In front of this niche was placed a massive chair of chestnut wood.

I noticed also that two other such coffin-shaped niches had been cut in this same wall, and filled in with similar blocks of whitish stone.

On the face of each was a date graved in deep letters.

One had been sealed up some thirty years before, and one hard upon a hundred.
These two men were the only occupants of the vault when we entered it, but presently a sound of soft and solemn singing stole down the second passage.

Then the door was opened, the mason monks ceased labouring at the heap of lime, and the sound of singing grew louder so that I could catch the refrain.