1
00:00:00,200 --> 00:00:07,639
The closed window by A. C. Benson. The Tower of Nort stood

2
00:00:07,679 --> 00:00:11,919
in a deep angle of the Downs. Formerly an old road led over the

3
00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:16,039
hill, but it is now a
green track covered with turf, the later

4
00:00:16,120 --> 00:00:20,280
highway choosing rather to cross a low
saddle of the ridge for the sake of

5
00:00:20,280 --> 00:00:25,399
the beasts of burden. The tower, originally built to guard the great road,

6
00:00:25,920 --> 00:00:31,000
was a plain, strong, thick
walled fortress. To the tower had

7
00:00:31,039 --> 00:00:35,479
been added a plain and seemly house, where the young Sir Mark de Nort

8
00:00:35,759 --> 00:00:41,439
lived very easily and plentifully. To
the south stretched the great Wood of Nort,

9
00:00:42,039 --> 00:00:45,880
but the tower stood high on an
elbow of the down, sheltered from

10
00:00:45,920 --> 00:00:50,799
the north by the great green hills. The villagers had an odd, ugly

11
00:00:50,920 --> 00:00:55,759
name for the tower, which they
called the Tower of Fear, but the

12
00:00:55,840 --> 00:01:00,119
name was falling into disuse and was
only spoken, and that heedlessly by ancient

13
00:01:00,240 --> 00:01:06,680
men, because Sir Mark was vexed
to hear it. So called Sir Mark

14
00:01:06,840 --> 00:01:10,640
was not yet thirty and had begun
to say that he must marry a wife,

15
00:01:11,239 --> 00:01:14,319
but he seemed in no great haste
to do so, and loved his

16
00:01:14,480 --> 00:01:18,560
easy, lonely life, with plenty
of hunting and walking on the down.

17
00:01:19,640 --> 00:01:23,680
With him lived his cousin and heir
Rowland Elise, a heedless, good tempered

18
00:01:23,719 --> 00:01:27,120
man, a few years older than
Sir Mark. He had come on a

19
00:01:27,200 --> 00:01:30,599
visit to Sir Mark when he first
took possession of the tower, and there

20
00:01:30,599 --> 00:01:34,640
had seemed no reason why he should
go away. The two suited each other.

21
00:01:36,120 --> 00:01:40,239
Sir Mark was sparing of speech,
fond of books and of rhymes.

22
00:01:40,879 --> 00:01:45,959
Rowland was different, loving ease and
wine and talk, and finding in Mark

23
00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:51,040
a good listener. Mark loved his
cousin and thought it praiseworthy of him to

24
00:01:51,079 --> 00:01:55,280
stay and help to cheer. So
sequestered a house since there were few neighbors

25
00:01:55,319 --> 00:02:00,920
within reach. And yet Mark was
not wholly content with his easy life.

26
00:02:01,159 --> 00:02:06,560
There were many days when he asked
himself why he should go thus quietly on

27
00:02:07,239 --> 00:02:12,639
day by day like a stalled ox. Still there appeared no reason why he

28
00:02:12,639 --> 00:02:15,639
should do otherwise. There were but
few folk on his land, and they

29
00:02:15,639 --> 00:02:21,960
were content. Yet he sometimes envied
them their bondage and their round of daily

30
00:02:22,039 --> 00:02:25,639
duties. The only place where he
could else have been was with the army,

31
00:02:27,039 --> 00:02:30,560
or even with the court. But
Sir Mark was no soldier, and

32
00:02:30,680 --> 00:02:35,000
even less of a courtier. He
hated tedious gaiety, and it was a

33
00:02:35,039 --> 00:02:39,120
time of peace. So because he
loved solitude and quiet, he lived at

34
00:02:39,120 --> 00:02:44,719
home, and sometimes thought himself but
half a man. Yet he was happy

35
00:02:44,879 --> 00:02:49,599
after a sort, but for a
kind of little hunger of the heart.

