To the west was a great valley, and then, rising far away, great jagged mountains, rising peak on peak, sheer rock, with mountain ash growing there, whose roots clung in cracks and crevices in the stone. This was evidently the portion of the castle occupied by the ladies in bygone days, for the furniture had more an air of comfort than any I had seen.

The windows were curtainless, and the yellow moonlight, flooding in through the diamond panes, enabled one to see even colours, whilst it softened the wealth of dust which lay over all and disguised in some measure the ravages of time and moth. My lamp seemed to be of little effect in the brilliant moonlight, but I was glad to have it with me, for there was a dread loneliness in the place which chilled my heart and made my nerves tremble. Still, it was better than living alone in the rooms which I had come to hate from the presence of the Count, and after trying a little to school my nerves, I found a soft quietude come over me.

Here I am, sitting at a little oak table where in old times possibly some fair lady sat to pen, with much thought and many blushes, her ill-spelt love letter, and writing in my diary in shorthand all that has happened since I closed it last. It is the nineteenth century up-to-date with a vengeance. And yet, unless my senses deceive me, the old centuries had, and have, powers of their own which mere "modernity" cannot kill.

Vocabulary:

Jagged: Sharp and broken
Ash: A type of tree
Crevices: Deep narrow cracks
Bygone: In times past
Ravages: Damage done by an attack
Dread: Fear and worry
School: Hereit means 'teach, control'
Quietude: Peace
With a vengeance: Very much so
Mere: Only, simple