One time it was a
chimney that might have door and stair concealed within it; another,
the stables, where she examined every stall in the hope of finding a
trap to an underground way. Had any one else been in question but
Richard, the traitor, the roundhead, she might have imagined an
associate within the walls, in which case farther solution would not
have been for her; but somehow, she did not make it clear to herself
how, she could not entertain the idea in connection with Richard.
Besides, in brooding over everything, it had grown plain to her that
both Richard and Marquis had that night been through the moat.
Some who caught sight of her in the early dawn, wandering about and
peering here and there, thought that she was losing her senses;
others more ingenious in the thinking of evil, imagined she sought
to impress the household with a notion of her innocence by
pretending a search for the concealed flaw in the defences.
Ever since she had been put in charge of the water-works, she had
been in the habit of lingering a little on the roof of the keep as
often as occasion took her thither, for she delighted in the far
outlook on the open country which it afforded; and perhaps it was a
proof of the general healthiness of her nature that now in her
misery, instead of shutting herself up in her own chamber, she
oftener sought the walk around the reservoir, looking abroad in
shadowy hope of some lurking deliverance, like captive lady in the
stronghold of evil knight.
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