36
00:02:50,520 --> 00:02:53,840
What gave the tower so dark a
name was the memory of old Sir James

37
00:02:53,840 --> 00:02:59,960
de Nort, Mark's grandfather, an
evil and secret man who had dwelt at

38
00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:04,879
nought under some strange shadow. He
had driven his son from his doors,

39
00:03:05,039 --> 00:03:07,800
and lived at the end of his
life with his books and his own close

40
00:03:07,919 --> 00:03:15,520
thoughts, spying upon the stars and
tracing strange figures in books. Since his

41
00:03:15,639 --> 00:03:17,919
death, the old room in a
turret top, where he came by his

42
00:03:19,159 --> 00:03:23,599
end in a dreadful way, had
been closed. It was entered by a

43
00:03:23,639 --> 00:03:28,159
turret door with a flight of steps
from the chamber below. It had four

44
00:03:28,159 --> 00:03:31,520
windows, one to each of the
winds, but the window which looked upon

45
00:03:31,560 --> 00:03:38,360
the down was fastened up and secured
with a great shutter of oak. One

46
00:03:38,439 --> 00:03:44,719
day of heavy rain, Roland,
being wearied of doing nothing and vexed because

47
00:03:44,800 --> 00:03:47,840
Mark sat so still in a great
chair reading in a book, said to

48
00:03:47,879 --> 00:03:52,960
his cousin at last that he must
go and visit the old room in which

49
00:03:52,960 --> 00:03:58,360
he had never set foot. Mark
closed his book, and, smiling indulgently

50
00:03:58,400 --> 00:04:02,680
at Rolin's restlessness, rose, stretching
himself, and got the key, and

51
00:04:02,800 --> 00:04:09,159
together they went up the turret stairs. The key groaned loudly in the lock,

52
00:04:09,360 --> 00:04:13,639
and when the door was thrown back, there appeared a high, faded

53
00:04:13,759 --> 00:04:18,240
room, with a timbered roof and
with a close, dull smell. Round

54
00:04:18,240 --> 00:04:23,639
the walls were presses, with the
doors fast. A large oak table with

55
00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:27,959
a chair beside it, stood in
the middle. The walls were otherwise bare

56
00:04:28,040 --> 00:04:31,879
and rough. The spiders had spun
busily over the windows and in the angles.

57
00:04:32,839 --> 00:04:36,199
Roland was full of questions, and
Mark told him all he had heard

58
00:04:36,199 --> 00:04:41,000
of old Sir James and his silent
ways, but said that he knew nothing

59
00:04:41,040 --> 00:04:44,959
of the disgrace that had seemed to
envelop him, or of the reasons why

60
00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:48,639
he had so evil a name.
Roland said that he thought it a shame

61
00:04:48,680 --> 00:04:53,600
that so fair of rooms should lie
so nastily, and pulled one of the

62
00:04:53,639 --> 00:04:57,720
casements open, when a sharp gust
broke into the room, with so angry

63
00:04:57,759 --> 00:05:01,000
a burst of rain that he closed
it again in haste. Little by little,

64
00:05:01,079 --> 00:05:04,959
as they talked, a shadow began
to fall upon their spirits, till

65
00:05:05,040 --> 00:05:09,800
Roland declared that there was still a
blight upon the place, and Mark told

66
00:05:09,839 --> 00:05:13,240
him of the death of old Sir
James, who had been found after a

67
00:05:13,319 --> 00:05:16,680
day of silence, when he had
not set foot outside his chamber, lying

68
00:05:16,839 --> 00:05:21,240
on the floor of the room strangely
bedabbled with wet and mud, as though

69
00:05:21,240 --> 00:05:26,480
he had come off a difficult journey, speechless and with a look of anguish

70
00:05:26,480 --> 00:05:30,680
on his face, and that he
had died soon after they had found him,

71
00:05:30,959 --> 00:05:36,120
muttering words that no one understood.
Then the two young men drew near

72
00:05:36,160 --> 00:05:42,279
to the closed window. The shutters
were tightly barred, and across the panels

73
00:05:42,319 --> 00:05:47,959
were scrawled in red in an uncertain
hand, the words clouded at nemo aperit,

74
00:05:49,040 --> 00:05:56,000
which Mark explained was the Latin for
the text he shutteth and none openeth.

75
00:05:57,319 --> 00:06:00,160
And then Mark said that the story
went that it was ill for the

76
00:06:00,199 --> 00:06:04,399
man that opened the window, and
that shut it should remain for him.

