Knowing that the hour mentioned in the letter had arrived, therefore, I was, if possible, more eagerly expectant than ever. My heart thumped loudly at every sound, and in my heart I cursed the wailing of the wind among the trees, because I thought it kept me from hearing the first approach of my jailer.
For a long weary time I waited, but no footsteps greeted my ears. I felt my nerves tingling even to the bottom of my feet, and a thousand times I imagined whisperings and altercations which had no actual existence.
Presently the church clock struck again, and its deep tones echoed across the valley towards St. Thomas' Church, and also towards St. Stephen's, both of which lay in the near distance. Doubtless the rest of the prisoners were asleep, and the sonorous sounds sweeping across hill and dale was nothing to them. But to me it came like a death-knell to my hopes. An hour had passed since the time mentioned in the letter I had received had come, and still I had heard no one approach.
I placed my body against the door and pressed hardly. It yielded not one whit. I climbed to one of the windows in the wall and looked out. The night was drear, the clouds hung heavily in the sky, neither moon nor stars appeared. No sound reached me save the sighing of the wind among the branches of the trees.
Still I waited, still I listened—all in vain.
The clock struck twelve.
As the sound of the last stroke of the bell died away, I heard something outside like the croaking of a raven; a few seconds later I heard whispering voices.
Again I climbed to the window in the wall and looked out. Beneath me, perhaps ten feet down, I saw two human figures. One I thought I recognized as Jenkins, the other was strange to me. The man whom I concluded to be Jenkins carried a lantern in his hand, but it was but dimly lighted. When lifted, however, it revealed to me a form wrapped in a long cloak. No face was visible; it was hidden by a hood attached to the cloak.
"Open the door of the tower, I tell you."
"I dare not." It was Jenkins who spoke, and his voice was full of fear.