As the days went by, and it was gradually made known in the village that the earl lay in his dying illness, a great hush of mysterious awe and dread expectancy fell upon the village, and even Master Jones forbore to stir up strife, while all listened breathlessly for the sounds of woe and horror which by day and night had ever been heard from within the walls of the ill-fated castle, as each of its lords had in bygone days lain a-dying. Never once for many a long generation had the mysterious and horrid sounds failed at such times to strike terror into the hearts of the villagers, and even Jack the boatman, who had never throughout his life countenanced idle tales and gossip, willingly, about the family he served, had ever been fain to confess that this tale was a true one, which could not be gainsayed, and moreover, that the apparition of the lady, who walked the long avenue, weeping and wringing her hands, had been no phantom of a disordered imagination, but a fearsome reality. But now peace reigned about the grim grey walls, and men might walk by the riverside, under the shadow of the ancient battlements, which frowned from the hilltop, with no fear lest sudden shrieks rending the still night air should strike terror to their hearts; and sheep and cattle grazed confidently upon the steep, grassy hillsides, which sloped sharply upwards from the river to the castle walls, and showed no fear. Some said that the old gipsy had laid the castle under a spell during the days of King Arthur, she having in those days had ill dealings with Merlin the necromancer, whose name yet clings to certain localities in the vale of Gwynnon and neighbourhood of Caer Caradoc, she herself having been possessed of a charmed life, granted her by the Evil One for the express purpose of seeing her wicked spell fulfilled, and in the strength of which she had survived through many long generations, until the chaplain, Percival Vere, whom all regarded as holy beyond all ordinary men, had been specially sent by providence to bring her wickedness to an end and break the spell.