The lane conducted us round by the back way.

We entered the desolate court, and in breathless anxiety surveyed the ruinous mass.

Was it all blackness and desolation?
No; one faint red glimmer cheered us from a window where the lattice was in good repair.

The door was fastened, but after due knocking and waiting, and some parleying with a voice from an upper window, we were admitted by an old woman who had been commissioned to air and keep the house till our arrival, into a tolerably snug little apartment, formerly the scullery of the mansion, which Frederick had now fitted up as a kitchen.

Here she procured us a light, roused the fire to a cheerful blaze, and soon prepared a simple repast for our refreshment; while we disencumbered ourselves of our travelling-gear, and took a hasty survey of our new abode.