"Nay," quoth Myles, "I trust not; but break or make, we get notthere without trying. So here goeth for the venture.""Thou art a hare-brained knave as ever drew breath of life,"quoth Gascoyne, "and will cause me to come to grief some of thesefine days. Ne'theless, an thou be Jack Fool and lead the way, go,and I will be Tom Fool and follow anon. If thy neck is worth solittle, mine is worth no more."It was indeed a perilous climb, but that special providence whichguards reckless lads befriended them, as it has thousands oftheir kind before and since. So, by climbing from one knotted,clinging stem to another, they were presently seated snugly inthe ivied niche in the window. It was barred from within by acrumbling shutter, the rusty fastening of which, after somelittle effort upon the part of the two, gave way, and enteringthe narrow opening, they found themselves in a small triangularpassage-way, from which a steep flight of stone steps led downthrough a hollow in the massive wall to the room below.
At the bottom of the steps was a heavy oaken door, which stoodajar, hanging upon a single rusty hinge, and from the room withina dull, gray light glimmered faintly. Myles pushed the doorfarther open; it creaked and grated horribly on its rusty hinge,and, as in instant answer to the discordant shriek, came a faintpiping squeaking, a rustling and a pattering of soft footsteps.
"The ghosts!" cried Gascoyne, in a quavering whisper, and for amoment Myles felt the chill of goose-flesh creep up and down hisspine. But the next moment he laughed.
"Nay," said he, "they be rats. Look at yon fellow, Francis! Be'stas big as Mother Joan's kitten. Give me that stone." He flung itat the rat, and it flew clattering across the floor. There wasanother pattering rustle of hundreds of feet, and then abreathless silence.
The boys stood looking around them, and a strange enough sight itwas. The room was a perfect circle of about twenty feet across,and was piled high with an indistinguishable mass of lumber--rudetables, ruder chairs, ancient chests, bits and remnants of clothand sacking and leather, old helmets and pieces of armor of aby-gone time, broken spears and pole-axes, pots and pans andkitchen furniture of all sorts and kinds.
A straight beam of sunlight fell through a broken shutter like abar of gold, and fell upon the floor in a long streak of dazzlinglight that illuminated the whole room with a yellow glow.
"By 'r Lady!" said Gascoyne at last, in a hushed voice, "here isFather Time's garret for sure. Didst ever see the like, Myles?
Look at yon arbalist; sure Brutus himself used such an one!""Nay," said Myles; "but look at this saddle. Marry, here be'st arat's nest in it."Clouds of dust rose as they rummaged among the mouldering mass,setting them coughing and sneezing. Now and then a great gray ratwould shoot out beneath their very feet, and disappear, like asudden shadow, into some hole or cranny in the wall.
"Come," said Myles at last, brushing the dust from his jacket,"an we tarry here longer we will have chance to see no othersights; the sun is falling low."An arched stair-way upon the opposite side of the room from whichthey had entered wound upward through the wall, the stone stepsbeing lighted by narrow slits of windows cut through the massivemasonry. Above the room they had just left was another of thesame shape and size, but with an oak floor, sagging and risinginto hollows and hills, where the joist had rotted away beneath.
It was bare and empty, and not even a rat was to be seen. Abovewas another room; above that, another; all the passages andstairways which connected the one story with the other beingbuilt in the wall, which was, where solid, perhaps fifteen feetthick.
From the third floor a straight flight of steps led upward to aclosed door, from the other side of which shone the dazzlingbrightness of sunlight, and whence came a strange noise--a softrustling, a melodious murmur. The boys put their shouldersagainst the door, which was fastened, and pushed with might andmain--once, twice; suddenly the lock gave way, and out theypitched headlong into a blaze of sunlight. A deafening clappingand uproar sounded in their ears, and scores of pigeons, suddenlydisturbed, rose in stormy flight.
They sat up and looked around them in silent wonder. They were ina bower of leafy green. It was the top story of the tower, theroof of which had crumbled and toppled in, leaving it open to thesky, with only here and there a slanting beam or two supporting aportion of the tiled roof, affording shelter for the nests of thepigeons crowded closely together. Over everything the ivy hadgrown in a mantling sheet--a net-work of shimmering green,through which the sunlight fell flickering.
"This passeth wonder," said Gascoyne, at last breaking thesilence.
"Aye," said Myles, "I did never see the like in all my life."Then, "Look, yonder is a room beyond; let us see what it is,Francis."Entering an arched door-way, the two found themselves in abeautiful little vaulted chapel, about eighteen feet long andtwelve or fifteen wide. It comprised the crown of one of thelarge massive buttresses, and from it opened the row of archedwindows which could be seen from below through the greenshimmering of the ivy leaves. The boys pushed aside the trailingtendrils and looked out and down. The whole castle lay spreadbelow them, with the busy people unconsciously intent upon thematters of their daily work. They could see the gardener, withbowed back, patiently working among the flowers in the garden,the stable-boys below grooming the horses, a bevy of ladies inthe privy garden playing at shuttlecock with battledoors of wood,a group of gentlemen walking up and down in front of the Earl'shouse. They could see the household servants hurrying hither andthither, two little scullions at fisticuffs, and a kitchen girlstanding in the door-way scratching her frowzy head.
It was all like a puppetshow of real life, each actingunconsciously a part in the play. The cool wind came in throughthe rustling leaves and fanned their cheeks, hot with the climbup the winding stair-way.
"We will call it our Eyry," said Gascoyne "and we will be thehawks that live here." And that was how it got its name.
The next day Myles had the armorer make him a score of largespikes, which he and Gascoyne drove between the ivy branches andinto the cement of the wall, and so made a safe passageway bywhich to reach the window niche in the wall.