77
00:06:05,079 --> 00:06:10,000
But Roland girded at him for his
want of curiosity, and had laid a

78
00:06:10,040 --> 00:06:13,839
hand upon the bar as though to
open it, But Mark forbade him urgently,

79
00:06:14,920 --> 00:06:18,439
nay, said, he let it
remain, so we must not meddle

80
00:06:18,519 --> 00:06:21,879
with the will of the dead.
And as he said the words, there

81
00:06:21,920 --> 00:06:27,519
came so furious a gust upon the
windows that it seemed as though some stormy

82
00:06:27,639 --> 00:06:31,920
thing would beat them open. So
they left the room together, and presently

83
00:06:31,959 --> 00:06:39,839
descending, found the sun struggling through
the rain. But both Mark and Roland

84
00:06:39,920 --> 00:06:44,519
were sad and silent all that day, for though they spake not of it,

85
00:06:44,959 --> 00:06:48,240
there was desire in their minds to
open the closed window and to see

86
00:06:48,319 --> 00:06:53,480
what would befall. In Roland's mind, it was like the desire of a

87
00:06:53,560 --> 00:06:57,839
child to peep into what is forbidden. But in Mark's mind a sort of

88
00:06:57,920 --> 00:07:03,720
shame to be so bound by an
old and weak tale of superstition. Now

89
00:07:03,759 --> 00:07:09,120
it seemed to Mark for many days
that the visit to the turret room had

90
00:07:09,160 --> 00:07:14,560
brought a kind of shadow down between
them. Roland was peevish and ill at

91
00:07:14,560 --> 00:07:18,319
ease, and ever the longing grew
upon Mark so strongly that it seemed to

92
00:07:18,399 --> 00:07:24,360
him that something drew him to the
room, some beckoning of a hand or

93
00:07:24,439 --> 00:07:30,279
calling of a voice. Now,
one bright and sunshiny morning it happened that

94
00:07:30,319 --> 00:07:33,759
Mark was left alone within the house. Rowland had ridden out early, not

95
00:07:33,879 --> 00:07:40,240
saying where he was bound, and
Mark sat more listlessly than was his wont

96
00:07:40,279 --> 00:07:44,079
and played with the ears of his
great dog that sat with his head upon

97
00:07:44,079 --> 00:07:47,600
his master's knee, looking at him
with liquid eyes, and doubtless wondering why

98
00:07:47,639 --> 00:07:53,319
Mark went not abroad. Suddenly,
Sir Mark's eye fell upon the quay of

99
00:07:53,360 --> 00:07:56,439
the upper room, which lay on
the window ledge where he had thrown it,

100
00:07:57,000 --> 00:07:59,959
and a desire to go up and
pluck the heart from the little mystery

101
00:08:00,079 --> 00:08:03,319
came upon him with a strength that
he could not resist. He rose twice

102
00:08:03,360 --> 00:08:07,199
and took up the key, and, fingering it doubtfully, laid it down

103
00:08:07,240 --> 00:08:11,360
again. Then suddenly he took it
up and went swiftly into the turret stair

104
00:08:11,480 --> 00:08:16,399
and up, turning, turning till
his head was dizzy with the bright peats

105
00:08:16,439 --> 00:08:20,879
of the world through the loophole windows. Now all was green where a window

106
00:08:20,920 --> 00:08:24,160
gave on the down, and now
it was all clear air and sun,

107
00:08:24,360 --> 00:08:30,279
the warm breeze coming pleasantly into the
cold stairway. Presently Mark heard the pattering

108
00:08:30,319 --> 00:08:33,159
of feet on the stair below,
and knew that the old hound had determined

109
00:08:33,159 --> 00:08:37,759
to follow him, and he waited
a moment at the door, half pleased

110
00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:41,320
in his strange mood to have the
company of a living thing. So when

111
00:08:41,360 --> 00:08:46,000
the dog was at his side,
he stayed no longer, but opened the

112
00:08:46,080 --> 00:08:52,679
door and stepped within the room.
The room, for all its faded look,

113
00:08:52,120 --> 00:08:56,440
had a strange air about it,
and though he could not say why,

114
00:08:58,159 --> 00:09:03,279
Mark felt that he was surely expected. He did not hesitate, but

115
00:09:03,360 --> 00:09:07,639
walked to the shutter and considered it
for a moment. He heard a sound

116
00:09:07,639 --> 00:09:11,279
behind him. It was the old
hound, who sat with his head aloft,

117
00:09:11,399 --> 00:09:15,679
sniffing the air uneasily. Mark called
him and held out his hand,

118
00:09:16,080 --> 00:09:20,080
but the hound would not move.
He wagged his tail as though to acknowledge

119
00:09:20,080 --> 00:09:24,320
that he was called, and then
he returned to his uneasy quest. Mark

120
00:09:24,360 --> 00:09:28,879
watched him for a moment and saw
that the old dog had made up his

121
00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:31,080
mind that all was not well in
the room, for he lay down,

122
00:09:31,440 --> 00:09:35,519
gathering his legs under him, on
the threshold, and watched his master with

