Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 1).djvu/260

 easily removed, and another descent of three steps brought them to a vaulted room, but cautious in advancing, for their lamp emitted but a very faint glimmer.—"Is this your prison, are we right?" asked Ferdinand.

"Yes," answered a voice, so close to him that he started, and extending the light perceived a figure that made him shudder, and Francis scream with terror.

It had the appearance of a man, from an immense long beard that reached almost to his knees as he sat upon a bench, with a small table before him, on which was a wooden plate, and a little wooden basin: He had a blanket wrapped round him, and his hair covered his shoulders down to the bottom of his back; his features they could make nothing of, but his eyes, from the meagre countenance, looked sunk, yet wild; they now perceived a glimmering lamp was fastened against the wall on one side.

"Gracious Heaven!" exclaimed Ferdinand, "can a human being have existed here?"