that of a prison than a palace. The reigning King
had even increased this effect; for, desirous that the additions which he
himself had made to the fortifications should be of a character not easily
distinguished from the original building (for, like many jealous persons, he
loved not that his suspicions should be observed), the darkest-coloured brick
and freestone were employed, and soot mingled with the lime, so as to give the
whole Castle the same uniform tinge of extreme and rude antiquity.
    This formidable place had but one entrance, at least Durward saw none along
the spacious front, except where, in the centre of the first and outward
boundary, arose two strong towers, the usual defences of a gateway; and he could
observe their ordinary accompaniments, portcullis and drawbridge - of which the
first was lowered, and the last raised. Similar entrance-towers were visible on
the second and third bounding wall, but not in the same line with those on the
outward circuit; because the passage did not cut right through the whole three
enclosures at the same point, but, on the contrary, those who entered had to
proceed nearly thirty yards betwixt the first and second wall, exposed, if their
purpose were hostile, to missiles from both; and again, when the second boundary
was passed, they must make a similar digression from the straight line, in order
to attain the portal of the third and innermost enclosure; so that, before
gaining the outer court, which ran along the front of the building, two narrow
and dangerous defiles were to be traversed under a flanking discharge of
artillery, and three gates, defended in the strongest manner known to the age,
were to be successively forced.
    Coming from a country alike desolated by foreign war and internal feuds, - a
country, too, whose unequal and mountainous surface, abounding in precipices and
torrents, affords so many situations of strength, - young Durward was
sufficiently acquainted with all the various contrivances by which men, in that
stern age, endeavoured to secure their dwellings; but he frankly owned to his
companion that he did not think it had been in the power of art to do so much
for defence, where nature had done so little; for the situation, as we have
hinted, was merely the summit of a gentle elevation ascending upwards from the
place where they were standing.
    To enhance his surprise, his companion told him that the environs of the
Castle, except the single winding-path by which the portal might be safely
approached, were, like the thickets through which they had passed, surrounded
with every