The order was promptly obeyed; but, meanwhile, the
sound had ceased, and, though they searched about, they could not
discover the occasion of it.
This, however, was not so wonderful for the singular construction of the
chamber, with its numerous crossbeams, its deep embrasures and
recesses, its insecure and uneven floor, its steep ladder-like staircases,
was highly favourable to concealment, it being utterly impossible,
owing to the intersections of the beams, for the searchers to see far
before them, or to move about quickly. In the midst of the chamber was
a large wooden compartment enclosing the cumbrous and uncouth
machinery of the castle clock, and through the box ran the cord
communicating with the belfry above. At that time, pieces of ordnance
were mounted in all the embrasures, but there is now only one gun,
placed in a porthole commanding Thames Street, and the long
thoroughfare leading to Eton. The view from this porthole of the groves
of Eton, and of the lovely plains on the north-west, watered by the river,
is enchanting beyond description.
Viewed from a recess which has been partly closed, the appearance of
this chamber is equally picturesque and singular; and it is scarcely
possible to pass beneath its huge beams or to gaze at the fantastic yet
striking combinations they form in connection with the deep
embrasures, the steep staircases and trap-doors, and not feel that the
whole place belongs to romance, and that a multitude of strange and
startling stories must be connected with it.
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