A few rosy beams tipped the pinnacles
of Saint George's Chapel, seen behind the towers above-mentioned,
with fire; but, with this exception, the whole of the mighty fabric looked
cold and grey.
At this juncture the upper gate was opened, and Captain Bouchier and
his attendants issued from it, and passed over the drawbridge. The
curfew bell then tolled, the drawbridge was raised, the horsemen
disappeared, and no sound reached the listener's ear except the
measured tread of the sentinels on the ramparts, audible in the
profound stillness.
The youthful earl made no attempt to join his followers, but having
gazed on the ancient pile before him till its battlements and towers
grew dim in the twilight, he struck into a footpath leading across the
park towards Datchet, and pursued it until it brought him near a dell
filled with thorns, hollies, and underwood, and overhung by mighty
oaks, into which he unhesitatingly plunged, and soon gained the
deepest part of it. Here, owing to the thickness of the hollies and the
projecting arms of other large overhanging timber, added to the
uncertain light above, the gloom was almost impervious, and he could
scarcely see a yard before him.
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