rius," replied
the old man, grinning all over his face, "but three days ago the heavy
wainscot ceiling of the justice-hall fell in with a tremendous crash."
"Then may the"---- My uncle was about to rip out a terrific oath in his
violent passionate manner, but jerking up his right arm above his head
and taking off his fox-skin cap with his left, he suddenly checked
himself; and turning to me, he said with a hearty laugh, "By my troth,
cousin, we must hold our tongues; we mustn't ask any more questions, or
else we shall hear of some still worse misfortune, or have the whole
castle tumbling to pieces about our ears." "But," he continued,
wheeling round again to the old servant, "but, bless me, Francis, could
you not have had the common sense to get me another room cleaned and
warmed? Could you not have quickly fitted up a room in the main
building for the court-day?" "All that has been already done," said the
old man, pointing to the staircase with a gesture that invited us to
follow him, and at once beginning to ascend them. "Now there's a most
curious noodle for you!" exclaimed my uncle as we followed old Francis.
The way led through long lofty vaulted corridors, in the dense darkness
of which Francis's flickering light threw a strange reflection. The
pillars, capitals, and vari-coloured arches seemed as if they were
floating before us in the air; our own shadows stalked along beside us
in gigantic shape, and the grotesque paintings on the walls over which
they glided seemed all of a tremble and shake; whilst their voices, we
could imagine, were whispering in the sound of our echoing footsteps,
"Wake us not, oh! wake us not--us whimsical spirits who sleep here in
these old stones." At last, after we had traversed a long suite of cold
and gloomy apartments, Francis opened the door of a hall in which a
fire blazing brightly in the grate offered us as it were a home-like
welcome with its pleasant crackling. I felt quite comfortable the
moment I entered, but my uncle, standing still in the middle of the
hall, looked round him and said in a tone which was so very grave as to
be almost solemn, "And so this is to be the justice-hall!" Francis held
his candle above his head, so that my eye fell upon a light spot in the
wide dark wall about the size of a door; then he said in a pained and
muffled voice, "Justice has been already dealt out here." "What
possesses you, old man?" asked my uncle, quickly throwing aside his fur
coat and