Of course the custodians were slow to admit any change of this kind.
If you could have believed them,--and the poor people told as many
lies as they could to make you,--you would believe that nothing had
ever happened of a commonplace nature in this castle. The taking-off
of Hugo and Parisina they think the great merit of the castle; and one
of them, seeing us, made haste to light his taper and conduct us down
to the dungeons where those unhappy lovers were imprisoned. It is the
misfortune of memorable dungeons to acquire, when put upon show, just
the reverse of those properties which should raise horror and distress
in the mind of the beholder. It was impossible to deny that the
cells of Parisina and of Hugo were both singularly warm, dry, and
comfortable; and we, who had never been imprisoned in them, found
it hard to command, for our sensation, the terror and agony of the
miserable ones who suffered there. We, happy and secure in these
dungeons, could not think of the guilty and wretched pair bowing
themselves to the headsman's stroke in the gloomy chamber under the
Hall of Aurora; nor of the Marquis, in his night-long walk, breaking
at last into frantic remorse and tears to know that his will had been
accomplished. Nay, there upon its very scene, the whole tragedy faded
from us; and, seeing our wonder so cold, the custodian tried to kindle
it by saying that in the time of the event these cells were much
dreadfuller than now, which was no doubt true. The floors of the
dungeons are both below the level of the moat, and the narrow windows,
or rather crevices to admit the light, were cut in the prodigiously
thick wall just above the water, and were defended with four
successive iron gratings. The dungeons are some distance apart: that
of Hugo was separated from the outer wall of the castle by a narrow
passage-way, while Parisina's window opened directly upon the moat.