The captain here put a
pocket-telescope into his hand; and with this annihilator of space he made
new discoveries. He saw a little window in the cliff, doubtless the same
from which he had looked out on the dim sea; and then perceived that the
front of the cliff, in that part, was no rock, but a wall, regularly and
strongly built. It was evidently the remains of an old fortress. The front
foundation had been laid in the rocks of the shore; the cliff had then
been faced up with masonry; and behind chambers had been cut in the rock;
into one of which Herbert had descended a ruined spiral stair. The castle
itself, which had stood on the top, had mouldered away, leaving only a
rugged and broken surface.
"By this time they were near the opposite shore, and Herbert looked up
with dread at the great cliffs that rose perpendicularly out of the water,
which heaved slowly and heavily, with an appearance of immense depth,
against them. Their black jagged sides had huge holes, into which the sea
rushed--far into the dark--with a muffled roar; and large protuberances of
rock, bare and threatening.
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