After we had descended about twenty steps we could see the entry to some vault or underground room, and it was just at the foot of the stairs that I saw something lying, as the light from the candles fell on it from above.

At first I thought it was a heap of dust or refuse, but on looking closer it seemed rather a bundle of rags.

As my eyes penetrated the gloom, I saw there was about it some tattered cloth of a faded green tint, and almost at the same minute I seemed to trace under the clothes the lines or dimensions of a human figure.

For a moment I imagined it was some poor man lying face downwards and bent up against the wall.

The idea of a man or of a dead body being there shocked me violently, and I cried to my brother, "Tell me, what is it ?" At that instant the light from.