For a long weary time I waited, but no footsteps greeted my ears. I felt my nerves tingling even to the bottom of my feet, and a thousand times I imagined whisperings and altercations which had no actual existence. Presently the church clock struck again, and its deep tones echoed across the valley towards St. Thomas' Church, and also towards St. Stephen's, both of which lay in the near distance. Doubtless the rest of the prisoners were asleep, and the sonorous sounds sweeping across hill and dale was nothing to them. But to me it came like a death-knell to my hopes. An hour had passed since the time mentioned in the letter I had received had come, and still I had heard no one approach. I placed my body against the door and pressed hardly. It yielded not one whit. I climbed to one of the windows in the wall and looked out. The night was drear, the clouds hung heavily in the sky, neither moon nor stars appeared. No sound reached me save the sighing of the wind among the branches of the trees. Still I waited, still I listened--all in vain. The clock struck twelve. As the sound of the last stroke of the bell died away, I heard something outside like the croaking of a raven; a few seconds later I heard whispering voices. Again I climbed to the window in the wall and looked out. Beneath me, perhaps ten feet down, I saw two human figures. One I thought I recognized as Jenkins, the other was strange to me. The man whom I concluded to be Jenkins carried a lantern in his hand, but it was but dimly lighted. When lifted, however, it revealed to me a form wrapped in a long cloak. No face was visible; it was hidden by a hood attached to the cloak. "Open the door of the tower, I tell you." "I dare not." It was Jenkins who spoke, and his voice was full of fear. "But you promised." "I know I did; but I be feared, I tell 'ee. I shud be axed questshuns, and I be es fullish as a cheeld." "I gave you money." "I know you ded; but there, I tell 'ee I caan't. Go 'way, do'ee now, or we sh'll be vound out, an' it'll go 'ard wi oal ov us." "But I promised that all should be well with you, and that you should have a big reward." "I knaw, I knaw. That maid you 'ad maade me veel silly, and she cud make me promise anything, but that was in the daytime, when I wos as bould as a lion. But tes night now, and I be feared, I tell 'ee. Besides, how could you make et right fur me; ya be'ant nothin' but a youngish chap. Who be 'ee? What be 'ee called?" "Who am I?" and as if by magic the voice which had reached me in a hoarse whisper now became like that of an old woman. It was pitched in a high key and it quavered much, save when it took a lower tone, and then it became like the croaking of a raven. "Open the door of my tower," said the voice. I could scarce help trembling myself as I heard the tones, but the effect on Jenkins was more marked. "_Your_ tower; oa my Gor!" he moaned.