Le had in his hands a little guidebook to the castle and town of Enderby, to which he referred from time to time.
Climbing over piles of rubbish, of fallen stones, covered with moss and lichen, and half buried in rank growth of thistles and briers, they entered an arched doorway, and found themselves upon the stone floor of the great feudal castle hall, which had once re-echoed to the orgies of the feudal baron and his rude retainers after a hunt, a foray, or a battle, but now silent and abandoned to the birds of night and prey.
At one end of this hall was a great chimney—a chimney so vast that within its walls, from foundation stone to roof, a modern New York apartment house of seven floors might have been built, with full suits of family rooms on every floor.
“And this is only the hall fireplace,” said Le. “The kitchen fireplace is immediately below this, and still broader and deeper than this, but we cannot get to it because it is buried in fallen stones and mortar. At least, I mean, all entrance to that part of the castle is.”
They now noticed that the cavity of the deep chimney place was furnished on each side with stone benches, built in with the masonry.
“Here,” said Le, “the wandering minstrel or the holy pilgrim, of the olden time found warm seats in winter to thaw out their frozen limbs.”
Next they noticed that the hearth of the fireplace, raised about a foot above the level of the floor, extended about a quarter of the length of the hall itself.
“This,” said Le, “must be the dais for the upper portion of the table, at which sat my lord baron, his family, his knights, and his guests, while on each side of the lower part sat the retainers. But say! Here is a trapdoor. Immediately under here must have stood my lord baron’s chair. Let us look at that.”
Le referred to the guidebook, and read:
“‘Immediately before the hall fireplace and on the elevated dais is a trapdoor connected with a walled-in shaft, descending through the castle kitchen under the hall, and into the ‘Dungeon of the Dark Death,’ under the foundations of the castle. In the rude days of the feudal system prisoners taken in war, or criminals convicted of high crime, were let down through that trapdoor into the Dungeon of the Dark Death, and never heard of more. And the lord of the castle held high festival above while his crushed victims perished below.’”