And soon with manacles securely bound,

Myself its only occupant I found.

A dungeon, dimly lighted and obscure,

With pools of water, stagnant and impure,

Whose noxious exhalations permeate

The deadened air, which could not circulate:

And laden with malignant slime and ooze,

Upon the walls discharged in baneful dews:

Or else precipitate, with vapory loss,

Enrobed the cruel stones with pendent moss.