Impelled by curiosity to reconnoitre the interior of this strange place before he entered, Brown gazed in at this aperture.

A scene of greater desolation could not well be imagined.

There was a fire upon the floor, the smoke of which, after circling through the apartment, escaped by a hole broken in the arch above.

The walls, seen by this smoky light, had the rude and waste appearance of a ruin of three centuries old at least.

A cask or two, with some broken boxes and packages, lay about the place in confusion.