game at marbles in the centre; and a girl,
without shoes or stockings, and who had lost
her front teeth (better off than the fortification,
which seemed to have lost all the teeth
it ever had), was standing by, with a vacant
look, trying to be interested in the game.
I crossed over to the other side, and gazing
down into the moat, I saw several extremely
thin sheep, whose wool was of that sort of dull
neutral tint that leaves one in some doubt as
to whether the sheep was originally a white
sheep smutted, or a black sheep faded. The
creatures had been wandering about to try and
find a few blades of grass worth cropping, and
had evidently failed, and arrived at a half-
patient, half-stupefied stand-still. As my face
looked over into the moat below, the face of one
of the sheep looked up at me, interrogatively;
then another sheep looked up in my face;
then they all five looked up; then one of
them said " baa! "—then I withdrew. I had
nothing to give them but sympathy, and they
could not eat that.

Now, I was not aware whether this great
fortress had the reputation of a " fine old
ruin," such as travellers are directed to go
and see in different parts of North and South
Wales, or in many parts of England and
Scotland; but such I imagined it, till I heard
some of the passers-by remark, " What a
strong place! " Could I have been so much
mistaken, and was it really considered a place
of strength ? If so, I took it for granted that
the condition of affairs outside was merely a
temporary matter, involving some repairs of
drains, sewers, gas-pipes, new paving, and so
forth; perhaps the repair or construction of
tunnels, secret passages, and other underground
work of elaborate fortification. I passed
over the bridge, therefore, and through the
entrance-gate. Looking up at the iron-cased
spikes of the portcullis, I saw that they were
so rusty and rotten, that, if the gate had been
suddenly lowered, they would have shattered
themselves in a shower of old touchwood and
dust. Still, I made no doubt that within
I should find everything in high order, and
fully justifying, by its tremendous batteries
of guns, admirable arrangements for their
service, and all other means and appliances
of war, that this " Tower of Strength " was
prepared to maintain its historical fame and
present reputation.

I passed through stone court-yards and
ways, and up stone steps, and found myself
wandering round a kind of circuitous, narrow
street, very squalid and deserted, having a
line of small houses on one side, with dirty
windows, some of them broken, and with
locked doors, appearing as if seldom opened,
and having the words written upon them,
"Artillery Officers' Quarters." If an Artillery
officer's cat resided there, it is more than I
should have expected. On the other side arose
high walls, of different kinds, which at times
I thought might form some portion or wing
of the great castle within; others, I took to
be the walls of some dilapidated house of old
stores and refuse, while now and then was
presented the remains of a house or building
that had fallen in ruins a long time since,
and sometimes leaving a gap, with a mass of
rubbish heaped up below—all evidently of
long standing, and no signs visible of any
intention either of repairing the structure, or
clearing away the wreck. Amidst one of
these mounds of rubbish, I saw a poor old
wounded wheelbarrow, lying hopelessly upon
its back, with one leg and a stump sticking
up in the air; but this was the only token of
a thought having once dawned, that it might
be as well not to leave things in this wretched
state.

Noticing, here and there, a narrow passage
between the queer-looking little houses called
"Artillery Officers' Quarters," with a narrow
flight of stone steps, I ascended them, and
presently found myself on "the lines" or
lower works of the fortress, with the back
windows (or front, whichever they should be
called) of the same houses on my right, and
the walls, with their embrasures for musketry,
on the left. At intervals, between a certain
number of these embrasures, a stone shield
was set up, something about the size and
shape of a tall tombstone, behind which two
or three men might stand with loaded
muskets, and peeping round, now and then,
take a shot at any advancing party of an
enemy who had penetrated the fortress gates,
and ascended the lines at the other end.
I walked along upon the slanting pavement
of this desolate place, feeling uncommonly
like some lonely cat in search of adventures,
till I found the passage open upon a broad
flight of stone steps; mounting which I
gained the platform of a battery, and here, for
the first time, I came upon a sentry on duty.
He inquired with a smile if I belonged to the
garrison? The word astonished me. Garrison!
What—which—where? I had never
imagined there was any garrison among these
ruins. Such was my thought, though
reduced to words, and accompanied with a smile
in return for that of the sentry, my reply
only amounted to a simple and dignified " No."
"Then," said the sentry, "you must not come
up here." As I was up there already, and
had perambulated the lines in all the
observing leisure of undisturbed solitude, this
order had rather a pleasant effect. Of course
I immediately complied. Yet I did think
the thing odd; for what was he there to
guard? Old brick rubbish and broken
windows. This was the first time I had ever
heard of a sentry being placed among ancient
ruins. They never do this in Wales.

Arrived at the bottom of the flight of
steps, I moved forwards, attracted by a large
range of building apparently new. Several
soldiers were now visible, and I soon
came to a guard-room, with a score of
soldiers loitering about in the colonnade, and
some of them being placed in marching order,