The guide showed them a cell where condemned prisoners were once kept, a ruined chapel with a very old crypt, and above the chapel a room reached by winding stairs. The girls entered with a simultaneous shriek of delight.
"What a love of a room!" said Edith.
"Mother, isn't this too sweet for words?" demanded Frances.
"This is the Cupola room," explained their guide. "Charles the Second stopped here during his exile from England."
"Prince Charles!" exclaimed Win, his imagination fired at once. "Oh, I read that in the guide book, but this—his room—"
Win's voice trailed into silence. To read a fact in a book was different from standing under the very roof that had once sheltered bonnie Prince Charlie. He looked about him, trying to picture to himself those far past days.
The ceiling rose in a huge dome and one immense window framed a wonderful view. From a little sally-port leading to a platform one could look sheer down to the rocks or across fourteen miles of tossing water to beautiful France. By using a little imagination the girls agreed that they could detect the spire of the cathedral of Coutances easily visible in clear weather.
"In the French revolution the governor of Jersey signalled to the army of the Vendée by means of a flagpole held in place by chains," said Mrs. Thayne.
"Yes," said their small guide. "The chains are still on the wall but the pole is new. The naval men use it in summer."
"Do they sleep here?" asked Win.