rising into hollows and hills, where the joist
had rotted away beneath. It was bare and empty, and not even a rat
was to be seen. Above was another room; above that, another; all the
passages and stairways which connected the one story with the other
being built in the wall, which was, where solid, perhaps fifteen feet
thick.

From the third floor a straight flight of steps led upward to a closed
door, from the other side of which shone the dazzling brightness of
sunlight, and whence came a strange noise--a soft rustling, a melodious
murmur. The boys put their shoulders against the door, which was
fastened, and pushed with might and main--once, twice; suddenly the
lock gave way, and out they pitched headlong into a blaze of sunlight.
A deafening clapping and uproar sounded in their ears, and scores of
pigeons, suddenly disturbed, rose in stormy flight.

They sat up and looked around them in silent wonder. They were in a
bower of leafy green. It was the top story of the tower, the roof of
which had crumbled and toppled in, leaving it open to the sky, with only
here and there a slanting beam or two supporting a portion of the tiled
roof, affording shelter for the nests of the pigeons crowded closely
together. Over everything the ivy had grown in a mantling sheet--a
net-work of shimmering green, through which the sunlight fell
flickering.

"This passeth wonder," said Gascoyne, at last breaking the silence.

"Aye," said Myles, "I did never see the like in all my life." Then,
"Look, yonder is a room beyond; let us see what it is, Francis."

Entering an arched door-way, the two found themselves in a beautiful
little vaulted chapel, about eighteen feet long and twelve or fifteen
wide. It comprised the crown of one of the large massive buttresses, and
from it opened the row of arched windows which could be seen from below
through the green shimmering of the ivy leaves. The boys pushed aside
the trailing tendrils and looked out and down. The whole castle lay
spread below them, with the busy people unconsciously intent upon the
matters of their daily work. They could see the gardener, with bowed
back, patiently working among the flowers in the garden, the stable-boys
below grooming the horses, a bevy of ladies in the privy garden playing
at shuttlecock with battledoors of wood, a group of gentlemen walking
up and down in front of the Earl's house. They could see the household
servants hurrying hither and thither, two little