The man merely waved his finger and shook his head, without reply, finished what he was about, and, taking from the table one of the gloves which the young knight had worn under his gauntlets, much to the spectator's surprise, dropped it out of the window.
"Now come with me," he whispered; "it is needful for us who stay behind, to have it thought for a day or two that you have made your escape without help. The demoiselle has paid us half the money, as she promised; and we will keep our word with her. There shall no danger attend you. We have better means of getting you out than breaking your neck by a fall from the casement."
"But you were to give me a word," said Richard of Woodville.
"Ay," answered the man, "I recollect: it was Mary Markham--Follow me."
Without hesitation, the prisoner accompanied him; but paused for an instant in some surprise on finding two armed men at the back of the door, one holding a lamp in his hand. The guard who was with him, however, took no notice; but, receiving the lamp from the other, led the way in a different direction from the staircase up which Woodville had been brought, when first he was conducted to his chamber of captivity. Then opening a door on the right, he entered a room, in the wall of which appeared a low archway, exposing to the eye, as the light flashed forward, the top of a steep, small staircase.
"I will go down first with the lamp," whispered the man, "that you may see where you are going. Give a heed to your footing, too, for it is mighty slippery, especially on such a damp night as this."
Thus saying, he led the way; and Richard of Woodville followed down the winding steps, cut apparently in the thickness of the wall. Green mould and clammy slime hung upon all the stones as they descended, except where, every here and there, a loophole admitted the free air of heaven and chased the damp away. The steps seemed interminable, one after another, one after another, till Woodville became sure that they were descending to a greater depth than the mere base of the castle; and, looking round, as the lamplight gleamed upon the walls, he beheld no more the hewn stone work which had appeared above, but the rough excavation of the solid rock. At length the steps ceased, as passing along a vault of masonry, perhaps forty or fifty feet long, the man unbolted and unbarred a small but solid door covered with iron plates; and in a moment the lamp was extinguished by the blast from without. All seemed dark and impenetrable to the eye; the wind roared through the vault; the rain dashed in the faces of Woodville and his companion; but, giving the lamp an oath, as if it had been to blame for what the storm had done, the man set it down behind the door, and then walked on, saying, "Keep close to me, for it is steep here."
Following down a little path as the man led, the young knight's eyes became more accustomed to the gloom, and he thought he descried, at a short distance, a group of men and horses standing under a light feathery tree. Hurrying on, with eager hope, he demanded of his guide who the persons were whom he saw before him.
"Your saucy page is one," said the guard; "but who the others are I do not know. The young clerk, I suppose, is one, and his servant the other; for I dare say the demoiselle would not come out on such a night as this, and faith, I cannot well see whether they be men or women in this light;" and he shaded his eyes with his hands, with very needless precaution, where scarcely a ray pierced the welkin.
At that moment, however, one of the figures moved towards him, asking, "Is all right?"