grimmest and most gruesome aspect. The dust of ages seemed to have
settled on it, and the darkness and the horror of its memories seem to
have become sentient in a way that would have satisfied the Pantheistic
souls of Philo or Spinoza. The lower chamber where we entered was
seemingly, in its normal state, filled with incarnate darkness; even the
hot sunlight streaming in through the door seemed to be lost in the vast
thickness of the walls, and only showed the masonry rough as when the
builder's scaffolding had come down, but coated with dust and marked
here and there with patches of dark stain which, if walls could speak,
could have given their own dread memories of fear and pain. We were glad
to pass up the dusty wooden staircase, the custodian leaving the outer
door open to light us somewhat on our way; for to our eyes the one
long-wick'd, evil-smelling candle stuck in a sconce on the wall gave an
inadequate light. When we came up through the open trap in the corner of
the chamber overhead, Amelia held on to me so tightly that I could
actually feel her heart beat. I must say for my own part that I was not
surprised at her fear, for this room was even more gruesome than that
below. Here there was certainly more light, but only just sufficient to
realise the horrible surroundings of the place. The builders of the
tower had evidently intended that only they who should gain the top
should have any of the joys of light and prospect. There, as we had
noticed from below, were ranges of windows, albeit of mediaeval
smallness, but elsewhere in the tower were only a very few narrow slits
such as were habitual in places of mediaeval defence. A few of these
only lit the chamber, and these so high up in the wall that from no part
could the sky be seen through the thickness of the walls. In racks, and
leaning in disorder against the walls, were a number of headsmen's
swords, great double-handed weapons with broad blade and keen edge. Hard
by were several blocks whereon the necks of the victims had lain, with
here and there deep notches where the steel had bitten through the guard