Chapter X: The Smugglers’ Haunts

As we heard long afterwards where the strange Joe Naylor went after quitting the old dame’s cottage, I will now follow his footsteps to the old Castle-hill. Proceeding by a narrow path which led through thick woods towards the Castle (in which direction the dame had heard his tread) for about a mile, he suddenly left it, and turned into the park, where the underwood was very thick, and no path was discernible. Up a steep hill he slowly climbed, feeling on the ground at every second step for some stones, which might have been placed there long ago to indicate some path; but most of them were partly covered with either moss or fern, so that he was some time before he reached the highest part of the hill, where there was a little open space, and the remains of some burnt wood, as if left by a gipsy encampment. He felt the heap of ashes, and finding some warmth in them, he gave a shrill whistle. After a few moments, it was answered by another, when he proceeded in the direction whence the sound came, thereby giving good proof that his deafness was only feigned.

Under a projecting rock he found two men and a woman, apparently of the gipsy tribe. He then said, with an air of command, “Follow me!”

“Not dark enough yet,” said the elder of the men, with a sulky look. “I’m not going to risk my life after a fool’s errand--not till I knows what’s to be got by it.”

“I explained it to Dick there,” he replied, in a better accent than was usually spoken by the country people; “so don’t lose the precious moments loitering here. ‘Come, them as knows they knows,’ you used to say, old Rupert, when I showed ye the cutter off Forland Head; and you got a pretty penny for your pains.”

“Yes, that ’ere was a good job. Well, master, I’ll agree to follow. But, mind, you promised me half of the booty. But there’s more risk than you’d a-knowed of, for Sarah heard that carpenters and people are at work in the house.”

“Who said that?” inquired Joe Naylor; for as he had not been in this part of the country until that day since the Countess arrived at the Castle, he knew nothing of the repairs now in progress. “Who said it?--Tell me quick!” he repeated.

“Sarah heard it last night down at the ‘Three Hats.’ They’re going to give a grand ball, or summut, and got lots of workmen making preparations.”

“Well, now we’ll go round by the lower park wood, and not go near the old entrance till we see the workmen are gone.”

Then they descended the hill, and made a detour by the lower woods, till they came to a place which commanded a view of the fine old ruins, as well as the extensive pile of later buildings at its base. The sun had now set, but there was sufficient light to see the numerous entrances to the house, and stables, and various outbuildings and gardens.

Soon afterwards they saw a line of workmen emerge from a small gate on the western side, and just afterwards a gay party in carriages, accompanied by some gentlemen on horseback, followed by grooms, came out of the opposite wood, and approached the principal entrance.

“My eye, what a lot o’ people; and look at all them powdered varlets in livery! The gents in plush, that come to the door, have better dresses than the quality on horseback. What if they could see us? However could we get safe away?” inquired Dick.

“Never fear; we’re not going near the house where they all live.”

“But it joins on to them there ruins--I sees it do.”

“Yes; but that part is not inhabited; and nobody goes near it for fear of old Baron Hugh’s ghost. And I overheard by chance this very day that the lady herself saw it, and nearly died of fright. Come, now, for we shall have some way to go round by the Devil’s Bridge up there, and so round to the north side of the ruins.”

It took nearly an hour to reach this spot, as there was no way of crossing a stream which ran down from the old deer park through a ravine, and then skirting the base of the Castle, flowed in a clear rapid stream along the western terrace garden, and formed a beautiful lake in the centre of the park.

The Devil’s Bridge consisted now of only bare rough planks across the deep chasm; but overhead was a massive broken arch, which had been the chief entrance to the feudal castle. It had apparently been blown up in the wars; and the massive masonry of the centre part lay on the side of the steep hill near the present bridge of planks, and it was so perfect that, if it could have been lifted up some twenty feet, it would have exactly joined, and fitted the two sides which still projected over the ravine.

“Sure and they built finely in them there old times. I don’t think as how there’s a man living as could make stones stand up o’ their own selves like them split arches. They look for all the world as if they must fall down upon us, and yet they’ve never budged an inch, I know, for hundreds of years.”

“Come on quick, now, and don’t speak, for there’s an echo here,” said Joe Naylor, as he led them up the steep and pathless side of the Castle-hill.

It was nearly dark, and the rocks were in some places perpendicular, and their sides only broken by narrow patches of mossy grass, along which the party were obliged to grope their way one after the other, for, in some places, there was barely room for one person to stand.

