Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/386

334 In my Memoir on the Mausoleum, in 1846,$146$ I have expressed the hope that a careful examination of the castle might lead to the discovery of more sculptures of the Mausoleum built into the walls. I have never ceased to entertain this hope; but, since my arrival in Turkey, various circumstances have prevented me from visiting Budrmn till this year. It was with a feeling of eager curiosity that I passed over the old drawbridges, once so jealously guarded, into the interior of this celebrated fortress. Very few travellers had ever enjoyed this privilege before,—indeed, there is a story that an adventurous Englishman once obtained a firman at Constantinople authorizing him to visit the castle; but that on presenting it at Budinim to the commandant, he got a hint that the firman only authorized his entry into the castle, but said nothing about his exit. On walking round the ramparts on the side overlooking the harbour, I made a sudden halt. What I saw was so surprising that I could hardly believe the evidence of my own eyes. In the embattled wall, between the embrasures, was the head and forehand of a colossal lion, in white marble, built into the masonry and looking towards the interior of the castle. I saw at a glance that this lion was the work of a Greek chisel, and that it belonged to the finest period of ancient art.

There could be but one mode of accouting for its presence in the castle,—the supposition that it originally formed part of the Mausoleum. On looking over the battlements, I saw in the face of the wall below, five other lions, inserted at intervals as ornaments, all of the finest white marble; and