123
00:09:35,559 --> 00:09:41,120
frightened eyes, quivering visibly, Mark
no lighter of heart, and in a

124
00:09:41,200 --> 00:09:46,200
kind of fearful haste, pulled the
great staple off the shutter and set it

125
00:09:46,200 --> 00:09:50,879
on the ground, and then wrenched
the shutter's back. The space revealed was

126
00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:54,639
largely filled by old and dusty webs
of spiders, which Mark lightly tore down,

127
00:09:54,919 --> 00:09:58,679
using the staple of the shutters to
do this. It was with a

128
00:09:58,759 --> 00:10:03,759
strain shock of surprise that he saw
that the window was dark, or nearly

129
00:10:03,799 --> 00:10:09,559
so. It seemed as though there
were some further obstacle outside, Yet Mark

130
00:10:09,679 --> 00:10:13,320
knew that from below, the leaded
panes of the window were visible. He

131
00:10:13,399 --> 00:10:18,720
drew back for a moment, but, unable to restrain his curiosity, wrenched

132
00:10:18,799 --> 00:10:24,720
the rusted casement open. But still
all was dark without, and there came

133
00:10:24,759 --> 00:10:28,360
in a gust of icy wind from
outside. It was as though something had

134
00:10:28,399 --> 00:10:33,279
passed him swiftly, and he heard
the old hound utter a strangled howl.

135
00:10:33,679 --> 00:10:37,399
Then turning, he saw him spring
to his feet, with his hair bristling

136
00:10:37,440 --> 00:10:41,960
and his teeth bare, And next
moment the dog turned and leapt out of

137
00:10:43,000 --> 00:10:48,039
the room. Mark, left alone, tried to curb a tide of horror

138
00:10:48,080 --> 00:10:52,360
that swept through his veins. He
looked round at the room flooded with the

139
00:10:52,399 --> 00:10:58,000
southerly sunlight, and then he turned
again to the dark window, and,

140
00:10:58,080 --> 00:11:03,799
putting a strong constraint upon himself,
leaned out and saw a thing which bewildered

141
00:11:03,879 --> 00:11:07,919
him so strangely that he thought for
a moment his senses had deserted him.

142
00:11:09,399 --> 00:11:13,600
He looked out on a lonely,
dim hill side covered with rocks and stones.

143
00:11:15,279 --> 00:11:16,799
The hill came up close to the
window, so that he could have

144
00:11:16,879 --> 00:11:20,879
jumped down upon it, the wall
below seeming to be built into the rocks.

145
00:11:22,000 --> 00:11:26,200
It was all dark and silent,
like a clouded night, with a

146
00:11:26,240 --> 00:11:31,600
faint light coming from whence he could
not see. The hill sloped away very

147
00:11:31,600 --> 00:11:35,759
steeply from the tower, and he
seemed to see a plain beyond, where

148
00:11:35,799 --> 00:11:41,240
at the same time he knew that
the down ought to lie in the plain,

149
00:11:41,600 --> 00:11:45,399
there was a light like the fire
lit window of a house. A

150
00:11:45,399 --> 00:11:48,679
little below him, some shape like
a crouching man, seemed to run and

151
00:11:48,720 --> 00:11:54,000
slip among the stones, as though
suddenly surprised and seeking to escape. Side

152
00:11:54,000 --> 00:11:58,440
by side with the deadly fear which
began to invade his heart, came an

153
00:11:58,480 --> 00:12:03,240
uncontrollable desire to leap down among the
rocks. And then it seemed to him

154
00:12:03,279 --> 00:12:07,919
that the figure below stood upright and
began to beckon him. There came over

155
00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:11,440
him a sense that he was in
deadly peril, and like a man on

156
00:12:11,480 --> 00:12:16,399
the edge of a precipice who has
just enough will left to try to escape,

157
00:12:16,639 --> 00:12:20,399
he drew himself by main force away
from the window, closed it,

158
00:12:20,759 --> 00:12:26,759
put the shutters back, replaced the
staple, and his limbs all trembling,

159
00:12:26,159 --> 00:12:31,639
crept out of the room, feeling
along the walls like a palsied man.

