royed in the civil wars.
Hunting parties sometimes resort to it, and the peasants make use of it
when passing this way.--Yes, we have come far out of our road, if that
is really the tower of Morlon."

"Then it is every man's house. The door is open."

"It is an abandoned place, and people would take no care how they left
the door."

"Let us go in, then. There can be nobody there, or the door would be
closed against this storm."

I rode toward the spot where I supposed the tower was, and, rectifying
my course by the next flash, I presently felt the stone wall with my
whip. I dismounted, found the entrance, pushed the door wide, and saw by
the lightning a low-ceiled interior, which was empty. I led the horses
in, helped the Countess from the saddle, and removed her cloak, which,
though itself drenched, had kept her clothes comparatively dry.

My first thought was of a place where the Countess might recline. But,
as I found by groping about and by the frequent lightning, there was
nothing except the floor, which, originally paved with stone, was now
covered with dried mud from the boots of many who had resorted to the
place before ourselves. There were no steps leading to the upper stories
of the tower: the part we were in was, indeed, but a sort of basement.
It occupied the full ground space of the tower, with the rough stone as
its only shell, and had no window nor any discoverable opening place in
the low ceiling.

Thinking there might be an external staircase to the story above us, I
went out and felt my way around the tower, but found none. The entrance
to the main or upper part of the tower from the buildings that once
adjoined must have been to the story above, from a floor on the same
level. I thought of seeking the opening and climbing in from the back of
my horse, but I reflected that the upper stories also would doubtless be
denuded, while they could offer no better shelter from the rain. So I
was content with taking the saddles from the horses, and placing them
together upside down in such a way that they constituted a dry reclining
place for the Countess.

There was no dry wood to be had from the forest, and no fuel of any kind
in our place of refuge; so I could not make a fire. While the Countess
sat in silence, I paced the floor until I succumbed to fatigue. By that
time, much of the water had dripped from my clothes, and I was able to
sit on the carpet of earth with some comfort. I leaned my back ag