nd alone
and at a distance from her habitation (considerable, if her infirmities
be taken into account), combined to impress him with a feeling of wonder
approaching to fear. As he approached, she arose slowly from her seat,
held her shrivelled hand up as if to prevent his coming more near,
and her withered lips moved fast, although no sound issued from them.
Ravenswood stopped; and as, after a moment's pause, he again advanced
towards her, Alice, or her apparition, moved or glided backwards towards
the thicket, still keeping her face turned towards him. The trees soon
hid the form from his sight; and, yielding to the strong and terrific
impression that the being which he had seen was not of this world, the
Master of Ravenswood remained rooted to the ground whereon he had
stood when he caught his last view of her. At length, summoning up his
courage, he advanced to the spot on which the figure had seemed to
be seated; but neither was there pressure of the grass nor any other
circumstance to induce him to believe that what he had seen was real and
substantial.

Full of those strange thoughts and confused apprehensions which awake
in the bosom of one who conceives he has witnessed some preternatural
appearance, the Master of Ravenswood walked back towards his horse,
frequently, however, looking behind him, not without apprehension, as if
expecting that the vision would reappear. But the apparition, whether
it was real or whether it was the creation of a heated and agitated
imagination, returned not again; and he found his horse sweating and
terrified, as if experiencing that agony of fear with which the presence
of a supernatural being is supposed to agitate the brute creation. The
Master mounted, and rode slowly forward, soothing his steed from time
to time, while the animal seemed internally to shrink and shudder, as
if expecting some new object of fear at the opening of every glade.
The rider, after a moment's consideration, resolved to investigate the
matter further. "Can my eyes have deceived me," he said, "and deceived
me for such a space of time? Or are this woman's infirmities but
feigned, in order to excite compassion? And even then, her motion
resembled not that of a living and existing person. Must I adopt the
popular creed, and think that the unhappy being has formed a league with
the powers of darkness? I am determined to be resolved; I will not brook
imposition even from my own eyes."

In this uncertainty