160
00:12:31,960 --> 00:12:37,000
He locked the door, and then, his terror overpowering him, he fled

161
00:12:37,080 --> 00:12:41,759
down the turret stairs, hardly thinking
what he did. He came out on

162
00:12:41,879 --> 00:12:45,200
the court and going to the great
well that stood in the center of the

163
00:12:45,279 --> 00:12:48,480
yard. He went to it and
flung the key down, hearing it clink

164
00:12:48,519 --> 00:12:54,080
on the sides as it fell.
Even then he dared not re enter the

165
00:12:54,120 --> 00:12:58,559
house, but glanced up and down, gazing about him, while the cloud

166
00:12:58,600 --> 00:13:05,519
of fear and horror, by insensible
degrees dispersed, leaving him weak and melancholy.

167
00:13:07,480 --> 00:13:11,960
Presently, Roland returned full of talk, but broke off to ask if

168
00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:16,600
Mark were ill. Mark, with
a kind of surliness, an unusual mood

169
00:13:16,600 --> 00:13:20,519
for him, denied it somewhat sharply. Roland raised his eyebrows and said no

170
00:13:20,639 --> 00:13:26,639
more, but prattled on presently.
After a silence, he said to Mark,

171
00:13:26,080 --> 00:13:30,279
what did you do all the morning? And it seemed to Mark as

172
00:13:30,320 --> 00:13:35,600
though this were accompanied by a spying
look. An unreasonable anger seized him.

173
00:13:35,200 --> 00:13:39,320
What does it matter to you what
I did? He said? May not

174
00:13:39,399 --> 00:13:43,320
I do what I like in my
own house? Doubtless, said Roland,

175
00:13:43,360 --> 00:13:50,440
and sate silent with uplifted brows.
Then he hummed a tune and presently went

176
00:13:50,480 --> 00:13:56,720
out. They sate at dinner that
evening with long silences, contrary to their

177
00:13:56,759 --> 00:14:01,559
wont though Mark bestirred himself to ask
questions. When they were left alone,

178
00:14:01,960 --> 00:14:07,320
Mark stretched out his hand to Roland, saying, Roland, forgive me.

179
00:14:07,440 --> 00:14:11,600
I spoke to you this morning in
a way of which I am ashamed.

180
00:14:11,720 --> 00:14:16,279
We have lived so long together,
and yet we came nearer to quarreling to

181
00:14:16,399 --> 00:14:22,159
day than we have ever done before, And it was my fault. Roland

182
00:14:22,240 --> 00:14:26,360
smiled and held Mark's hand for a
moment. Oh, I had not given

183
00:14:26,360 --> 00:14:31,080
it another thought, he said.
The wonder is that you can bear with

184
00:14:31,120 --> 00:14:35,360
an idle fellow as you do.
Then they talked for a while with the

185
00:14:35,360 --> 00:14:39,240
pleasant glow of friendliness. That two
good comrades feel when they have been reconciled.

186
00:14:41,679 --> 00:14:46,080
Late in the evening, Roland said, was there any story Mark about

187
00:14:46,120 --> 00:14:52,399
your grandfather's leaving any treasure of money
behind him? The question grated somewhat unpleasantly

188
00:14:52,480 --> 00:14:56,279
upon Mark's mood, but he controlled
himself and said, no, none that

189
00:14:56,320 --> 00:15:01,360
I know of, except that he
found the estate rich and left it poor.

190
00:15:01,840 --> 00:15:05,320
And what he did with his revenues, no one knows. You had

191
00:15:05,360 --> 00:15:07,440
better ask the old men of the
village. They know more about the house

192
00:15:07,480 --> 00:15:13,840
than I do. But Rowland forgive
me once more if I say that I

193
00:15:13,919 --> 00:15:18,799
do not desire Sir James's name to
be mentioned between us. I wish we

194
00:15:18,879 --> 00:15:22,399
had not entered his room. I
do not know how to express it,

195
00:15:22,840 --> 00:15:26,639
but it seems to me as though
he had sate there, waiting quietly to

196
00:15:26,679 --> 00:15:31,440
be summoned, and as though we
had troubled him, and as though he

197
00:15:31,519 --> 00:15:37,120
had joined us. I think he
was an evil man, close and evil.

198
00:15:37,960 --> 00:15:41,960
And there hangs in my mind a
verse of Scripture where Samuel said to

199
00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:48,399
the witch, why hast thou disquieted
me to bring me up? Oh?

200
00:15:48,480 --> 00:15:52,159
He went on, I do not
know why I talk wildly thus, for

201
00:15:52,240 --> 00:15:56,600
he saw that Roland was looking at
him with astonishment with parted lips. But

202
00:15:56,679 --> 00:16:03,120
a shadow has fallen upon me,
and there seems evil abroad. From that

203
00:16:03,240 --> 00:16:07,519
day forward a heaviness lay on the
spirit of Mark that could not be scattered.

