 make that good,« said Tressilian in a
whisper to his companion, while the servant went to carry the message to his
master.
    »Tush,« replied the adventurer; »no soldier would go on were he always to
consider when and how he should come off. Let us once obtain entrance, and all
will go well enough.«
    In a short time the servant returned, and drawing with a careful hand both
bolt and bar, opened the gate, which admitted them through an archway into a
square court, surrounded by buildings. Opposite to the arch was another door,
which the serving-man in like manner unlocked, and thus introduced them into a
stone-paved parlour, where there was but little furniture, and that of the
rudest and most ancient fashion. The windows were tall and ample, reaching
almost to the roof of the room, which was composed of black oak; those opening
to the quadrangle were obscured by the height of the surrounding buildings, and,
as they were traversed with massive shafts of solid stone-work, and thickly
painted with religious devices, and scenes taken from Scripture history, by no
means admitted light in proportion to their size; and what did penetrate through
them, partook of the dark and gloomy tinge of the stained glass.
    Tressilian and his guide had time enough to observe all these particulars,
for they waited some space in the apartment ere the present master of the
mansion at length made his appearance. Prepared as he was to see an inauspicious
and ill-looking person, the ugliness of Anthony Foster considerably exceeded
what Tressilian had anticipated. He was of middle stature, built strongly, but
so clumsily as to border on deformity, and to give all his motions the ungainly
awkwardness of a left-legged and left-handed man. His hair, in arranging which,
men at that time, as at present, were very nice and curious, instead of being
carefully cleaned and disposed into short curls, or else set up on end, as is
represented in old paintings, in a manner resembling that used by fine gentlemen
of our own day, escaped in sable negligence from under a furred bonnet, and hung
in elf-locks, which seemed strangers to the comb, over his rugged brows, and
around his very singular and unprepossessing countenance. His keen dark eyes
were deep set beneath broad and shaggy eyebrows, and as they were usually bent
on the ground, seemed as if they were themselves ashamed of the expression
natural to them, and were desirous to conceal it from the observation of men. At
times, however, when
