e there stood.

At length there passed something on the outside of the window, that
looked like the shadow of a human form.

Then the tall, mysterious, apparition-looking man turned, and sought a
side entrance to the hall.

Then he paused, and, in about a minute, he was joined by another who
must have been he who had so recently passed the stained glass window on
the outer side.

There was a friendly salutation between these two beings, and they
walked to the centre of the hall, where they remained for some time in
animated conversation.

From the gestures they used, it was evident that the subject of their
discourse was one of deep and absorbing interest to both. It was one,
too, upon which, after a time, they seemed a little to differ, and more
than once they each assumed attitudes of mutual defiance.

This continued until the sun had so completely sunk, that twilight was
beginning sensibly to wane, and then gradually the two men appeared to
have come to a better understanding, and whatever might be the subject
of their discourse, there was some positive result evidently arrived at
now.

They spoke in lower tones. They used less animated gestures than before;
and, after a time, they both walked slowly down the hull towards the
dark spot from whence the first tall figure had so mysteriously emerged.

* * * * *

There it a dungeon--damp and full of the most unwholesome
exhalations--deep under ground it seems, and, in its excavations, it
would appear as if some small land springs had been liberated, for the
earthen floor was one continued extent of moisture.

From the roof, too, came perpetually the dripping of water, which fell
with sullen, startling splashes in the pool below.

At one end, and near to the roof,--so near that to reach it, without the
most efficient means from the inside, was a matter of positive
impossibility--is a small iron grating, and not much larger than might
be entirely obscured by any human face that might be close to it from
the outside of the dungeon.

That dreadful abode is tenanted. In one corner, on a heap of straw,
which appears freshly to have been cast into the place, lies a hopeless
prisoner.

It is no great stretch of fancy to suppose, that it is from his lips
came the sound of terror and of woe that had disturbed the repose of
that lonely spot.

The prisoner is lying on his back; a rude bandage round his head, on
which were numerous sp