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The closed window by A. C. Benson. The Tower of Naught stood

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in a deep angle of the Downs. Formerly an old road led over the

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hill, but it is now a
green track covered with turf, the later

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highway choosing rather to cross a low
saddle of the ridge for the sake of

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the beasts of burden. The tower, originally built to guard the great road,

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was a plain, strong, thick
walled fortress. To the tower had

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been added a plain and seemly house, where the young Sir Mark de Nort

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lived very easily and plentifully. To
the south stretched the great Wood of Nought,

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but the tower stood high on an
elbow of the down, sheltered from

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the north by the great green hills. The villagers had an odd, ugly

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name for the tower, which they
called the Tower of Fear, but the

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name was falling into disuse and was
only spoken, and that heedlessly by ancient

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men, because Sir Mark was vexed
to hear it. So called Sir Mark

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was not yet thirty and had begun
to say that he must marry a wife,

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but he seemed in no great haste
to do so, and loved his

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easy, lonely life, with plenty
of hunting and walking on the down.

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With him lived his cousin and heir, Roland Elise, a heedless, good

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tempered man a few years older than
Sir Mark. He had come on a

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visit to Sir Mark when he first
took possession of the tower, and there

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had seemed no reason why he should
go away. The two suited each other.

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Sir Mark was sparing of speech,
fond of books and of rhymes.

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Roland was different, loving ease and
wine and talk, and finding in Mark

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a good listener. Mark loved his
cousin and thought it praiseworthy of him to

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stay and help to cheer. So
sequestered a house since there were few neighbors

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within reach. And yet Mark was
not wholly content with his easy life.

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There were many days when he asked
himself why he should go thus quietly on

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day by day like a stalled ox. Still there appeared no reason why he

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should do otherwise. There were but
few folk on his land, and they

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were content. Yet he sometimes envied
them their bondage and their round of daily

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duties. The only place where he
could else have been was with the army,

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or even with the court. But
Samark was no soldier, and even

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less of a courtier. He hated
tedious gaiety, and it was a time

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of peace. So because he loved
solitude and quiet, he lived at home,

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and sometimes thought himself but half a
man. Yet he was happy after

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a sort, but for a kind
of little hunger of the heart. What

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gave the tower so dark a name
was the memory of old Sir James Denought,

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Mark's grandfather, an evil and secret
man who had dwelt at nought under

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some strange shadow. He had driven
his son from his doors, and lived

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at the end of his life with
his books and his own close thoughts,

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spying upon the stars and tracing strange
figures in books. Since his death,

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the old room in a turret top, where he came by his end in

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a dreadful way, had been closed. It was entered by a turret door,

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with a flight of steps from the
chamber below. It had four windows,

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one to each of the winds,
but the window which looked upon the

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down was fastened up and secured with
a great shutter of oak. One day

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of heavy rain, Roland, being
wearied of doing nothing and vexed because Mark

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sat so still in a great chair
reading in a book, said to his

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cousin at last that he must go
and visit the old room in which he

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had never set foot. Mark closed
his book, and, smiling indulgently at

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Roland's restlessness, rose, stretching himself, and got the key, and together

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they went up the turret stairs.
The key groaned loudly in the lock,

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and when the door was thrown back, there appeared a high, faded room,

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with a timbered roof and with a
close, dull smell. Round the

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walls were presses, with the doors
fast. A large oak table with a

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chair beside it, stood in the
middle. The walls were otherwise bare and

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rough. The spiders had spun busily
over the windows and in the angles.

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Roland was full of questions, and
Mark told him all he had heard of

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old Sir James and his silent ways, but said that he knew nothing of

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the disgrace that had seemed to envelope
him, or of the reasons why he

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had so evil a name. Roland
said that he thought it a shame that

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so fair a room should lie so
nastily, and pulled one of the casements

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open, when a sharp gust broke
into the room, with so angry a

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burst of rain that he closed it
again in haste. Little by little,

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as they talked, a shadow began
to fall upon their spirits, till Roland

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declared that there was still a blight
upon the place, and Mark told him

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of the death of old Sir James, who had been found after a day

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of silence, when he had not
set foot outside his chamber, lying on

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the floor of the room strangely bedabbled
with wet and mud, as though he

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had come off a difficult journey,
speechless and with a look of anguish on

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his face, and that he had
died soon after they had found him,

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muttering words that no one understood.
Then the two young men drew near to

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the closed window. The shutters were
tightly barred, and across the panels were

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scrawled in red in an uncertain hand, the words clouded at namo apart,

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which Mark explained was the Latin for
the text he shutteth and none openeth.

