The damp and closeness of the place are too much for you."
"I think it was rather the want of sleep that made me ill," she
answered; "but you can do just as you please."
"I thank you for your confidence, my lady," returned Donal. "I do
not think you will repent it."
"I know I shall not."
Having some things to do first, it was late before Donal went
down--intent on learning the former main entrance, and verifying the
position of the chapel in the castle.
He betook himself to the end of the passage under the little
gallery, and there examined the signs he had observed: those must be
the outer ends of two of the steps of the great staircase! they came
through, resting on the wall. That end of the chapel, then, adjoined
the main stair. Evidently, too, a door had been built up in the
process of constructing the stair. The chapel then had not been
entered from that level since the building of the stair. Originally
there had, most likely, been an outside stair to this door, in an
open court.
After a little more examination, partial of necessity, from lack of
light, he was on his way out, and already near the top of the mural
stair, thinking of the fresh observations he would take outside in
the morning, when behind, overtaking him from the regions he had
left, came a blast of air, and blew out his candle. He shivered--not
with the cold of it, though it did breathe of underground damps and
doubtful growths, but from a feeling of its having been sent after
him to make him go down again--for did it not indicate some opening
to the outer air? He relighted his candle and descended, carefully
guarding it with one hand.
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