nd then, as if
suddenly recollecting the cause which had brought them together, the men
groaned in unison, while the females, of whom many were present, raised
up their voices and shrieked for very woe.

Such was the scene in the castle-yard at Coningsburgh when it was
entered by Richard and his followers. The seneschal or steward deigned
not to take notice of the groups of inferior guests who were perpetually
entering and withdrawing, unless so far as was necessary to preserve
order; nevertheless he was struck by the good mien of the Monarch and
Ivanhoe, more especially as he imagined the features of the latter were
familiar to him. Besides, the approach of two knights, for such their
dress bespoke them, was a rare event at a Saxon solemnity, and could not
but be regarded as a sort of honour to the deceased and his family. And
in his sable dress, and holding in his hand his white wand of office,
this important personage made way through the miscellaneous assemblage
of guests, thus conducting Richard and Ivanhoe to the entrance of the
tower. Gurth and Wamba speedily found acquaintances in the court-yard,
nor presumed to intrude themselves any farther until their presence
should be required.

CHAPTER XLII

I found them winding of Marcello's corpse.
And there was such a solemn melody,
'Twixt doleful songs, tears, and sad elegies,--
Such as old grandames, watching by the dead,
Are wont to outwear the night with.
--Old Play

The mode of entering the great tower of Coningsburgh Castle is very
peculiar, and partakes of the rude simplicity of the early times in
which it was erected. A flight of steps, so deep and narrow as to be
almost precipitous, leads up to a low portal in the south side of the
tower, by which the adventurous antiquary may still, or at least could
a few years since, gain access to a small stair within the thickness
of the main wall of the tower, which leads up to the third story of the
building,--the two lower being dungeons or vaults, which neither receive
air nor light, save by a square hole in the third story, with which
they seem to have communicated by a ladder. The access to the upper
apartments in the tower which consist in all of four stories, is given
by stairs which are carried up through the external buttresses.

By this difficult and complicated entrance, the good King Richard,
followed by his faithful Ivanhoe, was ushered into the round apartment
whic