dry,
and in others contained a little muddy and stagnated water. Within the
enclosure of this moat, I could only discover a pile of ruins, and
several walls, the upper part of which seemed to overhang their
foundations, and to totter to their ruin. After having entered however
with my conductor through an archway, and passed along a winding
passage that was perfectly dark, we came to a stand.

At the upper end of this passage was a door, which I was unable to
perceive. My conductor knocked at the door, and was answered by a voice
from within, which, for body and force, might have been the voice of a
man, but with a sort of female sharpness and acidity, enquiring, "Who is
there?" Satisfaction was no sooner given on this point, than I heard two
bolts pushed back, and the door unlocked. The apartment opened, and we
entered. The interior of this habitation by no means corresponded with
the appearance of my protector, but, on the contrary, wore the face of
discomfort, carelessness, and dirt. The only person I saw within was a
woman, rather advanced in life, and whose person had I know not what of
extraordinary and loathsome. Her eyes were red and blood-shot; her hair
was pendent in matted and shaggy tresses about her shoulders; her
complexion swarthy, and of the consistency of parchment; her form spare,
and her whole body, her arms in particular, uncommonly vigorous and
muscular. Not the milk of human kindness, but the feverous blood of
savage ferocity, seemed to flow from her heart; and her whole figure
suggested an idea of unmitigable energy, and an appetite gorged in
malevolence. This infernal Thalestris had no sooner cast her eyes upon
us as we entered, than she exclaimed in a discordant and discontented
voice, "What have we got here? this is not one of our people!" My
conductor, without answering this apostrophe, bade her push an easy
chair which stood in one corner, and set it directly before the fire.
This she did with apparent reluctance, murmuring, "Ah! you are at your
old tricks; I wonder what such folks as we have to do with charity! It
will be the ruin of us at last, I can see that!"--"Hold your tongue,
beldam!" said he, with a stern significance of manner, "and fetch one of
my best shirts, a waistcoat, and some dressings." Saying this, he at the
same time put into her hand a small bunch of keys. In a word, he treated
me with as much kindness as if he had been my father. He examined my
wound, washed and dressed i