“This is the next,” said the guide, as he passed through another massive door of rock, and another dismal vault. “This is the third,” said he, and passed into another. “This is the fourth,” said he, and took out his brandy bottle—“and this is the fifth,” hurrying us along, and taking sup after sup from the aforesaid brandy bottle—“and this is the eighth, ninth, and tenth.” There were, indeed, ten such horrible dungeons; some of them hewn out of the solid rock, as well as the passages which led to them, and others are constructed of immense blocks of stone. After passing through several passages, we reached a chamber of lesser dimensions, the aspect and atmosphere of which might have chilled a lion’s heart. Our guide paused as he passed the threshold, took another dose, of course, from his brandy bottle, and said:—“This is the ‘Zammination Chamber.’” Many massive iron rings fastened into the walls of this room, gave indications, sufficiently intelligible, of the mode in which the questionings were wont to be carried on there. One of the openings that led from this frightful room terminated in a wall, along which another passage rose at right angles. Exactly at the corner at which the turn was made, the footing of solid earth or rock that we had hitherto trod, was changed for a flooring of planks; which, if not quite loose, were yet so placed as to leave considerable space between them. He suffered us to pass over them, and when we had entered the door-way that stood at right angles, he stopped saying—“Here, this is the _Oubliette_,” and pointed as he spoke to the planks we had passed. “And what is the _Oubliette_?” “It means _Maurecement_!” said the guide, “a sort of ‘_eternal without a bottom_.’ When a foreigner was sentenced to be forgotten, he was made to pass from the judgment-hall through this door, these planks then sunk beneath him, he was _universitied_ as he fell to the bottom, and was heard of no more.” I shall tell you more of the horrors of this place in another chapter. [Illustration] A few Words about the Egyptians, ANCIENT AND MODERN. [Illustration]