After this the yeoman of the guard led his party to a great many other
curious places. He showed them the room where the crowns and sceptres of
the English kings and queens, and all the great diamonds and jewels of
state, were kept. These treasures were placed on a stand in an immense
iron cage, so that people assembled in the room around the cage could
look in and see the things, but they could not reach them to touch them.

They were also taken to see various prison rooms and dungeons where
state prisoners were kept; and also blocks and axes, the implements by
which several great prisoners celebrated in history had been beheaded.
They saw in particular the block and the axe which were used at the
execution of Anne Boleyn and of Lady Jane Grey; and all the party looked
very earnestly at the marks which the edge of the axe had made in the
wood when the blows were given.

The party walked about in the various buildings, and courts, and streets
of the Tower for nearly two hours; and then, bidding the yeoman good by,
they all went away.

"Now," said Rollo, as soon as they had got out of the gate, "which is
the way to the Tunnel?"

The Tunnel is a subterranean passage under the Thames, made at a place
where it was impossible to have a bridge, on account of the shipping.
They expected, when they made the Tunnel, that it would be used a great
deal by persons wishing to cross the river. But it is found, on trial,
that almost every body who wishes to go across the river at that place
prefers to go in a boat rather than go down into the Tunnel. The reason
is, that the Tunnel is so far below the bed of the river that you have
to go down a long series of flights of stairs before you get to the
entrance to it; and then, after going across, you have to come up just
as many stairs before you get into the street again. This is found to be
so troublesome and fatiguing that almost every one who has occasion to
go across the river prefers to cross it by a ferry boat on the surface
of the water; and scarcely any one goes into the Tunnel except those who
wish to visit it out of curiosity.

The stairs that lead down to the passage under the river wind around the
sides of an immense well, or shaft, made at the entrance of it. When Mr.
George and Rollo reached the bottom of these stairs they heard loud
sounds of music, and saw a brilliant light at the entrance to the
Tunnel. On going in, they saw that the Tunnel itself was double, as