Page:The Prisoner of Zenda.djvu/196

178 honorably observed and paid, so that he lives now in prosperity (though where I may not mention); and we were the more free inasmuch as we soon learned that he was rather a weak man than a wicked, and had acted throughout this matter more from fear of the duke and of his own brother Max than for any love of what was done. But he had persuaded all of his loyalty; and though not in their secret counsels, was yet, by his knowledge of their dispositions within the castle, able to lay bare before us the very heart of their devices. And here, in brief, is his story:

Below the level of the ground in the castle, approached by a flight of stone steps which abutted on the end of the drawbridge, were situated two small rooms, cut out of the rock itself. The outer of the two had no windows, but was always lighted with candles; the inner had one square window, which gave upon the moat. In this inner room there lay always, day and night, three of the Six; and the instructions of Duke Michael were that on any attack being made on the outer room the three were to defend the door of it so long as they could