For one long term, or e’er her trial came, Here Brownrigg lingered. Often have these cells Echoed her blasphemies, as with shrill voice She screamed for fresh Geneva. Not to her Did the blithe fields of Tothill, or thy street, St. Giles, its fair varieties expand; Till at the last, in slow-drawn cart, she went To execution. Dost thou ask her crime? _She whipped two female ’prentices to death, And hid them in the coal-hole._ For her mind Shaped strictest plans of discipline. Sage schemes, Such as Lycurgus taught, when at the shrine Of the Orthyan goddess he bade flog The little Spartans: such as erst chastised Our Milton when at college. For this act Did Brownrigg swing. Harsh laws! but time shall come When France shall reign, and laws be all repealed! Adjoining the Keep, or Marten’s Tower, is a small chamber, or <g>Oratory</g>, remarkable for the elegance of its proportions, and the chaste but elaborate style of its ornaments. The lancet-pointed window, encircled by rows of delicately-carved rosettes, is in fine preservation.--_See the opposite page._ The narrow path which, at a height of six feet above the ground, connects this portion of the castle with the donjon tower, commands a range of beautiful scenery, the prominent features of which are the lawns and groves of Persefield, the precipitous but picturesque banks of the river, with a noble background for the picture in the commanding summit of the Wynd Cliff, which overlooks the scene. The <g>West Gate</g>, a Gothic archway, strongly defended by a double portcullis, with moat and drawbridge, opens into the fourth or principal court already noticed; and as portions of Roman brick are here observed in the masonry, some doubts have arisen as to its date: but whether furnished from an earlier building on the spot, or transported hither from the ruins of Caerleon, is a question which, so far as the writer could ascertain, is still undecided. It seems very [Illustration] probable, however, that the commanding site occupied by the present castle was originally that of a strong military post, built and garrisoned by the Romans, the ruins of which were converted into a Norman fortress by William Fitzosborne.