She was again in the cell of the alchemist ; saw lurid flames, heard deafening explosions, with unearthly shrieks and groans proceeding from mj'riads of fiends that thronged round her with ominous words and gibing leer. She felt herself irresistibly borne on, on, with a speed ever accel-erated, and that defied all rescue, and with all there was an appalling sense of falling, down, down, down, into inter-minable depths. The fantasy sometimes changed from herself, but always to her dearer self. Richard contending with mighty but ineffectual struggles against inexorable Genii, was hurried through the unfathomable waters before her, the fatal ring gleaming through all their hideous forms upon her aching sight ; and the confused din of strange sounds that whirled through her giddy brain could never drown the endless vi-brations of the whispered words, " 'Twill thwart his wish and break his troth, Betray him to his direst foe, And drown him in the sea." The capricious winds at length sounded a truce between the contending elements. The baffled clouds, like a retir-ing enemy, discharging occasional arrows- from their ex-hausted quivers, hurried away in wild confusion, while the' triumphant sea, its vexed surface still agitated by the tre-mendous conflict, murmured a sullen roar of proud defiance. The Princess of Navarre, relieved from the thraldom of imaginary horrors, became aware of the actual peril which the fleet had encountered. It was in vain that the anxious attendants interposed, she persisted in being conducted to the deck, whence with longing eyes she gazed in every di-rection for the bark of her lover. Not a vessel was in sight. A wild waste of waters mocked her anxious scrutiny. Her own galley was so far disabled, that it was with much toil-ing and rowing, the mariners brought it into Limousa, the capital of Cyprus, and no sooner had they cast anchor, than Isaac Comnenus, the lord of the island, assailed the stranger bark with so much violence, that they were forced to row 226 HEROINES OF THE CRUSADES.