better class of life--a cluster of great thick walls, rudely but
strongly built, now the dwelling-place of stable-lads and hinds, swine
and poultry. From one part of these ancient walls, and fronting an inner
court of the castle, arose a tall, circular, heavy-buttressed tower,
considerably higher than the other buildings, and so mantled with a
dense growth of aged ivy as to stand a shaft of solid green. Above its
crumbling crown circled hundreds of pigeons, white and pied, clapping
and clattering in noisy flight through the sunny air. Several windows,
some closed with shutters, peeped here and there from out the leaves,
and near the top of the pile was a row of arched openings, as though of
a balcony or an airy gallery.

Myles had more than once felt an idle curiosity about this tower, and
one day, as he and Gascoyne sat together, he pointed his finger and
said, "What is yon place?"

"That," answered Gascoyne, looking over his shoulder--"that they call
Brutus Tower, for why they do say that Brutus he built it when he came
hither to Britain. I believe not the tale mine own self; ne'theless, it
is marvellous ancient, and old Robin-the-Fletcher telleth me that there
be stairways built in the wall and passage-ways, and a maze wherein
a body may get lost, an he know not the way aright, and never see the
blessed light of day again."

"Marry," said Myles, "those same be strange sayings. Who liveth there
now?"

"No one liveth there," said Gascoyne, "saving only some of the stable
villains, and that half-witted goose-herd who flung stones at us
yesterday when we mocked him down in the paddock. He and his wife and
those others dwell in the vaults beneath, like rabbits in any warren. No
one else hath lived there since Earl Robert's day, which belike was
an hundred years agone. The story goeth that Earl Robert's brother--or
step-brother--was murdered there, and some men say by the Earl himself.
Sin that day it hath been tight shut."

Myles stared at the tower for a while in silence. "It is a
strange-seeming place from without," said he, at last, "and mayhap it
may be even more strange inside. Hast ever been within, Francis?"

"Nay," said Gascoyne; "said I not it hath been fast locked since Earl
Robert's day?"

"By'r Lady," said Myles, "an I had lived here in this place so long as
thou, I wot I would have been within it ere this."

"Beshrew me," said Gascoyne, "but I have never thought of such a
matter." He turned and look