The Helmet of Mambrino 



still standing, served to suggest that 

 the ruinous inclosure was to be re- 

 spected as private ground. 



My grave companion alighted from 

 his horse, folded his cloak, which till 

 now he had worn against the morn- 

 ing cold, laid it carefully across his 

 saddle, and knocked very gently ; 

 then after a pause, as if to give 

 misery a time to compose its rags, 

 he drew aside the curtain an inch or 

 so, and after peering around the in- 

 closed yard, turned to me with a 

 mysterious smile, laid his finger on 

 his lips, and beckoned to me to look 

 where he pointed. 



I saw a large, square, walled in- 

 closure bounded on the right by a 

 one-story house, with a waving, sag- 

 ging, collapsing roof of red tiles. The 

 left or eastern wall, which rose to a 

 height of twenty feet or so, was 

 pierced by two doorways and sev- 

 eral second -story window - openings. 



