Beale."
He came a little closer, and Robin could see that he was excited.
"But you are right, sir, for all their lies. I saw supper plates and an
empty flagon come down from the stair that leads to the little chamber
above the kitchen."
CHAPTER VIII
I
Overhead lay the heavy sky of night-clouds like a curved sheet of dark
steel, glimmering far away to the left with gashes of pale light. In
front towered the twin gateway, seeming in the gloom to lean forward to
its fall. Lights shone here and there in the windows, vanished and
appeared again, flashing themselves back from the invisible water
beneath. About, behind and on either side, there swayed and murmured
this huge crowd--invisible in the darkness--peasants, gentlemen,
clerks, grooms--all on an equality at last, awed by a common tragedy
into silence, except for words exchanged here and there in an undertone,
or whispered and left unanswered, or sudden murmured prayers to a God
who hid Himself indeed. Now and again, from beyond the veiling walls
came the tramp of men; once, three or four brisk notes blown on a horn;
once, the sudden rumble of a drum; and once, when the silence grew
profound, three or four blows of iron on wood. But at that the murmur
rose into a groan and drowned it again....
So the minutes passed.... Since soon after midnight the folks had been
gathering here. Many had not slept all night, ever since the report had
run like fire through the little town last evening, that the sentence
had been delivered to the prisoner.
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