oyed a sort
of negative good from the absence of evil, and lived a tolerably quiet
and harmonious life in these outskirts of creation.

The few simple and primitive inhabitants of the island had been so
bewildered and confounded by the turmoil and disorder consequent upon
the invasion of their hitherto peaceful and quiet resting-place, that
some half-dozen of them, for the first time in their lives, had
quitted their homes; others, secure from their poverty and
insignificance, still remained, though much disturbed with wonder and
silly surmises, and ready to catch at any stray marvels that fell in
their way. The subterraneous and half-concealed passage in the rock,
or rather shale, on which the castle stands, always under the ban of
some vague and silly apprehension, had been reported of late as
manifesting more than equivocal symptoms of supernatural possession.
Dick Empson, or long-nebbed Dick, a sort of shrewd, half-witted
incarnation, it might be, of the goblin or elfin species, a runner of
errands from the abbey of Furness to the castle, and a being whose
pranks and propensities to mischief were well known in the
neighbourhood, had affirmed, but a few hours before, that he saw a
black figure on the previous night issuing from the hole; and that
there was no connection or understanding between this ghostly
appearance and the present occupiers of the castle, was evident from
the mystery and secrecy that attended its movements. This was
doubtless the phantom or goblin that, from time immemorial, had been
the cause of such sinister dispositions towards the "haunted passage."
Davy and his friend had unexpectedly stumbled upon its track, for they
had not calculated on its appearance, at any rate before midnight.

In the Castle, Peel, or Pile of Fouldrey, on that night too, there was
a mighty disturbance, not unaccompanied with vexation and alarm. It
was soon after the first watch. The new-made monarch was asleep in his
chamber--an ill-furnished apartment on the second floor of the main
tower or keep, looking out by a narrow window towards the sea. The
next, or middle chamber, was on a level, and communicating with the
first landing, or principal entrance. The latter apartment, in which
were the guards and others immediately about the king's person, served
the purposes of an ante-room to the presence-chamber.

The room opposite--for there were three divisions on each floor--was
subdivided into several parts, and occupi