This spacious chamber, cheered by a warm hearth fire and furnished sparsely with a long varnished table and a few chairs and benches, was filled with stacks of ancient volumes and rolls of parchment scrolls, which crowded the walls and rose high into the shadows of the raftered ceiling. From the hall, a flight of stone steps led to a rooftop, from which one could see beyond the walls of the fortress and down into the valley below.