py, though
rather hot under the sheepskins. They would, however, have gone through
greater inconvenience for the sake of gaining their liberty. At last,
passing through a forest, the trees of which had lost most of their
branches, lopped off for firewood, they reached an old grey chateau,
with high pointed slate roof, and no end of towers and turrets, and
gable ends, and excrescences of all sorts. The cart drove into a paved
court-yard, on two sides of which were outhouses or offices. The
entrance-gate was then shut, and the driver backed the cart against a
small door on one side. Not a soul appeared, and he did not shout for
any one to come and help him. Pulling out the skins, he whispered,
_Descendez, mes amis_--_vite, vite_; and Paul, pulling O'Grady by the
arm, they jumped out, still covered by the skins, and ran through the
open door. Had any curious eyes been looking out of any of the windows
of the chateau, they could scarcely have been seen. They were in a
passage, leading on one side to a sort of store-room, but the man told
them to turn to the left, and to go on till they came to a door, where
they were to wait till some one came to let them through.

"What fun," whispered O'Grady. "I delight in an adventure, and this
will prove one and no mistake. We shall have some old woman coming and
shutting us up in an apple-loft or a ghost-haunted chamber, or some
place of that sort. It may be weeks before we get to the coast, and
something new turning up every day. I wouldn't have missed it for
anything."

He was running on in this style when the door opened, and Miss Rosalie
herself appeared, with a countenance which showed how pleased she felt
at the success of her arrangements. O'Grady was, at first, quite taken
aback at seeing her, and then very nearly bestowed a kiss and an embrace
on her in the exuberance of his delight. Whether she would have found
great fault with him it is impossible to say; she merely said, "I must
not stop to listen here to what you have to tell me--but come along to
where we shall not be interrupted, and then I will gladly hear all that
has happened."

She forthwith led them up by a winding stair to the top of one of the
towers, where there was a small room with very narrow windows.

"There you will be safe enough," she remarked, "for if you were to look
out of the casement, no one could see you from below, and it will be
pleasanter than being shut up in a cellar or a lumb