The officer or officers in attendance on the king used to sleep on the other side of the dining-room.
"We must explore, I suppose," said Sapt.

In spite of his outward calmness, I caught in his voice the ring of excitement rising and ill-repressed.

But at this moment we heard from the passage on our left (as we faced the door) a low moan, and then a dragging sound, as if a man were crawling along the floor, painfully trailing his limbs after him.

Sapt held the lamp in that direction, and we saw Herbert the forester, pale-faced and wide-eyed, raised from the ground on his two hands, while his legs stretched behind him and his stomach rested on the flags.
"Who is it ?" he said in a faint voice.
"Why, man, you know us," said the constable, stepping up to him.

"What's happened here ?" The poor fellow was very faint, and, I think, wandered a little in his brain.
"I've got it, sir," he murmured; "I've got it, fair and straight.