on of the castle, less than a week before that fatal hour
which I felt must mark the utmost limit of my stay on earth, beyond
which I could have not even the slightest hope of continuing to draw
breath, that I came upon the culminating event of my whole life. I had
spent the better part of the morning in climbing up and down half ruined
staircases in one of the most dilapidated of the ancient turrets. As the
afternoon progressed, I sought the lower levels, descending into what
appeared to be either a mediaeval place of confinement, or a more
recently excavated storehouse for gunpowder. As I slowly traversed the
nitre-encrusted passageway at the foot of the last staircase, the paving
became very damp, and soon I saw by the light of my flickering torch
that a blank, water-stained wall impeded my journey. Turning to retrace
my steps, my eye fell upon a small trap-door with a ring, which lay
directly beneath my feet. Pausing, I succeeded with difficulty in
raising it, whereupon there was revealed a black aperture, exhaling
noxious fumes which caused my torch to sputter, and disclosing in the
unsteady glare the top of a flight of stone steps. As soon as the torch,
which I lowered into the repellent depths, burned freely and steadily, I
commenced my descent. The steps were many, and led to a narrow
stone-flagged passage which I knew must be far underground. This passage
proved of great length, and terminated in a massive oaken door,
dripping with the moisture of the place, and stoutly resisting all my
attempts to open it. Ceasing after a time my efforts in this direction,
I had proceeded back some distance toward the steps, when there suddenly
fell to my experience one of the most profound and maddening shocks
capable of reception by the human mind. Without warning, =I heard the
heavy door behind me creak slowly open upon its rusted hinges=. My
immediate sensations are incapable of analysis. To be confronted in a
place as thoroughly deserted as I had deemed the old castle with
evidence of the presence of man or spirit, produced in my brain a horror
of the most acute description. When at last I turned and faced the seat
of the sound, my eyes must have started from their orbits at the sight
that they beheld. There in the ancient Gothic doorway stood a human
figure. It was that of a man clad in a skull-cap and long mediaeval
tunic of dark colour. His long hair and flowing beard were of a terrible
and intense black hue, and of incr