ightingale began singing before his window, and he saw that it
was blowing hard and raining. His fondness for the bird made him take
it in and set it atop of a high old wardrobe. He clambered up and was
leaning over to place the cage steadily, when the chain from which the
portrait of his beloved was hanging broke, and the picture slid to the
wall and down behind the old oak chest. The unhappy are terrified by
the veriest trifles. He got down hastily to seek for his darling
treasure. He stoopt down to the ground, but his search was vain; it
was not to be seen beneath the large heavy cabinet. Everything,
whether of great or little moment, in his life seemed to be
persecuting him as it were under some spell. He shoved at the old
piece of furniture and tried to push it out of its place; but it was
fastened to the wall. His impatience grew more vehement with every
hinderance. He seized an old iron bar which he found in the anteroom,
and laboured with all his strength to move the wardrobe; and at last,
after much heaving and wrenching and a hundred fruitless efforts, it
gave way with a loud cracking as if an iron cramp or chain had snapt.
The cabinet now by degrees came forward, and Antonio was at length
able to squeeze himself in between it and the wall. He immediately saw
his beloved portrait. It was lying upon the broad knob of a door,
which jutted out of the wall. He kist it, and turned the handle, which
yielded. A door opened; and he resolved to push the great wardrobe
somewhat further away, and to explore this strange matter; for he
thought the owner of the house himself could hardly be acquainted with
this secret passage, which had been concealed with so much care, and,
as it appeared, for so long a time.

When he had gained a little more room, he saw that behind the door
there was a narrow winding staircase. He went down a few steps; the
thickest darkness came round him. He descended lower and still lower;
the stairs seemed to lead down almost to the bottom of the house. He
was on the point of returning, when he struck against a stoppage; for
the flight of steps was now at an end. As he groped up and down in the
darkness, his hand hit on a brass ring, which he pulled, and instantly
the wall opened, and a red glow streamed into his face. Before he
passed through, he examined the door, and found that a spring which
the ring had set in motion, had driven it back. He put it to and stept
cautiously into the room.

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