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And then Mark said that the story
went that it was ill for the man

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that opened the window, and that
shut it should remain for him. But

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Roland girded at him for his want
of curiosity, and had laid a hand

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upon the bar as though to open
it. But Mark forbade him urgently,

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nay, said, he let it
remain, so we must not meddle with

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the will of the dead. And
as he said the words, there came

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so furious a gust upon the windows
that it seemed as though some stormy thing

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would beat them open. So they
left the room together, and presently descending,

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found the sun struggling through the rain. But both Mark and Roland were

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sad and silent all that day,
for though they spake not of it,

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there was desire in their minds to
open the closed window and to see what

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would befall. In Roland's mind,
it was like the desire of a child

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to peep into what is forbidden.
But in Mark's mind a sort of shame

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to be so bound by an old
and weak tale of superstition. Now it

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seemed to Mark for many days that
the visit to the turret room had brought

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a kind of shadow down between them. Roland was peevish and ill at ease,

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and ever the longing grew upon Mark
so strongly that it seemed to him

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that something drew him to the room, some beckoning of a hand or calling

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of a voice. Now, one
bright and sunshiny morning, it happened that

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Mark was left alone within the house. Roland had ridden out early, not

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saying where he was bound. And
Mark sat more listlessly than was his wont

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and played with the ears of his
great dog that sat with his head upon

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his master's knee, looking at him
with liquid eyes, and doubtless wondering why

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Mark went not abroad. Suddenly,
Sir Mark's eye fell upon the key of

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the upper room, which lay on
the window ledge where he had thrown it,

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and a desire to go up and
pluck the heart from the little mystery

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came upon him with a strength that
he could not resist. He rose twice

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and took up the key, and, fingering it doubtfully, laid it down

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again. Then suddenly he took it
up and went swiftly into the turret stair

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and up, turning, turning till
his head was dizzy with the bright peaks

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of the world through the loophole windows. Now all was green where a window

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gave on the down, and now
it was all clear air and sun,

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the warm breeze coming pleasantly into the
cold stairway. Presently Mark heard the pattering

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of feet on the stair below,
and knew that the old hound had determined

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to follow him, and he waited
a moment at the door, half pleased

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in his strange mood to have the
company of a living thing. So when

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the dog was at his side,
he stayed no longer, but opened the

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door and stepped within the room.
The room, for all its faded look,

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had a strange air about it,
and though he could not say why,

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Mark felt that he was surely expected. He did not hesitate, but

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walked to the shutter and considered it
for a moment. He heard a sound

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behind him. It was the old
hound, who sat with his head aloft,

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sniffing the air uneasily. Mark called
him and held out his hand,

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but the hound would not move.
He wagged his tail as though to acknowledge

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that he was called, and then
he returned to his uneasy quest. Mark

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watched him for a moment and saw
that the old dog had made up his

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mind that all was not well in
the room, for he lay down,

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gathering his legs under him, on
the threshold, and watched his master with

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frightened eyes, quivering visibly, Mark
no lighter of heart, and in a

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kind of fearful haste, pulled the
great staple off the shutter and set it

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on the ground, and then wrenched
the shutters back. The space revealed was

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largely filled by old and dusty webs
of spiders, which Mark lightly tore down,

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using the staple of the shutters to
do this. It was with a

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strange shock of surprise that he saw
that the window was dark, or nearly

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so. It seemed as though there
were some further obstacle outside, Yet Mark

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knew that from below the leaded panes
of the window were visible. He drew

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back for a moment, but,
unable to restrain his curiosity, wrenched the

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rusted casement open, But still all
was dark without, and there came in

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a gust of icy wind from outside. It was as though something had passed

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him swiftly, and he heard the
old hound utter a strangled howl. Then

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turning, he saw him spring to
his feet, with his hair bristling and

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his teeth bare, And next moment
the dog turned and leapt out of the

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room. Mark, left alone,
tried to curb a tide of horror that

