Between the plague and their wickedness, the Lord only knows what will become of us!" "If I should return here for my horse in an hour or two, I suppose I can get him ?" sad Sir Norman, as he turned toward the door.
"It's likely you can, sir, if I'm not dead by that time," said the landlord, as he sank down again, groaning dismally, with his chin between his hands.
The night was now profoundly dark; but Sir Norman knew the road and ruin well, and, drawing his sword, walked resolutely on.

The distance between it and the ruin was trifling, and in less than ten minutes it loomed up before him, a mass of deeper black in the blackness.

No white vision floated on the broken battlements this night, as Sir Norman looked wistfully up at them; but neither was there any ungainly dwarf, with two-edged sword, guarding the ruined entrance; and Sir Norman passed unmolested in.

He sought the spiral staircase which La Masque had spoken of, and, passing carefully from one ancient chamber to another, stumbling over piles of rubbish and stones as he went, he reached it at last.

Descending gingerly its tortuous steepness, he found himself in the mouldering vaults, and, as he trod them, his ear was greeted by the sound of faint and far-off music.