A NOCTUKNAL WATCH. 233 



the cast-out remains of their fellow-citizens. Here they came 

 to a halt, and formed a circle as close and as deep as their 

 numbers would permit, around the mouth of the pitfall, which 

 had been constructed, as usual, in a sandy soil. Thus they 

 remained, still as mice ; and quiet as a mouse, too, remained 

 the cat-like Ogre (if Ogre was there) at the bottom of his 

 cavern, which, from the prudent distance of their position, his 

 besiegers were unable to discern. Hour after hour passed, 

 till from very inaction the courage of the surrounding party, 

 which had arrived in tolerable spirits, began to flag. Declining 

 daylight did not augment their valour ; and, as surrounding 

 objects grew indistinct, the passing of a moth or bat even 

 the rustle of a leaf sent a tremor through the fearful circle. 

 It would have been broken, likely enough, by desertion, under 

 cover of darkness, but for dread of other pitfalls, or their 

 makers, stalking about under the same nocturnal cloak. The 

 night, however, ended without one alarm, except from phan- 

 tom fears. Piccoletta was the first who suggested that, per- 

 haps, after all, they were only surrounding an empty trap ; 

 and was the first also, when morning came, to creep softly and 

 lightly towards its circumference, to ascertain how this might 

 be. She seemed right in her conjecture no ogre was to be 

 seen at bottom of the pit ; but, where the monster usually 

 made his lair, she perceived, as she thought, a round object, 

 like a ball of sand. She beckoned to one of her companions, 

 who, moved by her example and encouraged by her looks, 