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swept through his veins. He looked
round at the room flooded with the southerly

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sunlight, and then he turned again
to the dark window, and, putting

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a strong constraint upon himself, leaned
out and saw a thing which bewildered him

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so strangely that he thought for a
moment his senses had deserted him. He

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looked out on a lonely, dim
hillside covered with rocks and stones. The

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hill came up close to the window, so that he could have jumped down

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upon it, the wall below seeming
to be built into the rocks. It

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was all dark and silent, like
a clouded night, with a faint light

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coming from whence he could not see. The hill sloped away very steeply from

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the tower, and he seemed to
see a plain beyond, where at the

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same time he knew that the down
ought to lie in the plain. There

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was a light like the fire lit
window of a house. A little below

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him, some shape like a crouching
man, seemed to run and slip among

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the stones, as though suddenly surprised
and seeking to escape. Side by side

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with a deadly fear which began to
invade his heart, came an uncontrollable desire

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to leave down among the rocks,
And then it seemed to him that the

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figure below stood upright and began to
beckon him. There came over him a

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sense that he was in deadly peril, and like a man on the edge

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of a precipice who has just enough
will left to try to escape, he

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drew himself by main force away from
the window, closed it, put the

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shutters back, replaced the staple,
and his limbs all trembling, crept out

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of the room, feeling along the
walls like a palsied man. He locked

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the door, and then, his
terror overpowering him, he fled down the

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turret stairs, hardly thinking what he
did. He came out on the court

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and going to the great well that
stood in the center of the yard.

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He went to it and flung the
key down, hearing it clink on the

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sides as it fell. Even then
he dared not re enter the house,

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but glanced up and down, gazing
about him, while the cloud of fear

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and horror, by insensible degrees dispersed, leaving him weak and melancholy. Presently,

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Roland returned full of talk, but
broke off to ask if Mark were

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ill. Mark, with a kind
of surliness, an unusual mood for him,

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denied it somewhat sharply. Roland raised
his eyebrows and said no more,

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but prattled on presently. After a
silence, he said to Mark, what

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did you do all the morning?
And it seemed to Mark as though this

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were accompanied by a spying look.
An unreasonable anger seized him. What does

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it matter to you what I did? He said? May not I do

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what I like in my own house? Doubtless, said Roland, and sate

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silent with uplifted brows. Then he
hummed a tune and presently went out.

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They sate at dinner that evening with
long silences, contrary to their wont though

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Mark bestirred himself to ask questions.
When they were left alone, Mark stretched

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out his hand to Roland, saying, Roland, forgive me. I spoke

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to you this morning in a way
of which I am ashamed. We have

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lived so long together, and yet
we came nearer to quarreling to day than

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we have ever done before, And
it was my fault. Roland smiled and

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held Mark's hand for a moment.
Oh, I had not given it another

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thought, he said. The wonder
is that you can bear with an idle

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fellow as you do. Then they
talked for a while with the pleasant glow

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of friendliness. That two good comrades
feel when they have been reconciled. But

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late in the evening, Roland said, was there any story Mark about your

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grandfather's leaving any treasure of money behind
him? The question grated somewhat unpleasantly upon

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Mark's mood, but he controlled himself
and said, no, none that I

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know of, except that he found
the estate rich and left it poor.

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And what he did with his revenues, no one knows. You had better

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ask the old men of the village. They know more about the house than

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I do. But Roland, forgive
me once more if I say that I

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do not desire Sir James's name to
be mentioned between us. I wish we

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had not entered his room. I
do not know how to express it,

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but it seems to me as though
he had sate there, waiting quietly to

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be summoned, and as though we
had troubled him, and as though he

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had joined us. I think he
was an evil man, close and evil.

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And there hangs in my mind a
verse of Scripture where Samuel said to

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the witch, why hast thou disquieted
me to bring me up? Oh?

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He went on, I do not
know why I talk wildly thus, for

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he saw that Roland was looking at
him with astonishment with parted lips. But

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a shadow has fallen upon me,
and there seems evil abroad. From that

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day forward a heaviness lay on the
spirit of Mark that could not be scattered.

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He felt, he said to himself, as though he had meddled lightheartedly

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with something far deeper and more dangerous
than he had supposed, like a child

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that has aroused some evil beast that
slept. He had dark dreams too.

