with rapidity so tumultuous and terrible that
the fishers of that stormy coast avowed that a vortex was created in
the bay by their influx or return seaward, which could be perceived
sensibly at a league's distance; and that to be caught in it, unless
the wind blew strong and steadily off land, was sure destruction.
However that might be, it is certain that this great subterranean
tunnel extended far beneath the rocks into the interior of the land,
for at the distance of nearly two miles from the castle, directly
eastward, in the bottom of a dark, wooded glen, which runs for many
miles nearly parallel to the coast, there is a deep, rocky well, or
natural cavity, of a form nearly circular, which, when the tide is up,
is filled to over-flowing with bitter sea-water, on which the bubbles
and foam-flakes show the obstacles against which it must have striven
in its landward journey. At low water, on the contrary, "the Devil's
Drinking Cup," for so it is named by the superstitious peasantry of
the neighborhood, presents nothing to the eye but a deep, black abyss,
which the country folks, of course, assert to be bottomless. But, in
truth, its depth is immense, as can easily be perceived, if you cast a
stone into it, by the length of time during which it may be heard
thundering from side to side, until the reverberated roar of its
descent appears to die away, not because it has ceased, but because
the sound is too distant to be conveyed to human ears.

On this side of the castle every thing differs as much as it is
possible to conceive from the view to the seaward, which is grim and
desolate as any ocean scenery the world over. Few sails are ever seen
on those dangerous coasts; all vessels bound to the mouth of the
Garonne, or southward to the shores of Spain, giving as wide a berth
as possible to its frightful reefs and inaccessible crags, which to
all their other terrors add that, from the extraordinary prevalence of
the west wind on that part of the ocean, of being, during at least
three parts of the year, a _lee_ shore.

Inland, however, instead of the bleak and barren surface of the ever
stormy sea, indented into long rolling ridges and dark tempestuous
hollows, all was varied and smiling, and gratifying to every sense
given by nature for his good to man. Immediately from the brink of the
cliffs the land sloped downward southwardly and to the eastward, so
that it was bathed during all the day, except a few late evening