And at last Mary Matchwell, provoked by the passive quietude of her victim, summoned the three revellers from the kitchen, and invaded the upper regions at their head--to the unspeakable terror of poor Sally Nutter--and set her demon fiddler a scraping, and made them and Dirty Davy's clerk dance a frantic reel on the lobby outside her bed-room door, locked and bolted inside, you may be sure.
In the midst of this monstrous festivity and uproar, there came, all on a sudden, a reverberating double-knock at the hall-door, so loud and long that every hollow, nook, and passage of the old house rang again.
Loud and untimely as was the summons, it had a character, not of riot, but of alarm and authority.

The uproar was swallowed instantly in silence.

For a second only the light of the solitary candle shone upon the pale, scowling features of Mary Matchwell, and she quenched its wick against the wall.

So the Walpurgis ended in darkness, and the company instinctively held their breaths.
There was a subdued hum of voices outside, and a tramping on the crisp gravel, and the champing and snorting of horses, too, were audible.
'Does none o' yez see who's in it ?' said the blind fiddler.
'Hold your tongue,' hissed Mary Matchwell with a curse, and visiting the cunning pate of the musician with a smart knock of the candlestick.
'I wisht I had your thumb undher my grinder,' said the fiddler, through his teeth, 'whoever you are.' But the rest was lost in another and a louder summons at the hall-door, and a voice of authority cried sternly, 'Why don't you open the door ?--hollo! there--I can't stay here all night.' 'Open to him, Madam, I recommend you,' said Dirty Davy, in a hard whisper; 'will I go ?' 'Not a step; not a word;' and Mary Matchwell griped his wrist.
But a window in Mrs.Nutter's room was opened, and Moggy's voice cried out-- 'Don't go, Sir; for the love o' goodness, don't go.

Is it Father Roach that's in it ?' ''Tis I, woman--Mr.Lowe--open the door, I've a word or two to say.'.