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The figure that he had seen among
the rocks seemed to peep and beckon him

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with a mocking smile over perilous places
where he followed unwilling. But the heavier

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00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:40,440
he grew, the lighter hearted Roland
became. He seemed to walk in some

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00:16:40,600 --> 00:16:45,960
bright vision of his own, intent
upon a large and gracious design. One

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00:16:47,039 --> 00:16:49,840
day he came into the hall in
the morning, looking so radiant that Mark

212
00:16:49,840 --> 00:16:55,480
cast him half enviously. What he
had to make him so glad? Glad?

213
00:16:55,720 --> 00:16:59,600
Said Roland, Oh, I know
it. Merry dreams? Perhaps,

214
00:17:00,360 --> 00:17:03,440
what do you think of a good
grave fellow who beckons me on with a

215
00:17:03,440 --> 00:17:08,519
brisk smile and shows me places wonderful
places under banks? And in woodland pits

216
00:17:08,599 --> 00:17:15,480
where riches lie piled together. I
am sure that some good fortune is preparing

217
00:17:15,559 --> 00:17:18,880
for me, Mark, but you
shall share it. Then, Mark,

218
00:17:19,359 --> 00:17:25,759
seeing in his words a certain likeness
with a difference to his own dark visions,

219
00:17:26,200 --> 00:17:32,480
pressed his lips together and sate,
looking stonily before him. At last,

220
00:17:32,880 --> 00:17:37,680
one still evening of spring, when
the air was intolerably languid and heavy

221
00:17:37,720 --> 00:17:42,160
for mankind, but full of sweet
promises for trees and hidden peeping things.

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00:17:42,400 --> 00:17:48,400
Though a lurid redness of secret thunder
had lain all day among the heavy clouds

223
00:17:48,440 --> 00:17:53,240
in the plain, the two dined
together. Mark had walked alone that day

224
00:17:53,519 --> 00:17:57,759
and had lain upon the turf of
the down, fighting against a weariness that

225
00:17:57,839 --> 00:18:03,920
seemed to be poisoning the very springs
of life within him. But Roland had

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00:18:03,920 --> 00:18:08,319
been brisk and alert, coming and
going upon some secret and busy errand with

227
00:18:08,400 --> 00:18:12,240
a fragment of a song upon his
lips, like a man preparing to set

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00:18:12,240 --> 00:18:17,880
off for a far country, who
is glad to be gone. In the

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00:18:17,960 --> 00:18:22,440
evening, after they had dined,
Roland had let his fancy rove in talk.

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00:18:22,759 --> 00:18:27,759
If we were rich, He said, how we would transform this old

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00:18:27,839 --> 00:18:33,960
place. It is fair enough for
me, said Mark heavily, and Roland

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00:18:33,960 --> 00:18:37,839
had chidden him lightly for his somber
ways, and sketched new plans of life.

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00:18:40,079 --> 00:18:45,559
Mark, wearied and yet excited,
with an intolerable heaviness of spirit,

234
00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:51,039
went early to bed, leaving Roland
in the hall. After a short and

235
00:18:51,240 --> 00:18:56,000
broken sleep, he awoke and,
lighting a candle, read idly and gloomily

236
00:18:56,279 --> 00:19:03,240
to pass the heavy hours. The
house seemed full of strange noises that night.

237
00:19:03,119 --> 00:19:07,519
Once or twice came a scraping and
a faint hammering in the wall.

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00:19:07,359 --> 00:19:12,920
Light footsteps seemed to pass in the
turret, but the tower was always full

239
00:19:12,920 --> 00:19:18,279
of noises, and Mark heeded them. Not. At last, he fell

240
00:19:18,279 --> 00:19:22,200
asleep again, to be suddenly awakened
by a strange and desolate crying that came.

241
00:19:22,400 --> 00:19:26,759
He knew not whence, but seemed
to wail upon the air. The

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00:19:26,799 --> 00:19:30,920
old dog who slept in Mark's room
heard it too, he was sitting up

243
00:19:30,960 --> 00:19:36,640
in a fearful expectancy. Mark rose
in haste, and taking the candle,

244
00:19:36,759 --> 00:19:40,839
went into the passage that led to
Rowland's room. It was empty, but

245
00:19:40,920 --> 00:19:45,319
a light burned there and showed that
the room had not been slept in full

246
00:19:45,319 --> 00:19:49,480
of a horrible fear. Mark returned
and went in hot haste up the turret

247
00:19:49,519 --> 00:19:55,119
steps, fear and anxiety struggling together
in his mind. When he reached the

248
00:19:55,160 --> 00:19:59,559
top, he found the little door
broken forcibly open and a light within.

