In the corner next the Beauchamp is the Devereux Tower, named from the brilliant Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, the chivalric soldier and courtier, first a petted favorite, then a victim of Queen Elizabeth. His story is one of thrilling and fascinating interest. Meteor-like he flashed through his court and army life, and after gaining the zenith of his power, sank as suddenly as he had risen. It is said that he was one of the many with whom the royal and fickle spinster coquetted, and that he really touched her haughty heart. The government of Ireland was in his hands, but enemies at court plotted his overthrow. He in turn plotted against these foes and rashly attempted to cause their removal. He was arrested and arraigned in Westminster Hall for high treason, pronounced guilty, and doomed to the block. Elizabeth had a terrific struggle between revenge and affection, but the baser passion got the victory, and the accomplished general, statesman, and courtier trod the same hard road to death that so many knew full well. “I have reached the highest point of all my greatness! And from that full meridian of my glory, I haste now to my setting: I shall fall Like a bright exhalation in the evening, And no man see me more.” The towers of the outer ward are comparatively of but little interest, with the exception of St. Thomas’s Tower or the Traitor’s Gate. This is a large, square building over the moat, the outside of which is guarded by two circular towers, which exhibit specimens of the architecture of the time of Henry III. The gate through which state prisoners entered the Tower is underneath this building. The rain was falling drearily on the day we visited the Tower. Somber and heavy skies looked sullenly down on the gloomy scene. Thoughts as somber and heavy weighed down our minds as we stood before the Traitor’s Gate; thoughts of countless numbers that had gone in at that gate never to come forth again. In the clang of those iron portals behind them they heard their death knell. The royal, the noble, the illustrious, the pious passed under these frowning battlements, leaving behind grandeur, brilliancy of courts, dreams of glory, home, friends, all that makes life sweet, to receive in exchange, the dungeon, the scaffold, the block, the axe. They who entered there left hope indeed behind.