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revealed, and on which the stairs abutted, was formed in the vault, so
that the eye looked down from it as into a well.
The cell was large, and if it was the bottom of a well, it must have
been a cyclopean one. The idea that the old word "cul-de-basse-fosse"
awakens in the mind can only be applied to it if it were a lair of wild
beasts.
The cell was neither flagged nor paved. The bottom was of that cold,
moist earth peculiar to deep places.
In the midst of the cell, four low and disproportioned columns sustained
a porch heavily ogival, of which the four mouldings united in the
interior of the porch, something like the inside of a mitre. This porch,
similar to the pinnacles under which sarcophagi were formerly placed,
rose nearly to the top of the vault, and made a sort of central chamber
in the cavern, if that could be called a chamber which had only pillars
in place of walls.
From the key of the arch hung a brass lamp, round and barred like the
window of a prison. This lamp threw around it--on the pillars, on the
vault, on the circular wall which was seen dimly behind the pillars--a
wan light, cut by bars of shadow.
This was the light which had at first dazzled Gwynplaine; now it threw
out only a confused redness.
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