kitten.

We were the only visitors who had entered the Torture Tower that
morning--so at least said the old custodian--and as we had the place
all to ourselves were able to make a minute and more satisfactory
survey than would have otherwise been possible. The custodian, looking
to us as the sole source of his gains for the day, was willing to meet
our wishes in any way. The Torture Tower is truly a grim place, even
now when many thousands of visitors have sent a stream of life, and
the joy that follows life, into the place; but at the time I mention
it wore its grimmest and most gruesome aspect. The dust of ages seemed
to have settled on it, and the darkness and the horror of its memories
seem to have become sentient in a way that would have satisfied the
Pantheistic souls of Philo or Spinoza. The lower chamber where we
entered was seemingly, in its normal state, filled with incarnate
darkness; even the hot sunlight streaming in through the door seemed
to be lost in the vast thickness of the walls, and only showed the
masonry rough as when the builder's scaffolding had come down, but
coated with dust and marked here and there with patches of dark stain
which, if walls could speak, could have given their own dread memories
of fear and pain. We were glad to pass up the dusty wooden staircase,
the custodian leaving the outer door open to light us somewhat on our
way; for to our eyes the one long-wick'd, evil-smelling candle stuck
in a sconce on the wall gave an inadequate light. When we came up
through the open trap in the corner of the chamber overhead, Amelia
held on to me so tightly that I could actually feel her heart beat. I
must say for my own part that I was not surprised at her fear, for
this room was even more gruesome than that below. Here there was
certainly more light, but only just sufficient to realise the horrible
surroundings of the place. The builders of the tower had evidently
intended that only they who should gain the top should have any of the
joys of light and prospect. There, as we had noticed from below, were
ranges of windows, albeit of mediaeval smallness, but elsewhere in the
tower were only a very few narrow slits such as were habitual in
places of mediaeval defence. A few of these only lit the chamber, and
these so high up in the wall that from no part could the sky be seen
through the thickness of the walls. In racks, and leaning in disorder
against the walls, were a number of headsmen's swo