atter of the
two horsemen, for whence could they have come, if not from the hall?
In any case I was well rid of them. I now followed the wall some little
distance, and then, to see over it, walked backwards until I was all but
in the beck; and there, sure enough, shone my darling's candle, close as
close against the diamond panes of her narrow, lofty window! It brought
those ready tears back to my foolish, fevered eyes. But for sentiment
there was no time, and every other emotion was either futile or
premature. So I mastered my full heart, I steeled, my wretched nerves,
and braced my limp muscles for the task that lay before them.

I had a garden wall to scale, nearly twice my own height, and without
notch or cranny in the ancient, solid masonry. I stood against it on my
toes, and I touched it with my finger-tips as high up as possible. Some
four feet severed them from the coping that left only half a sky above
my upturned eyes.

I do not know whether I have made it plain that the house was not
surrounded by four walls, but merely filled a breach in one of the
four, which nipped it (as it were) at either end. The back entrance was
approachable enough, but barred or watched, I might be very sure. It is
ever the vulnerable points which are most securely guarded, and it was
my one comfort that the difficult way must also be the safe way, if only
the difficulty could be overcome. How to overcome it was the problem.
I followed the wall right round to the point at which it abutted on the
tower that immured my love; the height never varied; nor could my hands
or eyes discover a single foot-hole, ledge, or other means of mounting
to the top.

Yet my hot head was full of ideas; and I wasted some minutes in trying
to lift from its hinges a solid, six-barred, outlying gate, that my
weak arms could hardly stir. More time went in pulling branches from the
oak-trees about the beck, where the latter ran nearest to the moonlit
wall. I had an insane dream of throwing a long forked branch over
the coping, and so swarming up hand-over-hand. But even to me the
impracticability of this plan came home at last. And there I stood in a
breathless lather, much time and strength thrown away together; and the
candle burning down for nothing in that little lofty window; and the
running water swirling noisily over its stones at my back.

This was the only sound; the wind had died away; the moonlit valley
lay as still as the dread old house in it