Page:The Chronicle of Clemendy.pdf/151

yond an odd glistening of some other brightness. My way it seems is lower still, said I to myself, and as quickly as I could I ran down the stairs and found myself in a passage lined with smooth mirrors of steel, and illuminated by small lamps hanging from the roof at equal distance apart. From these lamps came pleasant odours, as they burnt, but I stayed not to examine anything, rather coursing along for my life, for I feared there had been a watch set on me in my dungeon, though I knew not of it. And when I had run three or four miles, and was nearly breathless, the lamps ceased, and I was in darkness, and the track grew rough and stony, and the walls when I felt them were of hewn rock. Then the way widened, and my feet trod over sand, till I saw once more the light of heaven, that I had not beheld except on that cursed dial for many a weary week. To be short I came out by a cave on the sea shore, and had not far to go before I found my boat lying just as I had left it above the wash of the tide. I need not say how swift I was to embark and sail away with a blessed wind from those shores, nor how by land and sea I have returned to Gwent once more, since I have devised for you all the matter pertinent to this my quest of variety."

Herewith Sir Dru's tongue ceased from wagging and Master Geoffrey's pen from flickering; and none knew what to say, for it seemed as if the Argument of the Dial and the Vane had not been concluded by the knightly quests; but rather mixed, muddled, confounded, obscured,