CHAPTER XII.—­THE MYSTERIES OF MALKIN TOWER.

It was a subterranean chamber; gloomy, and of vast extent; the roof low, and supported by nine ponderous stone columns, to which rings and rusty chains were attached, still retaining the mouldering bones of those they had held captive in life.  Amongst others was a gigantic skeleton, quite entire, with an iron girdle round the middle.  Fragments of mortality were elsewhere scattered about, showing the numbers who had perished in the place.  On either side were cells closed by massive doors, secured by bolts and locks.  At one end were three immense coffers made of oak, hooped with iron, and fastened by large padlocks.  Near them stood a large armoury, likewise of oak, and sculptured with the ensigns of Whalley Abbey, proving it had once belonged to that establishment.  Probably it had been carried off by some robber band.  At the opposite end of the vault were two niches, each occupied by a rough-hewn statue—­the one representing a warlike figure, with a visage of extraordinary ferocity, and the other an anchoress, in her hood and wimple, with a rosary in her hand.  On the ground beneath lay a plain flag, covering the mortal remains of the wicked pair, and proclaiming them to be Isole de Heton and Blackburn, the freebooter.  The pillars were ranged in three lines, so as to form, with the arches above them, a series of short passages, in the midst of which stood an altar, and near it a large caldron.  In front, elevated on a block of granite, was a marvellous piece of sculpture, wrought in jet, and representing a demon seated on a throne.  The visage was human, but the beard that of a goat, while the feet and lower limbs were like those of the same animal.  Two curled horns grew behind the ears, and a third, shaped like a conch, sprang from the centre of the forehead, from which burst a blue flame, throwing a ghastly light on the objects surrounding it.

The only discernible approach to the vault was a steep narrow stone staircase, closed at the top by a heavy trapdoor.  Other outlet apparently there was none.  Some little air was admitted to this foul abode through flues contrived in the walls, the entrances to which were grated, but the light of day never came there.  The flame, however, issuing from the brow of the demon image, like the lamps in the sepulchres of the disciples of the Rosy Cross, was ever-burning.  Behind the sable statue was a deep well, with water as black as ink, wherein swarmed snakes, and toads, and other noxious reptiles; and as the lurid light fell upon its surface it glittered like a dusky mirror, unless when broken by the horrible things that lurked beneath, or crawled about upon its slimy brim.  But snakes and toads were not the only tenants of the vault.  At the head of the steps squatted a monstrous and misshapen animal, bearing some resemblance to a cat, but as big as a tiger.  Its skin was black and shaggy; its eyes glowed like those of the hyaena; and its cry was like that of the same treacherous beast.  Among the gloomy colonnades other swart and bestial shapes could be indistinctly seen moving to and fro.