at a handle attached to a chain which hung down from an
aperture in the wall, and a bell was heard to clang somewhere in the far
interior of the building, a small wicket cut in one of the big gates was
presently thrown open by an individual in the garb of a lay brother, and
the soldiers with their prisoners were invited to pass through it.

The party now found themselves in a lofty, vaulted passage, some
twenty-five feet in length, the farther end of which opened upon a paved
courtyard surrounded by cloisters surmounted by lofty buildings
massively constructed of the same dark-grey stone as the building
through which they had just passed, and, like it, provided with windows
strongly protected by massive iron bars, only instead of being all
small, as were the windows in the exterior walls, some of those which
looked out upon the courtyard were of very considerable dimensions. At
the opposite side of the courtyard, facing the passage through which the
party had just passed, was another door, giving admission to what
appeared to be the main building, and to this they were now conducted by
the lay brother, who, having unlocked the door, threw it open and bade
them enter the big, gloomy cavern-like, ill-lighted hall which now stood
revealed. Once inside this place, the prisoners were delivered over to
the custody of a huge, brawny brute in the shape of a man who, from the
fact that he bore a bunch of big keys attached to his belt, was no doubt
the jailer of the institution. Then a tall, thin, ascetic-looking man
in the garb of a priest stepped forward, scanned the two prisoners
attentively, carefully compared their appearance with the description of
them contained in a document, which the corporal handed to him, signed
the document and returned it to the corporal, dismissed him and his
followers, and waved the jailer to lead his charges away, which the
fellow immediately did, in morose silence. Their way lay down a long,
narrow corridor, having doors opening out of it at intervals on either
side; and at the precise moment when the prisoners arrived opposite one
of these doors a long-drawn wail, rising to a piercing shriek, rang out
from behind it, causing their flesh to creep upon their bones with
horror, so eloquent of keen, excruciating, almost unendurable physical
anguish was the sound.

The jailer, who was leading the way, glanced over his shoulder at his
prisoners with a smile of such gloating, Satanic suggestivene