249
00:20:00,279 --> 00:20:03,880
He cast a haggard look round the
room, and then the crying came again,

250
00:20:03,200 --> 00:20:10,240
this time very faint and desolate.
Mark cast a shuddering glance at the

251
00:20:10,240 --> 00:20:15,599
window. It was wide open and
showed a horrible liquid blackness round the bar.

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In the scenter that divided the casements, there was something knotted. He

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hastened to the window and saw that
it was a rope which hung heavily.

254
00:20:25,200 --> 00:20:29,839
Leaning out, he saw that something
dangled from the rope below him, and

255
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then came the crying again. Out
of the darkness, like the crying of

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00:20:33,640 --> 00:20:37,519
a lost spirit. He could see, as in a bitter dream, the

257
00:20:37,599 --> 00:20:41,480
outline of the hateful hillside, but
there seemed to his disordered fancy to be

258
00:20:41,519 --> 00:20:45,400
a tumult of some kind. Below. Pale lights moved about, and he

259
00:20:45,440 --> 00:20:49,000
saw a group of forms which scattered
like a shoal of fish. When he

260
00:20:49,079 --> 00:20:55,720
leaned out, he knew that he
was looking upon a scene that no mortal

261
00:20:55,839 --> 00:21:00,640
eye ought to behold, and it
seemed to him at the moment as though

262
00:21:00,759 --> 00:21:07,279
he was staring straight into hell.
The rope went down among the rocks and

263
00:21:07,480 --> 00:21:11,960
disappeared, but Mark clenched it firmly, and, using all his strength,

264
00:21:11,119 --> 00:21:15,759
which was great, drew it up
hand overhand. As he drew it up,

265
00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:19,680
he secured it in loops round the
great oak table. He began to

266
00:21:19,720 --> 00:21:23,359
be afraid that his strength would not
hold out, and once, when he

267
00:21:23,400 --> 00:21:27,720
returned to the window after securing a
loop, a great hooded thing like a

268
00:21:27,759 --> 00:21:33,839
bird flew noiselessly at the window and
beat its wings. Presently he saw that

269
00:21:33,880 --> 00:21:37,599
the form which dangled on the rope
was clear of the rocks below. It

270
00:21:37,680 --> 00:21:41,440
had come up through them as though
they were but smoke. And then his

271
00:21:41,559 --> 00:21:47,839
task seemed to him more sore than
ever. Inch by painful inch, he

272
00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:52,279
drew it up, working fiercely and
silently. His muscles were tense, and

273
00:21:52,440 --> 00:21:56,319
drops stood on his brow, and
the veins hammered in his ears. His

274
00:21:56,440 --> 00:22:02,640
breath came and went in sharp sobs. At last the form was near enough

275
00:22:02,640 --> 00:22:06,359
for him to seize it. He
grasped it by the middle and drew roland,

276
00:22:06,680 --> 00:22:11,960
for it was roland over the window
sill. His head dangled and drooped

277
00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:15,279
from side to side. His face
was dark with strangled blood, and his

278
00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:19,960
limbs hung helpless. Mark drew his
knife and cut the rope that was tied

279
00:22:21,039 --> 00:22:26,240
under his arms. The helpless limbs
sank huddling on the floor. Then Mark

280
00:22:26,319 --> 00:22:30,519
looked up at the window. A
few feet from him was a face more

281
00:22:30,599 --> 00:22:34,359
horrible than he had supposed, a
human face, if it was human,

282
00:22:34,480 --> 00:22:41,200
indeed could be. It was deadly, white and hatred, baffled, rage

283
00:22:41,480 --> 00:22:45,519
and a sort of devilish malignity glared
from the white set eyes and the drawn

284
00:22:45,640 --> 00:22:49,519
mouth. There was a rush from
behind him. The old hound, who

285
00:22:49,559 --> 00:22:55,200
had crept up unawares into the room
with a fierce outcry of rage, sprang

