ell, and, going down to the
bottom, we found a tunnel in which a short man could stand upright.

"Thunder and turf, Tom!" said I, "what did they want this for?"

"Well, some thought it was to reach the church, but no one ever lived
in this house that was so anxious to get to church that he would go
underground to it. Faith, they've been a godless lot in Brede Place
until your honour came, and we were glad to see you bring a priest
with you. It put new heart in the men; they think he'll keep off Sir
Goddard Oxenbridge."

"Does he live near here? What has he to do with the place?"

"He is dead long since, sir, and was owner of this house. Bullet
wouldn't harm him, nor steel cut him, so they sawed him in two with a
wooden saw down by the bridge in front. He was a witch of the very
worst kind, your honour. You hear him groaning at the bridge every
night, and sometimes he walks through the house himself in two halves,
and then every body leaves the place. And that is our most serious
danger, your honour. When Sir Goddard takes to groaning through these
rooms at night, you'll not get a man to stay with you, sir; but as he
comes up from the pit by the will of the Devil we expect his Reverence
to ward him off."

Now this was most momentous news, for I would not stop in the place
myself if a ghost was in the habit of walking through it; but I
cheered up Tom Peel by telling him that no imp of Satan could appear
in the same county as Father Donovan, and he passed on the word to the
men, to their mighty easement.

We had a splendid dinner in the grand hall, and each of us was well
prepared for it; Father Donovan himself, standing up at the head of
the table, said the holy words in good Latin, and I was so hungry that
I was glad the Latins were in the habit of making short prayers.

Father Donovan and I sat at table with a bottle for company, and now
that he knew all about the situation, I was overjoyed to find him an
inhabitant of the same house; for there was no gentleman in all the
company, except himself, for me to talk with.

Suddenly there was a blast of a bugle, and a great fluttering outside.
The lower windows being barricaded, it was not possible to see out of
them, and I was up the stair as quick as legs could carry me; and
there in front were four horses harnessed to a great carriage, and in
it sat the old Earl and the Countess, and opposite them who but Lady
Mary herself, and her brother, Lord Strepp. Postilions