The moment now approaches."
Dr. Noel extinguished the lamp. A faint, grey light, premonitory
of the dawn, illuminated the window, but was not sufficient to
illuminate the room; and when the Prince rose to his feet, it was
impossible to distinguish his features or to make a guess at the
nature of the emotion which obviously affected him as he spoke. He
moved towards the door, and placed himself at one side of it in an
attitude of the wariest attention.
"You will have the kindness," he said, "to maintain the strictest
silence, and to conceal yourselves in the densest of the shadow."
The three officers and the physician hastened to obey, and for
nearly ten minutes the only sound in Rochester House was occasioned
by the excursions of the rats behind the woodwork. At the end of
that period, a loud creak of a hinge broke in with surprising
distinctness on the silence; and shortly after, the watchers could
distinguish a slow and cautious tread approaching up the kitchen
stair. At every second step the intruder seemed to pause and lend
an ear, and during these intervals, which seemed of an incalculable
duration, a profound disquiet possessed the spirit of the
listeners. Dr. Noel, accustomed as he was to dangerous emotions,
suffered an almost pitiful physical prostration; his breath
whistled in his lungs, his teeth grated one upon another, and his
joints cracked aloud as he nervously shifted his position.
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