I
was not to be diverted from my humor, however, and my will was law
with these good people. So, calling in the assistance of a
carpenter, and the ever officious Mateo Ximenes, the doors and windows
were soon placed in a state of tolerable security, and the
sleeping-room of the stately Elizabetta prepared for my reception.
Mateo kindly volunteered as a body-guard to sleep in my antechamber;
but I did not think it worth while to put his valor to the proof.
With all the hardihood I had assumed and all the precautions I had
taken, I must confess the first night passed in these quarters was
inexpressibly dreary. I do not think it was so much the apprehension
of dangers from without that affected me, as the character of the
place itself, with all its strange associations: the deeds of violence
committed there; the tragical ends of many of those who had once
reigned there in splendor. As I passed beneath the fated halls of
the Tower of Comares on the way to my chamber, I called to mind a
quotation, that used to thrill me in the days of boyhood:
Fate sits on these dark battlements and frowns;
And, as the portal opens to receive me,
A voice in sullen echoes through the courts
Tells of a nameless deed!
The whole family escorted me to my chamber, and took leave of me
as of one engaged on a perilous enterprise; and when I heard their
retreating steps die away along the waste antechambers and echoing
galleries; and turned the key of my door, I was reminded of those
hobgoblin stories, where the hero is left to accomplish the
adventure of an enchanted house.
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