Now, the stone steps were very narrow at best; and were all worn away--and that was the best of it--all along the passages we went, and past the dungeon grating, till we came to the open mouth of the Oubliette. Ho! ho! how you'll laugh. Down a step went one--no kiss from the bride for him--two steps went another--some went down six steps, and one bold fellow went down so far that we lost sight of him in the darkness. Then the bridegroom, a stout young yeoman--thought it shame to let anyone beat him in daring, for so rich a prize as a kiss from the rosy lips of his bride, and down--down--he went--step after step--till finally, far down in the gloom, we heard a loud scream--such a scream--ho! ho! I can't help laughing yet when I think of it--and in a minute or two, whose voice should we hear but Giles Mallet's! _There_ was Giles, hollowing and roaring for us to send down a rope but _how_ he had got down, or _when_ he had gone down, nobody knew. However, a rope was got, and merrily, stoutly, we all pulled, but no Giles came up. Instead of him, we drew forth the bridegroom! but such a changed man. His eyes were fixed, and his face as white as silver--his mouth was wide open, and his great tongue went lolling about from side to side--and he shook his head, and mumbled and slavered--he was struck all of a sudden into idiocy, and knew nobody; not even his bride. She was sinking before him, but he never noticed her, but went moaning, and muttering, and shaking his head. Ho! ho! 'twas the comicalest thing I ever saw. And when Giles came up he explained it all. Giles had gone down deeper than any of them, and waited for the others on a ledge in the cavern; and just when the bridegroom reached it, Giles seized him by the leg, and said--'Your soul is mine'--ho! ho! 'Your soul is mine,' said Giles--and the bridegroom uttered only the loud, long scream we had all heard, and stood and shook and trembled. 'Twas a rare feat; and if you had come down last year"--he added, turning to Jane--"you would have seen the bridegroom going from door to door, followed by all the boys in the village--he never recovered. There he went, shake, shaking his head--and gape gaping with his mouth. "Twas good sport to teaze him. I've set my dogs on him myself; but he never took the least notice. 'Twas a good trick--I never knew better." "And the bride?" enquired Jane. "Oh, she died in a week or two after the adventure! A silly hussy--I wished to marry her, by the left hand, to my forester, but she kept on moping and looking at the idiotical bridegroom, and died--a poor fool." "Ah! we've grown dull since those merry times," said Hasket of Norland, looking, round the empty hall, and then towards Reginald, as if reproaching him with the absence of the ancient joviality. "There were three men killed at my marriage--in fair give and take fight--in the hall, at the wedding supper. There is the mark of blood on the floor yet."