The house at Aldport was moated round, and a drawbridge stood before the main entrance.  The mansion was built of timber and plaster, with huge projecting stone chimneys, gable ends, and deep casements—­a fitting residence in those days for rank and nobility.

Outside the moat was an extensive garden, laid out in a sumptuous style, beyond which appeared a mound of considerable elevation and extent, the site of Mancastle, famous in history as one of the strongholds of the Romans, some account of which may be found in the legend of “Sir Tarquin.”

“I have been thinking,” said Dee, after being silent for a space, “that no savour of dishonesty can attach to our appropriation of this great treasure, seeing the house and all this fair and goodly inheritance did once appertain to the wardens of our college, of which patrimony we have been most unjustly deprived by the statute of King Edward.  My gracious mistress, our Queen, not having reinstated me into this my lawful possession, I have made bold to remind her Majesty of our wrongs, and to supplicate her clemency thereupon.”

Bartholomew felt fully satisfied of the right they had to these spoils, his conscience being easily quieted on the score of appropriation.

“The rain becomes heavier, and it is more chill and showery than before.  The mist, too, is driving north-east,” said the Doctor.  “The clouds are cumbrous and broken, coiling, as they roll, into huge masses that will ere long bring some of the dark Atlantic on their tails.  Seest thou not, Bartholomew, as though it were a grim pile of hills on the horizon?”

“I see as it might be a heavy wall of clouds gathering about us; and I think the wind comes on more fitful and squally.  These heavy lunges betoken an angry and vicious humour in the air that will not be long in bursting.”

“We shall have it about our ears speedily.  We must to work while it is yet a-brewing below.”

The dark pointed roofs and chimneys of the Lodge might be distinguished in grotesque masses, changeless and unvarying, against the ever-shifting darkness of the sky.  A pale star sometimes looked out as if by stealth, but was obscured almost ere its brightness could be developed.  The wind, as it rushed by, broke into short and irregular gusts, like scouts from the main body, betokening its approach.  The rain had ceased, save a few hasty drops at intervals plashing heavily on the moat.

“What is that?” said Bartholomew in a whisper, pointing to the water.  A light had glanced on its surface, and as suddenly had it disappeared.

“Again!” Dee smiled as he looked upwards to a star just twinkling through the cloud.  Like some benignant spirit, as it alighted on the dark bosom of the moat, the short sharp gust fluttering over, it seemed to hover there for a while ere it departed.

Turning out of the path, they approached a thick yew-tree flanking one corner of the garden.