It was most pitiably forlorn of aspect, with a brick-paved floor, bare holes through the massive walls, grated with iron, instead of windows, and for furniture an old stool, which increased the dreariness of the place tenfold, by suggesting an idea of its having once been tenanted.
"This was a prisoner's cell in the old days," said Donatello; "the white-bearded necromancer, of whom I told you, found out that a certain famous monk was confined here, about five hundred years ago.

He was a very holy man, and was afterwards burned at the stake in the Grand-ducal Square at Firenze.

There have always been stories, Tomaso says, of a hooded monk creeping up and down these stairs, or standing in the doorway of this chamber.

It must needs be the ghost of the ancient prisoner.

Do you believe in ghosts ?" "I can hardly tell," replied Kenyon; "on the whole, I think not." "Neither do I," responded the Count; "for, if spirits ever come back, I should surely have met one within these two months past.