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Claudio grasped his sword by the blade, and advanced two steps into the vaulted passage.

"I cannot resist the impulse to try if I can again call into existence those fearful sounds which before filled our souls with horror."

"Strike, Claudio," said Maurice, "what need we fear? Our souls are free from greater crimes than that which the sinfulness of human nature forces us to commit against the purity of Heaven."

Claudio struck the wall thrice with the hilt of his sword.

The sound of his blows was faintly repeated by a dull echo at the further extremity of the vaulted passage. In a moment or two, even that faint sound faded away, and nothing but the suppressed breathing of Claudio broke the solemn, awful stillness of the place.

"It does not come again," said Maurice.

"The imagination, Maurice," said Claudio, "plays stange freaks. Our excited minds may, on our former visit, have converted some accidental sounds from the chamber of the castle above into the tones of horror which we certainly heard, or fancied we heard, before."

"I hear the splashing of the water," said Maurice.

"The rats," said Claudio, "may be again startled from their hiding places. I fancy I hear a sound as of swimming in the pool."

Maurice inclined his ear to listen.

Hardly had he done so, when a shriek, so loud, so awful, so terrific, that Claudio involuntarily pressed his hands upon his ears, came from the further end of the vaulted passage.

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"God of Heaven!" cried Claudio, "who shall say this is a delusion?"

"Horrible! horrible!" said Maurice, trembling.

From passage to passage, far and near, the awful sound seemed to be repeated by endless echoes, and Maurice and Claudio stood motionless, and gazing at each other with intense and unspeakable horror for full ten minutes after the sound had burst upon their startled ears.

Away, away in the distance it seemed to subside, as if seeking a home in the very bowels of the earth.

"Oh, Maurice," said Claudio, with a deep sigh, "what can we think, my friend?¾ where can the mind fly for refuge?"

"Such sounds as these," said Maurice, "penetrating the ears of some lonely prisoner in these dungeons, would soon drive him to madness."

"Horrible thought!" said Claudio, shuddering. "What fearful sights are not such sounds suggestive of?"

"The fancy is prepared," replied Maurice, "for unheard of horrors. Oh, Claudio, tempt it not again."

"I¾ I¾ dare not," answered Claudio. "My blood creeps like an insect through my veins! My brain freezes with horror."

" �Tis, indeed, the very extacy of agony. Let us go, Claudio, let us go."

"We will," answered Claudio. "Let us explore the passage we are in more fully. Hold the light, good Maurice."

Claudio now left the entrance of the vaulted passage which appeared to be so replete with horrors, and commenced a careful search for the narrow entrance, which Caroline Mecklenburgh had described to him as leading to the dungeon of the venerable prisoner, mentioned in the narrative of the baron�s first wife¾ she who had fallen a victim to the heated passions of that bad man.

A deathlike stillness now reigned around, and so oppressed were the minds of Claudio and Maurice, by the fearful sound which had broken the solemn stillness of that abode of terrors, that they even trod lightly, and with a sensation of undefinable dread, upon the damp, mouldy earth which formed the flooring of the passage in which they were."

Their utmost scrutiny failed to discover any entrance to another passage or door-way from the narrow winding excavation they were examining and they arrived, as before, to its further extremity, without making any discovery.

"It is not probable," said Claudio, "that this passage has been constructed for no other object than to terminate thus in a blank wall."

"Let us," answered Maurice, "once more examine the walls inch by inch as we return."

They did so, but their careful scrutiny was not rewarded by any discovery whatever. The walls presented nothing to the eye but the same uniform damp surface of hammered clay and loam.

"This is," said Claudio, "perplexing in the extreme."

"We must again," remarked Maurice, "penetrate to the vaulted dun-

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geon in which repose the remains of the hapless prisoner, who has, doubtless, fallen a victim to the insatiable cruelty of the baron Zindorf."

"That, indeed," answered Claudio, "seems to be our only mode of penetrating from these long passages to the actual dungeons."

With thrilling hearts they once more arrived at the entrance of the vaulted passage, which threatened such terrors to the hardy adventurers who should be bold enough to attempt its exploration.

"Let us listen," said Claudio.

"I hear nothing," whispered Maurice; "the silence of the grave seems now to reign in this place of horrors."