204
00:16:08,440 --> 00:16:12,240
He felt, he said to himself, as though he had meddled lightheartedly

205
00:16:12,360 --> 00:16:18,840
with something far deeper and more dangerous
than he had supposed, like a child

206
00:16:18,960 --> 00:16:23,679
that has aroused some evil beast that
slept. He had dark dreams too.

207
00:16:23,879 --> 00:16:29,000
The figure that he had seen among
the rocks seemed to peep and beckon him

208
00:16:29,159 --> 00:16:36,000
with a mocking smile over perilous places
where he followed unwilling. But the heavier

209
00:16:36,039 --> 00:16:40,480
he grew, the lighter hearted Rowland
became. He seemed to walk in some

210
00:16:40,639 --> 00:16:47,000
bright vision of his own, intent
upon a large and gracious design. One

211
00:16:47,080 --> 00:16:49,879
day he came into the hall in
the morning, looking so radiant that Mark

212
00:16:49,919 --> 00:16:55,519
cast him half enviously. What he
had to make him so glad? Glad?

213
00:16:55,799 --> 00:16:59,639
Said Roland? Oh, I know
it. Merry dreams? Perhaps,

214
00:17:00,399 --> 00:17:03,480
what do you think of a good
grave fellow who beckons me on with a

215
00:17:03,480 --> 00:17:08,359
brisk smile and shows me places wonderful
places under banks and in woodland pits,

216
00:17:08,640 --> 00:17:15,519
where riches lie piled together. I
am sure that some good fortune is preparing

217
00:17:15,640 --> 00:17:18,960
for me, Mark, but you
shall share it. Then, Mark,

218
00:17:19,400 --> 00:17:25,799
seeing in his words a certain likeness
with a difference to his own dark visions,

219
00:17:26,279 --> 00:17:32,519
pressed his lips together and sate,
looking stonily before him. At last,

220
00:17:32,960 --> 00:17:37,720
one still evening of spring, when
the air was intolerably languid and heavy

221
00:17:37,759 --> 00:17:41,920
for mankind, but full of sweet
promises for trees and hidden peeping things.

222
00:17:42,480 --> 00:17:48,440
Though a lurid redness of secret thunder
had lain all day among the heavy clouds

223
00:17:48,480 --> 00:17:53,240
in the plain, the two dined
together. Mark had walked alone that day

224
00:17:53,599 --> 00:17:57,759
and had lain upon the turf of
the down, fighting against a weariness that

225
00:17:57,880 --> 00:18:03,960
seemed to be poisoning the very springs
of life within him. But Roland had

226
00:18:03,960 --> 00:18:08,359
been brisk and alert, coming and
going upon some secret and busy errand with

227
00:18:08,440 --> 00:18:12,279
a fragment of a song upon his
lips, like a man preparing to set

228
00:18:12,319 --> 00:18:17,920
off for a far country, who
is glad to be gone. In the

229
00:18:17,960 --> 00:18:22,440
evening, after they had dined,
Rowland had let his fancy rove in talk.

230
00:18:22,880 --> 00:18:27,799
If we were rich, He said, how we would transform this old

231
00:18:27,880 --> 00:18:33,000
place. It is fair enough for
me, said Mark heavily, and Roland

232
00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:37,880
had chidden him lightly for his somber
ways and sketched new plans of life.

233
00:18:40,160 --> 00:18:45,319
Mark, wearied and yet excited,
with an intolerable heaviness of spirit, went

234
00:18:45,480 --> 00:18:51,680
early to bed, leaving Roland in
the hall. After a short and broken

235
00:18:51,759 --> 00:18:56,440
sleep, he awoke and, lighting
a candle, read idly and gloomily to

236
00:18:56,559 --> 00:19:03,279
pass the heavy hours. The house
seemed full of strange noises that night.

