As I was crossing the Hall of Ambassadors, low
moans and broken ejaculations rose, as it were, from beneath my
feet. I paused and listened. They then appeared to be outside of the
tower- then again within. Then broke forth howlings as of an animal-
then stifled shrieks and inarticulate ravings. Heard in that dead hour
and singular place, the effect was thrilling. I had no desire for
further perambulation; but returned to my chamber with infinitely more
alacrity than I had sallied forth, and drew my breath more freely when
once more within its walls and the door bolted behind me. When I awoke
in the morning, with the sun shining in at my window and lighting up
every part of the building with his cheerful and truth-telling
beams, I could scarcely recall the shadows and fancies conjured up
by the gloom of the preceding night; or believe that the scenes around
me, so naked and apparent, could have been clothed with such imaginary
horrors.
Still, the dismal howlings and ejaculations I had heard were not
ideal; they were soon accounted for, however, by my handmaid
Dolores: being the ravings of a poor maniac, a brother of her aunt,
who was subject to violent paroxysms, during which he was confined
in a vaulted room beneath the Hall of Ambassadors.
In the course of a few evenings a thorough change took place in
the scene and its associations. The moon, which when I took possession
of my new apartments was invisible, gradually gained each evening upon
the darkness of the night, and at length rolled in full splendor above
the towers, pouring a flood of tempered light into every court and
hall.
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