Now, at first I thought I would pass this gateway at once and see what lay beyond.

But from this I was held back by some great fear, for which I could find no cause, unless it were bred of what the Emperor and his servants had said to me.

So I remembered their words--namely, that I should tarry till dawn to enter the house.
"There, then, I tarried, seated on the ground before the gateway, and feeling as though, yet alive, I had descended among the dead.

Indeed, the silence was that of the dead.

No voice spoke, no hound barked, no leaf stirred.