237
00:19:03,160 --> 00:19:07,599
Once or twice came a scraping and
a faint hammering in the wall. Light

238
00:19:07,640 --> 00:19:14,039
footsteps seemed to pass in the turret, but the tower was always full of

239
00:19:14,119 --> 00:19:18,000
noises, and Mark heeded them.
Not At last, he fell asleep again,

240
00:19:18,319 --> 00:19:22,519
to be suddenly awakened by a strange
and desolate crying that came. He

241
00:19:22,640 --> 00:19:27,480
knew not whence, but seemed to
wail upon the air. The old dog

242
00:19:27,640 --> 00:19:32,240
who slept in Mark's room heard it
too, He was sitting up in a

243
00:19:32,240 --> 00:19:37,319
fearful expectancy. Mark rose in haste, and taking the candle, went into

244
00:19:37,359 --> 00:19:41,319
the passage that led to Roland's room. It was empty, but a light

245
00:19:41,440 --> 00:19:45,559
burned there and showed that the room
had not been slept in full of a

246
00:19:45,599 --> 00:19:49,960
horrible fear. Mark returned and went
in hot haste up the turret steps,

247
00:19:51,200 --> 00:19:55,440
fear and anxiety struggling together in his
mind. When he reached the top,

248
00:19:55,599 --> 00:20:00,759
he found the little door broken forcibly
open and a light within. He cast

249
00:20:00,759 --> 00:20:03,359
a haggard look round the room,
and then the crying came again, this

250
00:20:03,519 --> 00:20:10,640
time very faint and desolate. Mark
cast a shuddering glance at the window.

251
00:20:11,319 --> 00:20:15,960
It was wide open and showed a
horrible liquid blackness round the bar in the

252
00:20:15,960 --> 00:20:21,319
center that divided the casements. There
was something knotted. He hastened to the

253
00:20:21,359 --> 00:20:25,799
window and saw that it was a
rope which hung heavily. Leaning out,

254
00:20:25,960 --> 00:20:30,680
he saw that something dangled from the
rope below him, and then came the

255
00:20:30,759 --> 00:20:33,720
crying again. Out of the darkness, like the crying of a lost spirit.

256
00:20:34,759 --> 00:20:37,400
He could see, as in a
bitter dream, the outline of the

257
00:20:37,519 --> 00:20:42,279
hateful hillside, but there seemed to
his disordered fancy to be a tumult of

258
00:20:42,319 --> 00:20:47,319
some kind below. Pale lights moved
about, and he saw a group of

259
00:20:47,480 --> 00:20:52,000
forms which scattered like a shoal of
fish. When he leaned out, he

260
00:20:52,119 --> 00:20:56,160
knew that he was looking upon a
scene that no mortal eye ought to behold,

261
00:20:56,880 --> 00:21:02,319
and it seemed to him at the
moment as though he were staring straight

262
00:21:02,680 --> 00:21:07,960
into hell. The rope went down
among the rocks and disappeared, but Mark

263
00:21:08,039 --> 00:21:11,920
clenched it firmly, and, using
all his strength, which was great,

264
00:21:12,240 --> 00:21:17,559
drew it up hand over hand.
As he drew it up, he secured

265
00:21:17,559 --> 00:21:21,400
it in loops round the great oak
table. He began to be afraid that

266
00:21:21,480 --> 00:21:23,960
his strength would not hold out,
and once, when he returned to the

267
00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:30,400
window after securing a loop, a
great hooded thing like a bird flew noiselessly

268
00:21:30,480 --> 00:21:34,599
at the window and beat its wings. Presently he saw that the form which

269
00:21:34,680 --> 00:21:38,240
dangled on the rope was clear of
the rocks below. It had come up

270
00:21:38,319 --> 00:21:42,400
through them as though they were but
smoke. And then his task seemed to

271
00:21:42,480 --> 00:21:48,680
him more sore than ever. Inch
by painful inch, he drew it up,

272
00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:53,200
working fiercely and silently. His muscles
were tense, and drops stood on

273
00:21:53,279 --> 00:21:57,279
his brow, and the veins hammered
in his ears. His breath came and

274
00:21:57,359 --> 00:22:03,079
went in sharp sobs. At last
the form was near enough for him to

275
00:22:03,160 --> 00:22:07,079
seize it. He grasped it by
the middle and drew Roland, for it

276
00:22:07,240 --> 00:22:11,920
was Rowland over the window sill.
His head dangled and drooped from side to

277
00:22:12,079 --> 00:22:18,000
side. His face was dark with
strangled blood, and his limbs hung helpless.

278
00:22:18,839 --> 00:22:21,799
Mark drew his knife and cut the
rope that was tied under his arms.

279
00:22:22,319 --> 00:22:27,839
The helpless limbs sank huddling on the
floor. Then Mark looked up at

280
00:22:27,839 --> 00:22:32,440
the window. A few feet from
him was a face more horrible than he

281
00:22:32,480 --> 00:22:36,680
had supposed, a human face,
if it was human, indeed could be.

