waltzed away far down the hall.

I waited for some time in growing anxiety; but the pleasantry of the
night went on as vividly as ever, and some clever _tableaux vivants_
had varied the quadrilles. While the dancers gave way to a
well-performed picture of Hector and Andromache from the _Iliad_, and
the hero was in the act of taking the plumed helmet from his brow,
with a grace which enchanted our whole female population, an old
Savoyard and his daughter came up, one playing the little hand-organ
of their country, and the other dancing to her tamborine. This was
pretty, but my impatience was ill disposed to look or listen; when I
was awakened by a laugh, and the old man's mask being again half
turned aside, I again saw my friend: the man moved slowly through the
crowd, and I followed. We gradually twined our way through the
labyrinth of pillars, leaving the festivity further and further
behind, until he came to a low door, at which the Savoyard tapped, and
a watchword being given, the cell was opened. There our robes and
masks were laid aside; we found peasant dresses, for which we
exchanged them; and following a muffled figure who carried a lantern,
we began our movements again through the recesses of the endless
building. At length we came to a stop, and our guide lifting up a
ponderous stone which covered the entrance to a deep and dark
staircase, we began to descend. I now for the first time heard the
cheerful voice of Lafontaine at my side. "I doubt," said he, "whether
a hundred years ago any one of us would have ventured on a night march
of this kind; for, be it known to you, that we are now in the vaults
of the convent, and shall have to go through a whole regiment of monks
and abbots in full parade." I observed that, "if we were to meet them
at all, they would be less likely to impede our progress dead than
alive;" but I still advised Lafontaine to allude as little as he could