I could almost count the minutes as those shafts of light crept up the wall, and then slowly faded.

The silence all about was intense, even the branches of the trees without having no movement.

As the gray of twilight approached, my ears, strained to the slightest sound, distinguished the changing of sentinels.

But I waited vainly for any visitor; darkness closed me in, but no one came with food.
I pressed my face against the bars striving to look into the night, my only reward the glimpse of a few distant stars.

Suddenly, as I stood there, voices sounded at a distance, the words indistinguishable, and then footsteps crushed along the gravelled footpath, as though a number of men were running toward the back of the house.