“I knew we should want more light for this work,” Joe said, as the others began to grumble at the difficulty and danger of their slippery position. “You’ll say again that ‘them as knows they knows!’ before we’re done, for you would insist on waiting till those stupid workmen were gone away.”

“Is there no other way at all to your old gate?--and however did you get the kegs and barrels along this here strip o’ slippery moss? ’Tis not wide enough just here for a cat, let alone a Christian what’s fat! Dick’ll be sure to scrape his lusty sides agin this sharp rock. Look, man, how we gets round it, for I’ve hit my nose as a’most stunned me. And how much further are we to climb like cats on a wall?”

“Only round the next point; and, here, hold on, for I’ve found the very same rope as used to serve us to swing round the black rock corner. Right glad am I to find it here still, as it shows that the old gate has never been discovered; but don’t lean on it too hard, as maybe it’s rotten by this time.”

They did not immediately swing round the point, but, after Joe had tried its strength, and reached the old entrance-gate on the other side of the rock, he threw it back to each in succession, and it served to steady their footsteps round the narrowest and most dangerous part of the way. They then crept on all fours for some distance, under the narrow entrance of a rocky cave, where Joe struck a light.

“Now you may stand upright, while I try the key in the old lock.”

It was so rusty that they had great difficulty in turning it. But at length it yielded to their efforts, and on opening the door they found themselves at the top of a narrow flight of winding stairs. The steps were broken in many places, so that the descent was not very easy, but by the aid of a lantern which they had now lighted, they slowly went down ninety-five steps. Joe reckoned them aloud as they went down, but they had not reached the bottom of the stairs.

“Stop here now, and hold the lantern close to this wall. All right, the plaster is still just where I laid it on the last time I was here, and the mark too,” he muttered to himself, as he hastily struck at the plaster with a small hatchet, when the letters L D were visible to his quick eye.

After all the plain coating of plaster had been knocked off, a strong oak door became visible, and taking out another key, he applied it to the lock. It opened at once, and they found themselves in a large space, so large that the light of the lantern did not show anything, save the doorway through which they passed, and the stone floor under their feet. They proceeded close along the wall for some twenty feet, and then a colonnade of massive pillars, surmounted by round arches, became visible; and leaving the outer wall on their right, they passed through the middle of one of the colonnades, till they reached what seemed to be an ancient altar tomb with a recumbent figure on the top. It was a knight in armour, and the crossed legs showed that he must have been a crusader.

Joe Naylor explained to his companions this interesting fact, and thereby excited their admiration for what they called his wonderful book-learning. But they did not loiter long over the inspection of this or other monuments which they passed, but came to a spot which had been the high altar of this ancient crypt. Near the front of this some of the pavement stones seemed to have been plastered over in the same manner as the staircase door through which they had come, and Joe Naylor applied the instrument he had brought to pick it off, after discovering the same marks of L D in a certain corner.

“All right!” he exclaimed, with great glee; “now we must all work hard to get up the stone.”

This was not easy, for it was large and extremely heavy, and after working at it for nearly an hour, they declared that it would be impossible to lift it without more hands.

“There was no one about we could trust, and Sarah would not have been o’ much use if we had let her come,” said Joe.

“Ay, but she would though; she’s far stronger than most men, and so clever-like, she’d a-hit on some way o’ getting it up.”

“Here, try this,” said Joe, who had found some old oak planks, probably the remains of coffins; “put this end under, and we’ll all stand at the other end, and see if we can’t hoist it up.”

By dint of hard labour they gradually succeeded in lifting the stone, and then a flight of steps became visible. Joe kindled another light, for the foul, damp air which came up from the vaults beneath nearly extinguished the lantern.

“Bah! then it’s among the dead bodies we’re going,” muttered Dick. “Sure, but I hope we may find the treasure at last; and, my eye, if it’s not full of coffins!”

“Yes, and a good number we shall have to lift, before we get to the right one.”

“But it has not got a dead body in it--Joe, has it?” inquired Dick, who was all of a tremble, as he afterwards confessed, so that you might have knocked him down with a feather, for it was the dismallest place he ever sat eyes on--scattered bones on the ground, and coffins in every stage of ruin and decay. When they reached the further end they found a pile of some dozen coffins placed one above the other. Joe approached the light to the sides, and reckoning nine from the top, looked eagerly for a mark on the side of the tenth.

“All right,” he again said, rubbing his hands with glee. “Now we must lift all the others off, for this is the one.”

“But surely we’re not going to carry that ’ere coffin the steep path we came up?”

“Not such a fool as that, my man:--Here, see the bags I brought to hold the gold.”