There were double gates also, and by them guard-towers.

Moreover, I see a little yard, with posts in it, where prisoners were scourged, and a small and horrible room, furnished with a kind of wooden bed, to which they were bound for the punishment of the putting out of their eyes and the slitting of their tongues.
In front of this room was a block where those condemned to death were sometimes executed.
There were many prisoners, not common felons, but people who had been taken for reasons of State or sometimes of religion.

Perhaps in all they numbered a hundred men, and with them a few women, who had a quarter to themselves.

Besides the jailers, three-score guards were stationed there night and day, and of all of these I was in command.
Before I had held my office three days I found that Irene had appointed me to it with good reason.

It happened thus.