Then he thought the air itself was getting unbearable.

He stood up at the griffin slits, pressing his lips far into them till he moulded his lips there, to suck the utmost of the open air possible.
And continually, to heighten his frenzy, there recurred to him again and again what the Squire had told him as to the origin of the cell.

It seemed that this part of the old house, or rather this wall of it, was extremely ancient, dating far beyond the era of Elizabeth, having once formed portion of a religious retreat belonging to the Templars.

The domestic discipline of this order was rigid and merciless in the extreme.

In a side wall of their second storey chapel, horizontal and on a level with the floor, they had an internal vacancy left, exactly of the shape and average size of a coffin.