Though the sun had set some ten minutes before, yet the "after glow" shone in through the six tall gothic window spaces, and revealed clearly every nook and corner of the interior. Their strange inmate or visitor, whichever she might be, was nowhere to be seen. With an impatient gesture, Mr. Berners set down the coffee-pot, and hurried towards the door of the vault, and looked through the iron grating. But he could see nothing but the top of those stairs, the bottom of which disappeared in the darkness. He then shook the door; but it firmly resisted all his strength. The bars appeared to be built into the solid masonry. "This is really confounding to all one's intelligence," exclaimed Lyon Berners, gazing around in perplexity. "It is, indeed. But it is well that you have seen this mystery with your own eyes, for if you had not done so, you never would have believed in it," said Sybil, gravely shaking her head. "Nor do I believe in it, now that I have seen it." "Then you will not trust the united evidence of your own eyes and mine." "No, Sybil; not for a prodigy so out of nature as that would be," replied Lyon Berners, firmly. "Well, then, tell me the legend of the Haunted Chapel, for you hinted that that legend must have some connection with this apparition." "A seeming connection, at the very least; but I cannot tell it to you now--not until you take something to eat and drink, for you have not broken your fast since morning." "Nor have I hungered since morning," replied Sybil, with a sigh. Mr. Berners went up to the smouldering embers of the fire that he had lighted in the morning on the stone floor of the church; and he drew together the dying brands, put fresh fuel on them, and soon rekindled the flame. And the husband and wife sat down beside it; and while Sybil ate and drank with what appetite she could bring to the repast, Lyon Berners, to pass off the heavy time, related to her the legend of the Haunted Chapel. CHAPTER XXV. THE FALL OF THE DUBARRYS. But, soft! behold, lo, where it comes again! I'll cross it, though it blast me.--Stay, illusion! If thou hast any sound, or use of voice, Speak to me!--SHAKESPEARE. "The Dubarrys," he began, "were a French Roman Catholic family of distinction. A cadet of that family came over to Virginia among the earliest English settlers of the colony. "As in the case of the more important among his anglican comrades, he obtained a very large tract of land by Royal patent. He built his hut and fixed his abode here, not a hundred yards from the spot where this church now stands.