"Follow me closely," said Claudio, "and let what may happen, Maurice, let it be your chief care to preserve the light. Darkness in this place is a tenfold aggravation of its gloomy and desolate horrors."

With his drawn sword in his hand, Claudio advanced along the mysterious passage. The light shed a faint gloom upon the moist, dripping walls, and produced gigantic shadows of Claudio and Maurice, which seemed like airy phantoms to follow them with shocking gestures.

"Shall we again," said Maurice, "penetrate to the pool of stagnant water?"

"I would wish to do so," answered Claudio; "could we cross it, we might be rewarded by some fresh discovery in these hidden regions."

Now, as they advanced, the ground became more wet and slippery, and they shortly stood by the edge of the dull, black pool of water which had before stopped their progress in that direction.

The width of the pool did not seem to be great; but all beyond it was enveloped in the blackest gloom.

"The passage," said Claudio, "seems to extend much further in this direction."

"From the stillness and colour of the water," said Maurice, "I suspect this pool to be much deeper than we supposed."

"It may be so," said Claudio. "If we could find anything to cast into it, we might come to some better judgment concerning it."

"There are large stones at intervals imbedded in the walls," said Maurice. "Lend me your poniard."

With Claudio�s broken poniard, which retained but a small portion of its blade, Maurice dislodged a large stone from the wall, and cast it into the very centre of the black and dismal pool.

Several moments they waited in anxious expectation of the answering splash of the stone reaching the bottom; but they waited in vain. A few eddying circles curled round the spot at which the stone struck the surface with a sullen splash, and then all was still; down, down it seemed to go far into the bowels of the earth.

Claudio shuddered.

"To what fearful purposes, Maurice," he said, "might this apparently fathomless pool be turned. What crimes might it not hide. What

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deeds of blood might be for ever hidden from the eye of man in its silent bosom."

As Claudio spoke, a low, wailing sound might be heard in the passage behind the spot in which they stood. It was something between a sigh and a faint cry of utter helpless despair.

"Can that cry," said Claudio, "proceed from mortal lips?"

"It seems here," said Maurice, "and yet it has a stifled sound, as if coming from far off, or as if some one was moaning through a narrow crevice his melancholy woes and cruel fate."

"Good Heavens!" cried Claudio; "do you think it possible, Maurice, that these sounds we have heard can proceed from some prisoner? Yet, no; �tis impossible¾ �tis madness to think so. That shriek forbids the idea. That fearful scream came from no mortal lungs."

"It had, indeed," said Maurice, "a more than human character."

"Let us away from here," cried Claudio. "The dungeon of the skeleton has not half the horrors of this silent pool. There we know the worst¾ the full extent of all that is fearful;¾ but here the imagination is left to conjure up its own phantasies, and all is unfathomable mystery."

They turned from the pool, and ascended the slippery steep of the damp passage till they came to the spot where they had previously discovered the door to the large double dungeon.

Claudio pressed the spring, and the massive door, as before, yielded to a touch.

"Although we have another means of escape," said Claudio, "we will not allow this door to close upon us."

He inserted the bit of blade which still remained of his broken poniard, in the ground, close to the door-way, in such a manner that the door could not close sufficiently to act upon the spring.

They immediately entered the dungeon. Claudio�s first impulse was to approach the skeleton which had been bound to the column. There it lay¾ festering and rotting in its unhallowed sepulchre.

Claudio turned away his eyes from the mournful spectacle, and motioned to Maurice to follow him with the light into the next compartment of the dungeon.

"Stay yet a moment, Claudio," said Maurice. "By the gleams of the light, I see that there is something scratched on the column to which this unhappy man has been chained. Prisoners often leave such records of their fate."

"Hold the light closer," said Claudio, as he strove to read some words which appeared to have been scratched upon the damp pillar at the foot of which the skeleton of him, who probably had traced them, lay.

With some difficulty, he made out the following words:¾

"EUGENIO MONTONI,¾

BETRAYED!¾ MURDERED!"

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Then in almost illegible characters, at some distance lower down on the column were scratched the words:¾

"FOUR DAYS¾ FOUR¾

NO FOOD!"

Claudio looked with horror and pity upon the mouldering remnant of humanity who had traced these few words as a sad record of his melancholy and awful fate.

"This is," he said, "the very refinement of cruelty. This wretched prisoner has been, without doubt, left here to starve to death. The door earthed up. The other entrance by the trap-door likewise covered with earth to deaden all sounds, and shut out all hope. Oh, Maurice, how dreadful must those four days have been!"

