But hereupon Ambrose returned; the Doctor spoke to him briefly in the Latin tongue, and betook himself from the cell.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE RUNNING MAN.
Ambrose immediately after bade me rise and make ready to follow him; for he had in charge, he said, to take me to the Cloisters.
I was nothing loth. The curiosity I had to learn more of the island, was now, indeed, swollen to the highest pitch; so, within a brief space, we went from the cell, coming into a passage of stone.
This passage was in all points like to that which the Englishman had given me an account of. There was, however, this difference in our experiences: that, whereas he had started in darkness to come by degrees into the shining of a dazzling white light, I, on the contrary, did meet with that strange illumination at the outset, finding it to decrease as we proceeded, until ’twas but a glimmer; and so on into thickest darkness.
But soon, in the distance, appeared a faint brightness, like to the dim reflection of a mirror. We went a little farther. ’Twas the light of day. A door stood wide at the end of the corridor.
So came I forth from that mysterious prison-house, and stood again under the open heaven.
Before and on either side were thick woods, behind was the cavernous entry—yet having no appearance of masonry, for a tangle of many-blossomed creepers covered all.
But Ambrose, looking to see that I followed, stepped straightway to that which had all the look of a pathless thicket. When, however, we were gotten within, brushing aside bush and brake, there opened before us a path of the woods—yet so slender a path, that ’twas scarce to be discerned. Following it the distance of about a quarter of a mile, we came forth upon the cliff.
A battery stood against the sea, a huge rampart long and large, hewed out of the rock, and pierced at intervals in embrasures to accommodate the great brass guns—they were, indeed, of prodigious size—that bore upon the waters, fifty feet below. The guns were mounted upon carriages of iron, so as they could be turned this way or that, to bear at large upon the sea. About thirty feet behind them, stood a long house, built of massive blocks of stone, divided into store-rooms for the powder. The roof of it was thatched with wattle and felt, against the rains. Beside it, on end, stood another house, wherein were many pipes of muskets.