interview was
purchased. Reputation and life might be wrested from me by another, but
my rectitude and honor were in my own keeping, and were safe.

I proceeded to the foot of the stairs. At such a crisis my thoughts
may be supposed at no liberty to range; yet vague images rushed into my
mind, of the mysterious interposition which had been experienced on the
last night. My case, at present, was not dissimilar; and, if my angel
were not weary of fruitless exertions to save, might not a new warning
be expected? Who could say whether his silence were ascribable to the
absence of danger, or to his own absence?

In this state of mind, no wonder that a shivering cold crept through
my veins; that my pause was prolonged; and, that a fearful glance was
thrown backward.

Alas! my heart droops, and my fingers are enervated; my ideas are
vivid, but my language is faint: now know I what it is to entertain
incommunicable sentiments. The chain of subsequent incidents is drawn
through my mind, and being linked with those which forewent, by turns
rouse up agonies and sink me into hopelessness.

Yet I will persist to the end. My narrative may be invaded by inaccuracy
and confusion; but if I live no longer, I will, at least, live to
complete it. What but ambiguities, abruptnesses, and dark transitions,
can be expected from the historian who is, at the same time, the
sufferer of these disasters?

I have said that I cast a look behind. Some object was expected to be
seen, or why should I have gazed in that direction? Two senses were at
once assailed. The same piercing exclamation of HOLD! HOLD! was uttered
within the same distance of my ear. This it was that I heard. The airy
undulation, and the shock given to my nerves, were real. Whether the
spectacle which I beheld existed in my fancy or without, might be
doubted. I had not closed the door of the apartment I had just left. The
stair-case, at the foot of which I stood, was eight or ten feet from
the door, and attached to the wall through which the door led. My view,
therefore, was sidelong, and took in no part of the room.

Through this aperture was an head thrust and drawn back with so much
swiftness, that the immediate conviction was, that thus much of a form,
ordinarily invisible, had been unshrowded. The face was turned towards
me. Every muscle was tense; the forehead and brows were drawn into
vehement expression; the lips were stretched as in the act of shrieking,
and the eyes