The yellow glare played fitfully over the grim gray walls, flickering up sometimes until the highest turrets shone golden against the black sky, and then, as the wind caught them, dying away until they scarce threw a glow upon the cheek of their bearer.

The main gate was open, and a carriage, which had apparently just driven in, was standing at a small door immediately in front of their window.

The wheels and sides were brown with mud, and the two horses were reeking and heavy-headed, as though their journey had been both swift and long.

A man wearing a plumed hat and enveloped in a riding-coat had stepped from the carriage, and then, turning round, had dragged a second person out after him.

There was a scuffle, a cry, a push, and the two figures had vanished through the door.