The faint moonlight that filtered into the cistern died out at the first steps.
"Oh!" cried Roland, "a torch! a torch!" No one answered.

The only sound to be heard was the spring bubbling close at hand.

Realizing that further search would be useless, he emerged from the cavern.

Drawing a powder-horn and two balls from his pocket, he loaded his pistols hastily.

Then he took the path along which he had just come, found the dark passage, then the vast refectory, and again took his place at the end of the silent hall and waited.
But the hours of the night sounded successively, until the first gleam of dawn cast its pallid light upon the walls of the cloister.
"Well," muttered Roland, "it's over for to-night.