in this solitude , having just listened to so strange a story , connected , as it was , with the great and titled dead , whose monuments were moldering among the dust and ivy round us , and every incident of which bore so awfully upon my own mysterious casein this haunted spot , darkened by the towering foliage that rose on every side , dense and high above its noiseless wallsa horror began to steal over me , and my heart sank as i thought that my friends were , after all , not about to enter and disturb this triste and ominous scene .