Explore "The Scarlet Citadel" by Robert E. Howard on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The Lion strode through the Halls of Hell; / Across his path grim shadows fell / Of many a moving, nameless shape-- / Monsters with dripping jaws agape. / The darkness shuddered with scream and yell / When the Lion stalked through the halls of Hell. / -- Old Ballad
King Conan tested the ring in the wall and the chain that bound him. His limbs were free, but he knew that his shackles were beyond even his iron strength. The links of the chain were as thick as his thumb and were fastened to a band of steel about his waist, a band broad as his hand and half an inch thick. The sheer weight of his shackles would have slain a lesser man with exhaustion. The locks that held band and chain were massive affairs that a sledgehammer could hardly have dinted. As for the ring, evidently it went clear through the wall and was clinched on the other side.