her of the
dark corners.

At last I found, behind the great screen, a narrow stone staircase which
seemed to wind down into the rock. It was not in any way secret, but
being in the narrow space behind the great screen, was not visible except
when close to it. I knew I was now close to my objective, and began to
descend. Accustomed though I have been to all sorts of mysteries and
dangers, I felt awed and almost overwhelmed by a sense of loneliness and
desolation as I descended the ancient winding steps. These were many in
number, roughly hewn of old in the solid rock on which the church was
built.

I met a fresh surprise in finding that the door of the crypt was open.
After all, this was different from the church-door being open; for in
many places it is a custom to allow all comers at all times to find rest
and comfort in the sacred place. But I did expect that at least the
final resting-place of the historic dead would be held safe against
casual intrusion. Even I, on a quest which was very near my heart,
paused with an almost overwhelming sense of decorum before passing
through that open door. The crypt was a huge place, strangely lofty for
a vault. From its formation, however, I soon came to the conclusion that
it was originally a natural cavern altered to its present purpose by the
hand of man. I could hear somewhere near the sound of running water, but
I could not locate it. Now and again at irregular intervals there was a
prolonged booming, which could only come from a wave breaking in a
confined place. The recollection then came to me of the proximity of the
church to the top of the beetling cliff, and of the half-sunk cavern
entrances which pierced it.

With the gleam of my lamp to guide me, I went through and round the whole
place. There were many massive tombs, mostly rough-hewn from great slabs
or blocks of stone. Some of them were marble, and the cutting of all was
ancient. So large and heavy were some of them that it was a wonder to me
how they could ever have been brought to this place, to which the only
entrance was seemingly the narrow, tortuous stairway by which I had come.
At last I saw near one end of the crypt a great chain hanging. Turning
the light upward, I found that it depended from a ring set over a wide
opening, evidently made artificially. It must have been through this
opening that the great sarcophagi had been lowered.

Directly underneath the hanging chain, which did no