"And how long will her trial last?"
"Half an hour, or thereabouts. There are some secrets in the matter that
have to be investigated, and which will require some time."
"Then let all the trials be over first, and all the beheadings take
place together. We don't choose to take the trouble of traveling to the
Black Chamber just to see his head chopped off, and then have the same
journey to undergo half an hour after, for a similar purpose. Call Lady
Castlemaine, and let this prisoner be taken to one of the dungeons, and
there remain until the time for execution. Guards, do you hear? Take him
away!"
The dwarf's face grew black as a thunder-cloud, and he jumped to his
feet and confronted the queen with a look so intensely ugly that no
other earthly face could have assumed it. But that lady merely met it
with one of cold disdain and aversion, and, keeping her dark bright eyes
fixed chillingly upon him, waved her white hand, in her imperious way,
to the guards. Those warlike gentlemen knew better than to disobey her
most gracious majesty when she happened to be, like Mrs. Joe Gargary, on
the "rampage," which, if her flashing eye and a certain expression about
her handsome mouth spoke the truth, must have been twenty hours out of
the twenty-four. As the soldiers approached to lead him away, Sir Norman
tried to catch her eye; but in vain, for she kept those brilliant optics
most unwinkingly fixed on the dwarf's face.
"Call Lady Castlemaine," commanded the duke, as Sir Norman with his
guards passed through the doorway leading to the Black Chamber. "Your
highness, I presume, is ready to attend to her case."
"Before I attend to hers or any one else's case," said the dwarf,
hopping over the table like an overgrown toad, "I will first see that
this guest of ours is properly taken care, of, and does not leave us
without the ceremony of saying good-bye."
With which, he seized one of the wax candles, and trotted, with rather
unprincely haste, after Sir Norman and his conductors. The young knight
had been led down the same long passage he had walked through before;
but instead of entering the chamber of horrors, they passed through the
centre arch, and found themselves in another long, vaulted corridor,
dimly lit by the glow of the outer one. It was as cold and dismal a
place, Sir Norman thought, as he had ever seen; and it had an odor damp
and earthy, and of the grave. It had two or three great, ponderous doors
on either aide, fastened with huge iron bolts; and before one of these
his conductors paused. Just as they did so, the glimmer of the dwarf's
taper pierced the gloom, and the next moment, smiling from ear to ear,
he was by their side.