All I ask of you in return is, that you will let me enter before you; for if they find that I lead you in, my life will not be worth a moment's purchase." "As if it ever was worth it," said Sir Norman, contemptuously.

"On with you, and be thankful I don't save your companions the trouble, by making an end of you where you stand." "Rush along, old fellow," suggested Hubert, giving him another poke with his dagger, that drew forth a second doleful howl.
Notwithstanding the darkness, Sir Norman discovered that they were being led in a direction exactly opposite that by which he had previously effected an entrance.

They were in the vault, he knew, by the darkness, though they had descended no stair-case, and he was just wondering if their guide was not meditating some treachery by such a circuitous route, when suddenly a tumult of voices, and uproar, and confusion, met his ear.

At the same instant, their guide opened a door, revealing a dark passage, illuminated by a few rays of light, and which Sir Norman instantly recognized as that leading to the Black Chamber.

Here again the duke paused, and turned round to them with a wildly-imploring face.
"Gentlemen, I do conjure you to let me enter before you do! I tell you they will murder me the very instant they discover I have led you here!" "That would be a great pity!" said the count; "and the gallows will be cheated of one of its brightest ornaments! That is your den of thieves, I suppose, from which all this uproar comes ?" "It is.