286
00:22:55,279 --> 00:22:57,680
on to the window sill. Mark
heard the scraping of his claws upon the

287
00:22:57,720 --> 00:23:03,599
stone. Then the hound leaped through
the window, and in a moment there

288
00:23:03,680 --> 00:23:07,240
was the sound of a heavy fall
outside. At the same instant, the

289
00:23:07,440 --> 00:23:12,440
darkness seemed to lift and draw up
like a cloud. A bank of blackness

290
00:23:12,559 --> 00:23:18,519
rose past the window and left the
dark outline of the down with a sky

291
00:23:18,920 --> 00:23:23,720
sown with tranquil stars. The cloud
of fear and horror that hung over Mark

292
00:23:23,839 --> 00:23:30,480
lifted two. He felt in some
dim way that his adversary was vanquished.

293
00:23:30,279 --> 00:23:34,519
He carried Roland down the stairs and
laid him on his bed. He roused

294
00:23:34,519 --> 00:23:38,920
the household, who looked fearfully at
him, and then his own strength failed.

295
00:23:40,559 --> 00:23:44,079
He sank upon the floor of his
room, and a dark tide of

296
00:23:44,160 --> 00:23:51,920
unconsciousness closed over him. Mark's returned
to health was slow. One who has

297
00:23:51,960 --> 00:23:56,599
looked into the unknown finds it hard
to believe again in the outward shows of

298
00:23:56,640 --> 00:24:02,119
life. His first conscious speech was
to ask for his hound. They told

299
00:24:02,200 --> 00:24:04,920
him that the body of the dog
had been found horribly mangled, as though

300
00:24:06,039 --> 00:24:08,240
by the teeth of some fierce animal, at the foot of the tower.

301
00:24:10,640 --> 00:24:12,839
The dog was buried in the garden, with a slab above him, on

302
00:24:12,839 --> 00:24:21,680
which other words luig serve bone et
fidelis. A silly priest once said to

303
00:24:21,720 --> 00:24:23,920
Mark that it was not meet to
write scripture over the grave of a beast.

304
00:24:25,640 --> 00:24:29,960
But Mark said warily that an inscription
was for those who read it to

305
00:24:30,079 --> 00:24:33,799
make them humble, and not to
increase the pride of what lay below.

306
00:24:34,640 --> 00:24:38,720
When Mark could leave his bed,
his first care was to send for builders

307
00:24:38,720 --> 00:24:44,880
and the old tower of Nought was
taken down stone by stone to the ground,

308
00:24:45,279 --> 00:24:48,160
and a fair chapel built upon the
site. In the wall there was

309
00:24:48,200 --> 00:24:52,359
a secret stairway which led from the
top chamber and came out among the elder

310
00:24:52,359 --> 00:24:56,440
bushes that grew below the tower.
And here was found a coffer of gold,

311
00:24:56,720 --> 00:25:00,400
which paid for the church, because
until it was found, it was

312
00:25:00,440 --> 00:25:07,279
Mark's design to leave the place desolate. Mark is wedded since and has his

313
00:25:07,400 --> 00:25:11,559
children about his knee. Those who
come to the house see a strange and

314
00:25:11,720 --> 00:25:15,839
wan man who sits at Mark's board, and whom he uses very tenderly.

315
00:25:17,920 --> 00:25:22,079
Sometimes this man is merry and tells
a long tale of his being beckoned and

316
00:25:22,200 --> 00:25:26,400
led by a tall and handsome person
smiling down a hillside to fetch gold.

317
00:25:27,079 --> 00:25:32,720
Though he can never remember the end
of the matter, but about the springtime

318
00:25:32,960 --> 00:25:37,880
he is silent, or mutters to
himself, and this is Roland. His

319
00:25:37,039 --> 00:25:41,640
spirit seems shut up within him in
some close cell, and Mark praise for

320
00:25:41,720 --> 00:25:47,160
his release, but till God call
him. He treats him like a dear

321
00:25:47,279 --> 00:25:52,000
brother, and with the reverence due
to one who has looked out on the

322
00:25:52,119 --> 00:25:57,480
other side of death, and who
may not say what his eyes beheld.

323
00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:06,279
End of the closed Window recording by
raf Ball