Down the long hall he went, slowly and laboriously, the others
following silently behind him, then up the steep winding stairs,
step by step, now and then stopping to lean against the wall. So
he reached a long and gloomy passageway lit only by the light of
a little window at the further end.

He stopped at the door of one of the rooms that opened into this
passage-way, stood for a moment, then he pushed it open.

No one was within but old Ursela, who sat crooning over a fire
with a bundle upon her knees. She did not see the Baron or know
that he was there.

"Where is your lady?" said he, in a hollow voice.

Then the old nurse looked up with a start. "Jesu bless us,"
cried she, and crossed herself.

"Where is your lady?" said the Baron again, in the same hoarse
voice; and then, not waiting for an answer, "Is she dead?"

The old woman looked at him for a minute blinking her watery
eyes, and then suddenly broke into a shrill, long-drawn wail.
The Baron needed to hear no more.

As though in answer to the old woman's cry, a thin piping
complaint came from the bundle in her lap.

At the sound the red blood flashed up into the Baron's face.
"What is that you have there?" said he, pointing to the bundle