till at length they reached the court of the sanctuary.

Here the place was as silent as death, for the noise from the city without could not pierce its towering walls of massive granite.
"It is the very pit of Tophet," murmured Issachar, peering through the dense shadows, "the house of Beelzebub, where his presence dwells.
Whither now, Aziel ?" The prince pointed to two objects that were visible in the starlight, and answered:-- "Thither, at the foot of the pillar of El." "Ah! I remember," said Issachar, "where the accursed woman would have offered sacrifice, and the priests struck me down because I prophesied to them of the wrath to come, and that is now at hand.

An ill-omened spot, indeed, and an ill-omened tryst with the fiends for witnesses.
Well, lead on, and I pray you to be brief as may be, for this place weighs down my soul, and I feel danger in it--danger to the body and the spirit." So they went forward.

"Be careful," whispered Aziel presently.