She remembered that one of these pines, dislodged from its high foundations, had once dropped like a portcullis in the archway, blocking the pass, and was only carried afterwards by assault of steel and fire.

Bending her head mechanically, she ran swiftly through the shadowy passage, and halted only at the beginning of the ascent on the other side.
It was here that the actual position of the plateau, so indefinite of approach, began to be realized.

It now appeared an independent elevation, surrounded on three sides by gorges and watercourses, so narrow as to be overlooked from the principal mountain range, with which it was connected by a long canyon that led to the ridge.

At the outlet of this canyon--in bygone ages a mighty river--it had the appearance of having been slowly raised by the diluvium of that river, and the debris washed down from above--a suggestion repeated in miniature by the artificial plateaus of excavated soil raised before the mouths of mining tunnels in the lower flanks of the mountain.

It was the realization of a fact--often forgotten by the dwellers in Eagle's Court--that the valley below them, which was their connecting link with the surrounding world, was only reached by ascending the mountain, and the nearest road was over the higher mountain ridge.