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However, although he had not left his life in the fontis, he seemed to have left his strength behind him there. That supreme effort had exhausted him. His lassitude was now such that he was obliged to pause for breath every three or four steps, and lean against the wall.
A fold in a flooring of this sort means a crack, means crumbling. The framework crumbled away for a certain length. This crevice, the hiatus of a gulf of mire, was called a fontis, in the special tongue. What is a fontis? It is the quicksands of the seashore suddenly encountered under the surface of the earth; it is the beach of Mont Saint-Michel in a sewer.
There are shadows enough for hell, and mire enough to render it nothing but a slough, and the dying man knows not whether he is on the point of becoming a spectre or a frog. Everywhere else the sepulchre is sinister; here it is deformed. The depth of the fontis varied, as well as their length and their density, according to the more or less bad quality of the sub-soil.
The tympanum bears in relief the curious device of some winged creatures devouring a tree. Above is a roundheaded niche containing the figure of our Lord, with hand uplifted in blessing. Tub-shaped Norm. font, bearing inscription, Hoc fontis sacro pereunt delicta lavacro, and another legend undecipherable. E.E. arch opening into chantry chapel, and large piscina within.
The circumstance was recorded by the following inscription: "Petrus Alexowitz, Czar Moscoviæ, magnus dux, margini hujus fontis insidiens, illius aquam nobilitavit libato vino hora post meridiam tertia, die 16 Aprilis, 1717."
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