The Midnight Queen - Page 91/177

"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.