"I know not, my lord."

"Ah, the Saints be praised, there is a light close at hand. It
shines clear and distinct--now it is shut out."

"A door or window must have been opened and closed again."

"So I deem, but this is the direction," said the knight as he
turned his horse's head northwards.

Let us precede knight and squire and see what awaited them.

Upon a spot of firm ground, free from swamp, and clear for about
the area of a couple of acres, stood a few primitive buildings:
there was a barn, a cow shed, a few huts in which men slept but did
not live, and a central building wherein the whole community, when
at home, assembled to eat the king's venison, and wash it down with
ale, mead, and even wine--the latter probably the proceeds of a
successful forage.

Darkness is falling without and the snowflakes fall thicker and
thicker--it yet wants three hours to curfew--but the woods are
quite buried in the sombre gloom of a starless night. The central
building is evidently well lighted, for we see the firelight
through many chinks in the ill-built walls ere we enter, although
they have daubed the interstices of the logs whereof it is composed
with clay and mud almost as adhesive as mortar. Let us go in--the
door opens.