"
"Since you are so confident, brother," said the canon, "I commit him
readily to your hands. I was about to seek other aid, but your offer
comes opportunely. With Heaven's help I doubt not you will achieve a
victory over the evil one."
As the latter words were uttered a sudden pain seemed to seize the
friar. Staggering slightly, he caught at the railing of the cloisters for
support, but he instantly recovered himself.
"It is nothing, reverend sir," he said, seeing that the good canon
regarded him anxiously. "Long vigils and fasting have made me liable
to frequent attacks of giddiness, but they pass as quickly as they
come. Will it please you to go with me, and direct the guard to admit
me to the prisoner?"
The canon assented; and crossing the quadrangle, they returned to the
gateway.
Meanwhile, the prisoner had been removed to the lower chamber of the
Garter Tower. This fortification, one of the oldest in the castle, being
coeval with the Curfew Tower, is now in a state of grievous neglect and
ruin. Unroofed, unfloored, filled with rubbish, masked by the yard walls
of the adjoining habitations, with one side entirely pulled down, and a
great breach in front, it is solely owing to the solid and rock-like
construction of its masonry that it is indebted for partial preservation.
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