282
00:22:37,640 --> 00:22:41,200
It was deadly, white and hatred, baffled, rage and a sort

283
00:22:41,240 --> 00:22:48,119
of devilish malignity glared from the white
set eyes and the drawn mouth. There

284
00:22:48,160 --> 00:22:51,240
was a rush from behind him.
The old hound, who had crept up

285
00:22:51,319 --> 00:22:55,680
unawares into the room with a fierce
outcry of rage, sprang on to the

286
00:22:55,720 --> 00:23:00,000
window sill. Mark heard the scraping
of his claws upon the stone. There.

287
00:23:00,400 --> 00:23:03,960
The hound leaped through the window,
and in a moment there was the

288
00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:08,359
sound of a heavy fall outside.
At the same instant, the darkness seemed

289
00:23:08,400 --> 00:23:14,160
to lift and draw up like a
cloud. A bank of blackness rose past

290
00:23:14,240 --> 00:23:18,680
the window and left the dark outline
of the down with a sky sown with

291
00:23:18,799 --> 00:23:25,480
tranquil stars. The cloud of fear
and horror that hung over Mark lifted too.

292
00:23:26,519 --> 00:23:30,839
He felt in some dim way that
his adversary was vanquished. He carried

293
00:23:30,920 --> 00:23:36,200
Roland down the stairs and laid him
on his bed. He roused the household,

294
00:23:36,279 --> 00:23:40,759
who looked fearfully at him, and
then his own strength failed. He

295
00:23:40,880 --> 00:23:45,839
sank upon the floor of his room, and a dark tide of unconsciousness closed

296
00:23:45,920 --> 00:23:52,559
over him. Mark's return to health
was slow. One who has looked into

297
00:23:52,559 --> 00:23:57,200
the unknown finds it hard to believe
again in the outward shows of life.

298
00:23:57,440 --> 00:24:02,480
His first conscious speech was to ask
for his hound. They told him that

299
00:24:02,519 --> 00:24:06,400
the body of the dog had been
found horribly mangled, as though by the

300
00:24:06,480 --> 00:24:11,079
teeth of some fierce animal, at
the foot of the tower. The dog

301
00:24:11,200 --> 00:24:14,400
was buried in the garden, with
a slab above him, on which other

302
00:24:14,480 --> 00:24:22,119
words huij serve bone et fidelis.
A silly priest once said to Mark that

303
00:24:22,200 --> 00:24:25,880
it was not meet to write scripture
over the grave of a beast. But

304
00:24:25,960 --> 00:24:30,519
Mark said warily that an inscription was
for those who read it to make them

305
00:24:30,599 --> 00:24:36,119
humble, and not to increase the
pride of what lay below. When Mark

306
00:24:36,119 --> 00:24:40,079
could leave his bed, his first
care was to send for builders and the

307
00:24:40,160 --> 00:24:45,480
old Tower of Nought was taken down
stone by stone to the ground, and

308
00:24:45,519 --> 00:24:48,720
a fair chapel built upon the site. In the wall there was a secret

309
00:24:48,759 --> 00:24:52,880
stairway which led from the top chamber
and came out among the elder bushes that

310
00:24:52,960 --> 00:24:57,000
grew below the tower. And here
was found a coffer of gold, which

311
00:24:57,039 --> 00:25:02,200
paid for the church, because until
it was found, it was Mark's design

312
00:25:02,240 --> 00:25:07,160
to leave the place desolate. Mark
is wedded since and has his children about

313
00:25:07,160 --> 00:25:11,599
his knee. Those who come to
the house see a strange and wan man

314
00:25:11,880 --> 00:25:18,599
who sits at Mark's board, and
whom he uses very tenderly. Sometimes this

315
00:25:18,720 --> 00:25:22,799
man is merry and tells a long
tale of his being beckoned and led by

316
00:25:22,839 --> 00:25:27,480
a tall and handsome person smiling down
a hillside to fetch gold. Though he

317
00:25:27,519 --> 00:25:33,279
can never remember the end of the
matter, but about the springtime he is

318
00:25:33,359 --> 00:25:37,799
silent, or mutters to himself,
and this is Rowland. His spirits seems

319
00:25:37,839 --> 00:25:42,319
shut up within him in some close
cell, and Mark prays for his release,

320
00:25:44,079 --> 00:25:47,640
but till God call him. He
treats him like a dear brother,

321
00:25:48,440 --> 00:25:52,880
and with the reverence dw to one
who has looked out on the other side

322
00:25:52,119 --> 00:26:00,960
of death, and who may not
say what his eyes beheld. End of

323
00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:06,319
the Closed Window recording by raf Bull