The whole thing was suddenly clear to him. He had been tricked, foiled, and outwitted! The old Canterville look came into his eyes; he ground his toothless gums together; and, raising his withered hands high above his head, swore, according to the picturesque phraseology of the antique school, that when the farmyard cock had crowed twice, deeds of blood would be wrought, and Murder walk with silent feet.

Hardly had he finished this awful oath when, from the red-tiled roof of the farm, a cock crowed.

He laughed a long, low, bitter laugh, and waited. Hour after hour he waited, but the cock, for some strange reason, did not crow again. Finally, at half-past seven, the arrival of the housemaids made him give up his fearful vigil, and he stalked back to his room, thinking of his vain oath and baffled purpose.

There he consulted several books of ancient chivalry, of which he was exceedingly fond, and found that, on every occasion on which this oath had been used, the cock had always crowed a second time.

'May the devil take the naughty fowl,' he muttered, 'I have seen the day when, with my stout spear, I would have stabbed him through the gorge, and made him crow for me while he was dying!'

He then retired to a comfortable lead coffin, and stayed there till evening.