As soon as his eyes had grown capable of using what light there was, which however was scarcely sufficient to render him the smallest service, Richard began to whistle, very softly, a certain tune well known to Lady, one he always whistled when he fed or curried her himself.  He had not got more than half through it, when a low drowsy whinny made reply from the depths of the darkness before him, and the heart of Richard leaped in his bosom for joy.  He ceased a moment, then whistled again.  Again came the response, but this time, although still soft and low, free from all the woolliness of sleep.  Once more he whistled, and once more came the answer.  Certain at length of the direction, he dropped on his hands and knees, and crawled carefully along for a few yards, then stopped, whistled again, and listened.  After a few more calls and responses, he found himself at Lady’s heels, which had begun to move restlessly.  He crept into the stall beside her, spoke to her in a whisper, got upon his feet, caressed her, told her to be quiet, and, pulling her buff shoes from his pockets, drew them over her hoofs, and tied them securely about her pasterns.  Then with one stroke of his knife he cut her halter, hitched the end round her neck, and telling her to follow him, walked softly through the stable and up the stair.  She followed like a cat, though not without some noise, to whose echoes Richard’s bosom seemed the beaten drum.  The moment her back was level, he flung himself upon it, and rode straight through the porch and into the hall.

But here at length he was overtaken by the consequences of having an ally unequal to the emergency.  Marquis, who had doubtless been occupied with his friends in the stable yard, came bounding up into the court just as Richard threw himself on the back of his mare.  At the sight of Lady, whom he knew so well, with her master on her back, a vision of older and happier times, the poor animal forgot himself utterly, rushed through the hall like a whirlwind, and burst into a tempest of barking in the middle of the fountain court—­whether to rouse his mistress, or but to relieve his own heart, matters little to my tale.  There was not a moment to lose, and Richard rode out of the hall and made for the gate.

CHAPTER XXIX.

The apparition.

The voice of her lost Marquis, which even in her dreams she could attribute to none but him, roused Dorothy at once.  She sprang from her bed, flew to the window, and flung it wide.  That same moment, from the shadows about the hall-door, came forth a man on horseback, and rode along the tiled path to the fountain, where never had hoof of horse before trod.  Stranger still, the tramp sounded far away, and woke no echo in the echo-haunted place.  A phantom surely—­horse and man!  As they drew nearer where she stared with wide eyes, the head of the rider rose out of the shadow into the moonlight,