“Impossible!” rejoined Matilda: “The sepulchre is filled with archers. Lorenzo de Medina, with several officers of the inquisition, searches through the vaults, and pervades every passage. You will be intercepted in your flight; your reasons for being at this late hour in the sepulchre will be examined; Antonia will be found, and then you are undone forever!”

“Lorenzo de Medina? Officers of the inquisition? What brings them here? Seek they for me? Am I then suspected? Oh! speak, Matilda! Answer me, in pity!”

“As yet they do not think of you, but I fear that they will ere long. Your only chance of escaping their notice rests upon the difficulty of exploring this vault. The door is artfully hidden: haply it may not be observed, and we may remain concealed till the search is over.”

“But Antonia.⁠ ⁠… Should the inquisitors draw near, and her cries be heard.⁠ ⁠…”

“Thus I remove that danger!” interrupted Matilda.