It is only the crest of the outer rampart.

Immediately within this a chasm gapes; its bottom is imperceptible, but the counterscarp slopes not too steeply to admit of a sliding descent if cautiously performed.

The shady bottom, dank and chilly, is thus gained, and reveals itself as a kind of winding lane, wide enough for a waggon to pass along, floored with rank herbage, and trending away, right and left, into obscurity, between the concentric walls of earth.

The towering closeness of these on each hand, their impenetrability, and their ponderousness, are felt as a physical pressure.

The way is now up the second of them, which stands steeper and higher than the first.