Now come; walk very quietly.' She led me into a cold, dark room, rough and very gloomy, although with two candles burning.

I took little heed of the things in it, though I marked that the window was open.

That which I heeded was an old man, very stern and comely, with death upon his countenance; yet not lying in his bed, but set upright in a chair, with a loose red cloak thrown over him.

Upon this his white hair fell, and his pallid fingers lay in a ghastly fashion without a sign of life or movement or of the power that kept him up; all rigid, calm, and relentless.

Only in his great black eyes, fixed upon me solemnly, all the power of his body dwelt, all the life of his soul was burning.
I could not look at him very nicely, being afeared of the death in his face, and most afeared to show it.