o
burn, their intense radiance casts a strong glare on Satan's Throne; the
whole of the vast amphitheatre is revealed to view, and you can peer
into the deep recesses of two other caves beyond. For a few moments,
gigantic proportions and uncouth forms stand out in the clear, strong
gush of brilliant light! and then--all is darkness. The effect is so
like magic, that one almost expects to see towering genii striding down
the deep declivities, or startled by the brilliant flare, shake off
their long sleep among the dense black shadows.

[Illustration: THE GOTHIC CHAPEL.]

If you enter one of the caves revealed in the distance, you find
yourself in a deep ravine, with huge piles of gray rock jutting out more
and more, till they nearly meet at top. Looking upward, through this
narrow aperture, you see, high, high above you, a vaulted roof of
_black_ rock, studded with brilliant spar, like constellations in the
sky, seen at midnight, from the deep clefts of a mountain. This is
called the Star Chamber. It makes one think of Schiller's grand
description of William Tell sternly waiting for Gessler, among the
shadows of the Alps, and of Wordsworth's picture of

"Yorkshire dales
Among the rocks and winding scars,
Where deep and low the hamlets lie,
Beneath their little patch of sky,
And little lot of stars."

[Illustration: THE STAR CHAMBER.]

In this neighborhood is a vast, dreary chamber, which Stephen, the
guide, called Bandit's Hall, the first moment his eye rested on it; and
the name is singularly expressive of its character. Its ragged roughness
and sullen gloom are indescribable. The floor is a mountainous heap of
loose stones, and not an inch of even surface could be found on roof or
walls. Imagine two or three travellers, with their lamps, passing
through this place of evil aspect. The deep, suspicions-looking recesses
and frightful crags are but partially revealed in the feeble light. All
at once, a Bengal Light blazes up, and every black rock and frowning
cliff stands out in the brilliant glare. The contrast is sublime beyond
imagination. It is as if a man had seen the hills and trees of this
earth only in the dim outline of a moonless night, and they should, for
the first time, be revealed to him in the gushing glory of the morning
sun. But the greatest wonder in this region of the cave, is Mammoth
Dome--a giant among giants. It is so immensely high and vast, that three
of t