Page:The castle of Otranto (Third Edition).djvu/57

 these words: talk not to me of necromancers; I tell you she must be in the castle; I will find her in spite of enchantment―Oh! heavens, cried Isabella, it is the voice of Manfred! make haste or we are ruined! and shut the trap-door after you. Saying this, the descended the steps precipitately, and as the stranger hastened to follow her, he let the door flip out of his hands: it fell, and the spring closed over it. He tried in vain to open it, not having observed Isabella's method of touching the spring; nor had he many moments to make an essay. The noise of the falling door had been heard by Manfred, who directed by the sound, hastened thither, attended by his servants with torches. It must be Isabella; cried Manfred before he entered the vault; she is escaping by the subterraneous passage, but she cannot have got far. What was the astonishment of the Prince, when, instead of Isabella, the light of the torches discovered to him the young peasant, whom he thought confined under the fatal