before me, I
took heart of grace, reflecting that mademoiselle might have escaped
from the house this way. Though it would now be too late to quit the
city, I might still overtake her, and all end well. Accordingly I
hurried down the stairs, shading my candle as I went from a cold draught
of air which met me, and grew stronger as I descended; until reaching
the bottom at last, I came abruptly upon an open door, and an old,
wrinkled, shrivelled woman.

The hag screamed at sight of me, and crouched down on the floor; and
doubtless, with my drawn sword, and the blood dripping from my chin
and staining all the front of my doublet, I looked fierce and uncanny
enough. But I felt it was no time for sensibility--I was panting to be
away--and I demanded of her sternly where they were. She seemed to have
lost her voice--through fear, perhaps--and for answer only stared at me
stupidly; but on my handling my weapon with some readiness she so far
recovered her senses as to utter two loud screams, one after the other,
and point to the door beside her. I doubted her; and yet I thought in
her terror she must be telling the truth, the more as I saw no other
door. In any case I must risk it, so, setting the candle down on the
step beside her, I passed out.

For a moment the darkness was so intense that I felt my way with my
sword before me, in absolute ignorance where I was or on what my foot
might next rest. I was at the mercy of anyone who chanced to be lying
in wait for me; and I shivered as the cold damp wind struck my cheek and
stirred my hair. But by-and-by, when I had taken two or three steps, my
eyes grew accustomed to the gloom, and I made, out the naked boughs of
trees between myself and the sky, and guessed that I was in a garden. My
left hand, touching a shrub, confirmed me in this belief, and in another
moment I distinguished something like the outline of a path stretching
away before me. Following it rapidly--as rapidly as I dared--I came to
a corner, as it seemed to me, turned it blindly, and stopped short,
peeping into a curtain of solid blackness which barred my path, and
overhead mingled confusedly with the dark shapes of trees. But this,
too, after a brief hesitation, I made out to be a wall. Advancing to
it with outstretched hands, I felt the woodwork of a door, and, groping
about, lit presently on a loop of cord. I pulled at this, the door
yielded, and I went out.

I found myself in a narrow, dark lane, and looki