o vividly did the scene recall that black, stormy night in February,
when Mr. Dunbar had seen the lantern of the gaoler flash through the
penitentiary gates closing on the young convict, that he drew his
breath now through clinched teeth, and quickly laid his hand upon that
of his wife, which grasped the bridle resting upon the neck of her
mule. Silently the procession filed in, and with little delay the torch
bearer replaced the bars, advanced to the head of the column, and with
long, swift strides led the way down a wide tunnel. Between the monks
no salutation was exchanged; and only the ringing tramp of the horses'
feet on the stone pavement, jarred the profound stillness. The lurid
glare of the torch danced on the rocky vault, and the shadows projected
by men and beasts were gigantic and grotesque. Very soon a gray
twilight stole to meet them; an arch of light like a window opening
into heaven brightened, glared, and the party emerged into a courtyard
that seemed an entrance to some vast amphitheatre.

Opposite the mouth of the tunnel, and distant perhaps two hundred
yards, lay an oval lake, bordered on the right by a valley running
southeast, while its northern shore rose abruptly in a parapet of rock,
that patient cloistered workmen had cut into broad terraces; and upon
which opened rows of cells excavated from the mountain side, and
resembling magnified swallow nests, or a huge petrified honeycomb
sliced vertically.

A legend so hoary, that "the memory of man runneth not to the
contrary", had assigned the outlines of this stone cutting to that dim
dawn of primeval tribal life, which left its later traces in the Watch
Tower of the Mancos, the Casa del Eco, and the "niche stairway of the
Hovenweep".

In the slow deposition of the human strata, cliff dwellers disappeared
beneath predatory, nomadic modern savages, who, hunting and fishing in
this lonely fastness, had increased its natural fortifications, and
made it an impregnable depot of supplies, until Hudson Bay trappers
wrenched it from their grasp, and appropriated it as a peltry magazine.
To the dynasty of traders had succeeded the spiritual rule of a Jesuit
Mission; then miners kindled camp fires in the deserted excavations, as
they probed the mountain for ores; and more recently the noiseless feet
of a band of holy celibates belonging to an austere Order, went up and
down the face of the cliff, with cross and bell and incense exorcising
haunting aborigina