A shout from the guides aroused their attention, after which, in a few
minutes, one of the Count's servants returned with intelligence, that a
path was found, and they immediately hastened to join the guides, when
they all ascended a little winding way cut in the rock among thickets
of dwarf wood, and, after much toil and some danger, reached the summit,
where several ruined towers, surrounded by a massy wall, rose to their
view, partially illumined by the moon-light. The space around the
building was silent, and apparently forsaken, but the Count was
cautious; 'Step softly,' said he, in a low voice, 'while we reconnoitre
the edifice.' Having proceeded silently along for some paces, they stopped at a
gate, whose portals were terrible even in ruins, and, after a moment's
hesitation, passed on to the court of entrance, but paused again at the
head of a terrace, which, branching from it, ran along the brow of a
precipice.
Over this, rose the main body of the edifice, which was now
seen to be, not a watch-tower, but one of those ancient fortresses,
that, from age and neglect, had fallen to decay. Many parts of it,
however, appeared to be still entire; it was built of grey stone, in
the heavy Saxon-gothic style, with enormous round towers, buttresses of
proportionable strength, and the arch of the large gate, which seemed
to open into the hall of the fabric, was round, as was that of a window
above.
The air of solemnity, which must so strongly have characterized
the pile even in the days of its early strength, was now considerably
heightened by its shattered battlements and half-demolished walls, and
by the huge masses of ruin, scattered in its wide area, now silent and
grass grown. In this court of entrance stood the gigantic remains of an
oak, that seemed to have flourished and decayed with the building, which
it still appeared frowningly to protect by the few remaining branches,
leafless and moss-grown, that crowned its trunk, and whose wide extent
told how enormous the tree had been in a former age. This fortress was
evidently once of great strength, and, from its situation on a point of
rock, impending over a deep glen, had been of great power to annoy, as
well as to resist; the Count, therefore, as he stood surveying it, was
somewhat surprised, that it had been suffered, ancient as it was, to
sink into ruins, and its present lonely and deserted air excited in
his breast emotions of melancholy awe.
While he indulged, for a moment,
these emotions, he thought he heard a sound of remote voices steal upon
the stillness, from within the building, the front of which he again
surveyed with scrutinizing eyes, but yet no light was visible. He now
determined to walk round the fort, to that remote part of it, whence he
thought the voices had arisen, that he might examine whether any light
could be discerned there, before he ventured to knock at the gate; for
this purpose, he entered upon the terrace, where the remains of cannon
were yet apparent in the thick walls, but he had not proceeded many
paces, when his steps were suddenly arrested by the loud barking of a
dog within, and which he fancied to be the same, whose voice had been
the means of bringing the travellers thither. It now appeared certain,
that the place was inhabited, and the Count returned to consult again
with St. Foix, whether he should try to obtain admittance, for its wild
aspect had somewhat shaken his former resolution; but, after a
second consultation, he submitted to the considerations, which before
determined him, and which were strengthened by the discovery of the dog,
that guarded the fort, as well as by the stillness that pervaded it.