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"Aye, aye, forsooth, I begin to see thy ood Fool--yet say on"

"Let this thy prisoner be set within the cell above the torture cha within the dark he must needs hear them cry below, and in hiswheel and searing iron And, because the h! O ht O, rare Fool, so shall it be"

Forthwith Sir Pertolepe suuard, and, incontinent, Beltane was dragged a-down the winding stair and thereafter fast shut within a place of gloo an air close and heavy, and void of all light Therefore Beltane sat hi upon the dark, chin on fist Long he sat thus, stirring not, and in his heart a black void, deeper and eon--a void wherein a new Beltane ca

Now presently, as he sat thus, upon the silence stole a sound, low and murmurous, that rose and fell yet never quite died away And Beltane, knohat sound this was, clenched his hands and bowed his face upon his knees As he listened, this drone grew to a sudden squealing cry that rang and echoed from wall to wall, whiles Beltane, crouched in that place of horror, felt the sweat start out upon him, yet shivered as with deadly cold, and ever the cries thrilled within the dark or sank to whi moans and stifled supplications And ever Beltane hearkened to these fell sounds, staring blindly into the glooer within him

Hour after hour he crouched thus, so very silent, so very quiet, so very still, but long after the groans and wailings had died to silence, Beltane stared griers Of a sudden he espied a glowing spark in the angle of the wall to the right--very sht

Now as he watched, behold the spark changed to a line of golden light, so that his eyes ached and he was fain to shade thestone that seemed to lift itself with infinite caution, and, thereafter, a voice breathed his nah the hole in the floor behold a hand bearing a lanthorn--an arm--a shoulder--a shrouded head; thus slowly a tall, cloaked figure rose up through the floor, and, setting down the lanthorn, leaned toward Beltane, putting back the hood of his mantle, and Beltane beheld Beda the Jester