"Hark!" cried Maurice, "I hear a sound as of a distant bell."

Claudio listened attentively.

"I know the sound," he said, "although it comes to our ears faint and indistinct in this receptacle of horror. It is the castle clock."

"Then," said Maurice, "we must be near the chapel."

"I make no doubt," answered Claudio, "but we are exactly beneath it.¾ I fancied so before. These columns support the aisles of the castle chapel."

"There is, probably, an outlet from these vaults into the chapel," remarked Maurice.

"There surely is," said Claudio. "We must discover it, if possible, as it may be the means of giving us access to any part of the castle we please."

Carefully they examined the dungeon, in order to discover some other door than that which they knew led to the trap-door through which they had on their former visit made their exit to light and liberty. Nothing to reward their toils presented itself and they at length passed through the little door which Maurice had opened with the rusty key picked up so providentially by Claudio in the vaulted passage, which trivial circumstance had been, without doubt, the means of saving their lives.

They had not proceeded above a few steps up the winding staircase, when they discovered a low arched opening in the wall, which, in his anxiety to bear the exhausted Claudio to a purer air, Maurice had before passed without noticing.

"Here," said Claudio, "is, at all events, something now to reward our exertions. Let us enter here. I am not without a hope that this narrow passage may lead direct to the chapel."

"It seems to ascend rapidly," said Maurice, extending the light.

The passage was excessively narrow, and the roof was so low that Claudio could not stand upright.

After proceeding about three hundred yards, for the whole of which distance they had been ascending a considerable slope, they came to a stone flight of steps.

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Claudio rapidly ascended, until his progress was stopped by a large flag stone, which seemed to be the termination of the staircase.

"I dare say," cried Claudio, "that this stone forms part of the flooring of the chapel."

"It seems massive and heavy," said Maurice.

"Let us try by our united strength to move it," said Claudio.

Setting down the lamp upon the stairs, they both exerted themselves to the utmost. The stone slowly moved.

"Now, Maurice," cried Claudio, "a vigorous movement, and we shall remove this obstruction to our progress."

Their united efforts at length rolled the stone from its place. A flood of light¾ for it was not yet sunset,¾ came from the orifice.

Claudio sprang through it, and looked anxiously around him.

"It is the castle chapel, Maurice," he cried.

The clock now again sounded.

"It is growing late," said Maurice, "and the young lady will be most anxious for our return."

"We will be content, then, Maurice," answered Claudio, "with the discoveries we have already made."

"Can we replace this stone?"

"I fear not, Maurice; but, you see, we are behind the altar. No one will be likely to visit the chapel at all, for I heard that it was entirely shut up and out of use since the present baron became master of Zindorf."

They returned rapidly, and without further discovery or adventure, Claudio and Maurice once more found themselves in their turret abode.

CHAPTER XXX

MOST anxiously had Caroline listened for every sound which might indicate the return of Claudio to the turret.

A hundred times she passed through the panel, and bent her head to listen for the least noise which might proclaim his presence.

Now the shadows of evening were crowding around her. Darkness was rapidly approaching, and each moment her anxiety became more and more intense.

"Why," she said, clasping her hands, "why did I send him on this errand? His life, perhaps, even now, has been sacrificed to my wishes. All the fearful dungeons of those gloomy vaults now flash across my brain.¾ Oh, Claudio, Claudio, have I sent you to destruction? Have I sacrificed the life that was dearer to me than my own?"

She sat down in her solitary chamber, and gave vent to her feelings in floods of tears of agony and self-reproach.

"Those fearful dungeons," she cried, with horror in her tones. "Those

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abodes of hopeless misery!¾ I have sent him to them, and he is lost! He,¾ even he talked of them with shuddering.¾ Oh, Claudio, Claudio, what would I not give to hear your voice again!¾ One word,¾ but one word of yours would now lift me from despair to such a height of pure felicity, that¾ "

Caroline suddenly started to her feet, and a radiant smile played upon her ruby lips, while her sparkling eyes betrayed the blest feelings of her heart.

" �Tis he!" she cried, " �tis he!¾ Thank Heaven �tis he. I know his lightest footstep. He is safe¾ safe."

