He examined it and found that it was not a buttress but apparently a half ruined chamber, which at some former period had been built upon the side of the abbey.

Low down by the ground there was a hole, where a few stones seemed to have been removed and not replaced.
Goddard knelt down in the long wet grass and put in his head; then he crept in on his hands and knees and presently disappeared.
He found himself in a room about ten feet square, dimly lighted by a small window at the top, and surrounded by long horizontal niches.

The floor, which was badly broken in some places, was of stone.

Goddard examined the place carefully.

It was evidently an old vault of the kind formerly built above ground for the lords of the manor; but the coffins, if there had ever been any, had been removed elsewhere.