She looked up at the tower. All was dark, and the dismal cry of a raven
suddenly broke the awful stillness with a sound that was even yet more
awful.
"Why are there no lights in the windows?" she asked; "surely Sir Oswald
is not lying in the darkness?"
"I don't know. The chamber in which they have placed him may be on the
other side of the tower," answered Victor, briefly. "And now, Lady
Eversleigh, you must alight. We can go no further with the vehicle, and
I must take it back to the other side of the drawbridge."
They had reached the entrance of the tower, an archway of solid
masonry, over which the ivy hung like a sombre curtain.
Honoria alighted, and passed under the black shadow of the arch.
"You had better wait till I return, Lady Eversleigh," said Victor. "You
will scarcely find your way without my help."
Honoria obeyed. Anxious as she was to reach Sir Oswald without a
moment's unnecessary delay, she felt herself powerless to proceed
without a guide--so dark was the interior of the tower. She heard the
ravens shrieking hoarsely in the battlements above, and the ivy
flapping in the evening wind; but she could hear nothing else.
Victor came back to her in a few minutes. As he rejoined her, there was
a noise of some ponderous object falling, with a grating and rattling
of heavy chains; but Lady Eversleigh was too much absorbed by her own
anxieties to feel any curiosity as to the origin of the sound.
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