He slammed the door after her, then
struck it so violently that the oak shivered and his hand nearly
broke. For she had committed the one act that no evil man can
tolerate.
She had spoken the truth.
That evening Lieutenant Ballard appeared, to escort the ladies to,
"More suitable quarters." He led them, along with two armed guards, to
the high tower at the furthest extremity of the Castle.
After a long and torturous spiralling of stairs (for their escort
would not let them rest), they came at last to the uppermost story.
There Ballard took a long iron key, and forcing the eye of the lock,
pulled back the thick wooden door, pierced by a single, barred window.
They were ushered in, and all doubt of their position left them. It
was a prison cell. Piled hay on the floor comprised the beds, two
water buckets, one filled, the other empty, their only toilet. Two
woolen blankets had been rudely thrown down, as if their captors
resented even this small show of humanity. But for these, and for the
water, the place might have gone unchanged for a hundred years.
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