The Tower of London: A Historical Romance, IllustratedAinsworth, William Harrison
General
The Tower of London: A Historical Romance, Illustrated
Ainsworth, William Harrison
Grey, Jane, Lady, 1537-1554 -- Fiction; London (England) -- Fiction; Tower of London (London, England) -- Fiction
Cholmondeley then seized a torch, and fastening the door of the chamber,
on the outside of which a guard was stationed, assisted Jane through
the masked door. Preceded by the old woman, who carried a lamp, they
threaded a long narrow passage built in the thickness of the wall, and
presently arrived at the head of a flight of stairs, which brought them
to a long corridor arched and paved with stone. Traversing this, they
struck into an avenue on the right, exactly resembling one of those
which Cholmondeley had recently explored. Jane expressed her surprise
at the vast extent of the passages she was threading, when Gunnora
answered—“The whole of the Tower is undermined with secret passages and
dungeons, but their existence is known only to few.’”
A few minutes’ rapid walking brought them to a stone staircase, which
they mounted, traversed another gallery, and finally halted before a low
gothic-arched door, which admitted them to the interior of the Bowyer
Tower. Requesting Cholmondeley to assist her, Gunnora, with his help,
speedily raised a trap-door of stone, and disclosed a flight of steps.
While they were thus employed, a strange and unaccountable terror took
possession of Jane. As she glanced timidly towards the doorway she had
just quitted, she imagined she saw a figure watching her, and in the
gloom almost fancied it was the same muffled object she had beheld in
St. John’s Chapel. A superstitious terror kept her silent. As she
looked more narrowly at the figure, she thought it bore an axe upon
its shoulder, and she was about to point it out to her companions, when
making a gesture of silence it disappeared. By this time the trap-door
being raised, Cholmondeley descended the steps with the torch, while
Gunnora holding back the flag, begged her to descend. But Jane did not
move.
0146
“Do not lose time,” cried the old woman, “we may be followed, and
retaken.”
Still Jane hesitated. She cast another look towards the doorway, and
the idea crossed her, that from that very outlet she should be led to
execution. A deadly chill pervaded her frame,-and her feet seemed nailed
to the ground. Seeing her irresolution, Cicely threw herself on her
knees before her, and implored her to make an effort. Jane advanced a
step, and then paused. After remaining a moment in deep abstraction, she
turned to Cicely, and said,—.
“Child, I thank you for your zeal, but I feel it is useless. Though I
may escape from the Tower, I cannot escape my fate.” Cicely, however,
renewed her entreaties, and seconded by Chomondeley she at length
prevailed. Pursuing the same course which Gunnora had taken on the night
she was brought to the Tower by Simon Renard, they at length arrived at
the shed at the further side of the moat.
“You are now safe,” said Gunnora. “Hasten to Sion House, and if my plan
does not fail, your husband shall join you there before many hours have
passed.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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