She flew to the panel and bounded like a young fawn up the turret-stairs. She opened the door.

"Claudio, Claudio," she cried, and in another moment was clasped to the breast of her lover. It was the first embrace. His lips imprinted for the first time a kiss upon her glowing cheek.

She now gently, and with a profusion of blushes, disengaged herself from the arms of him who could have held her to his heart for ever.

"Oh Claudio, Claudio," she cried, covering her glowing face with her hands; "you will not think lightly of me. I¾ I thought you were lost.¾ I¾ did not mean¾ "

"Nay, dearest¾ adored Caroline," he cried, "blame not yourself that you obeyed the first impulse of your pure heart. Were it possible that I could love you more than I do, it would be for that innocent candour of the guileless soul which you, dearest Caroline, possess above all others."

"I¾ I knew not what I did, Claudio."

"Ah, Caroline, let our hearts ever thus be bound to each other, and the world shall know no truer joys than ours."

"Never again," said Caroline, "oh, never again, Claudio, will I tempt you to revisit the dungeons of Zindorf."

"There was no danger, love, and little to alarm."

"I have, perhaps, suffered more myself," said Caroline, "in self-reproaches, for urging you and our friend Maurice on such an expedition at all."

"I only regret, as far as we ourselves are concerned, Caroline," said Claudio, "that in the main object of our enterprise, we have been disappointed."

" �Tis most strange," said Caroline.

"It is," answered Claudio. "But, with our utmost vigilance, we can discover no low passage similar to the one you mention as leading to the ancient and venerable prisoner�s dungeon."

"We are all in the hands of Providence," said Caroline. "Unhappy prisoner!¾ what human means could accomplish, has been done to rescue thee. We may mourn our failure, but it is not in our power to avert it."

"Again and again," said Claudio, "I would most willingly return to the search, but I am almost without hope. There is some inexplicable

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mystery in the whole affair, which, time alone, I fear, has the power to unravel."

"If I could again get possession of the manuscript," said Caroline, "from whence I read the particulars of the lonely imprisonment of the hopeless being I sent you, Claudio, in search of, I might, perchance, arrive at some better clue to the place of his confinement. All aid now, is, I fear, however, much too late to preserve the life, or sweeten the bitterness of death of so old a man."

"I wish much," said Claudio, "to see that manuscript. You tell me my poor brother is mentioned in it?"

"He is," said Caroline, sighing.

"And his fate?"

"Alas!" cried Caroline; "to keep you in suspense, Claudio, is cruel."

"Oh, tell me all, Caroline, from your lips I could hear it best."

"Vileroy fell a victim to the baron�s jealousy," said Caroline.

"My heart told me as much," said Claudio, mournfully. "Oh, Caroline, he had the gentlest, bravest heart¾ I¾ I¾ "

Claudio�s feelings overcame him, and he turned to the narrow casement of the turret, to weep unseen.

"Oh, Claudio," said Caroline, "I should not have told you this."

"Yes, Caroline, yes" answered Claudio, in a more composed voice, " �tis fitting I should know all. The pang is now past."

Caroline wept in sympathy with Claudio�s deep distress.

"Another time, Caroline," he said, "tell me all. All you know of my poor murdered brother. This baron shall pay dearly for his crime."

"He is a monster," said Maurice, struggling with his emotions.

"Until we know such men," said Claudio, "we may well doubt the fact of their existence. He is scarcely human."

"Be cautious," said Caroline, "for my sake, Claudio. For all our sakes, let not your just resentment hurry you to some careless act of vengeance."

"To punish the murderer of my brother," said Claudio, "I look upon as a sacred duty, and, believe me, Caroline, I will not hazard the fulfilment of my vengeance of that foul deed by any indiscreet attempt. I must not fail when once I have decided upon the means of bringing this ferocious and demoniac Baron Zindorf to that justice he has so long evaded."

"The manuscript I mentioned," said Caroline, "is in the room occupied by the wicked and false-hearted Count Durlack."

"He, too," cried Claudio, "is a blackened villain."

"He destroyed my parents," said Caroline.

"Dear Caroline," cried Claudio, "we have both suffered the most frightful injuries from these men, but be of good cheer. The termination of this career of vice and foul wickedness is near at hand."

"They have, indeed, done us fearful wrong, Claudio."

"Sir Gaston de Beauvais," continued Claudio, "will drag them from