The door was equipped with a small peephole. Peering out through it, Nell 
could see that the soldier did not have a key as such. Instead, he took a short 
length of chain, about as long as his arm, from a peg near the door and fed it 
into the giant lock. Then he began to turn the crank. The clockwork clicked, 
the chain clanked, and eventually the bolt shot out and engaged the jamb, 
locking Princess Nell into the dungeon. Immediately the chain crashed out of 
the lock and landed on the floor. The soldier picked it up and hung it back on 
the wall. Then he clanked away and did not come back until several hours later, 
when he brought her some bread and water, shoving it through a little hatch in 
the middle of the door, just above the mechanical lock.