a poor innocent
bird--a companion and watcher of the dead, and therefore its voice is
full of sorrowful lamentation--but it is harmless," and I crept on with
increased caution. Suddenly out of the dense darkness there stared two
large yellow eyes, glittering with fiendish hunger and cruelty. For a
moment I was startled, and stepped back; the creature flew at me with
the ferocity of a tiger-cat! I fought with the horrible thing in all
directions; it wheeled round my head, it pounced toward my face, it
beat me with its large wings--wings that I could feel but not see; the
yellow eyes alone shone in the thick gloom like the eyes of some
vindictive demon! I struck at it right and left--the revolting combat
lasted some moments--I grew sick and dizzy, yet I battled on
recklessly. At last, thank Heaven! the huge owl was vanquished; it
fluttered backward and downward, apparently exhausted, giving one wild
screech of baffled fury, as its lamp-like eyes disappeared in the
darkness. Breathless, but not subdued--every nerve in my body quivering
with excitement--I pursued my way, as I thought, toward the stone
staircase feeling the air with my outstretched hands as I groped along.
In a little while I met with an obstruction--it was hard and cold--a
stone wall, surely? I felt it up and down and found a hollow in it--was
this the first step of the stair? I wondered; it seemed very high. I
touched it cautiously--suddenly I came in contact with something soft
and clammy to the touch like moss or wet velvet. Fingering this with a
kind of repulsion, I soon traced out the oblong shape of a coffin
Curiously enough, I was not affected much by the discovery. I found
myself monotonously counting the bits of raised metal which served, as
I judged, for its ornamentation. Eight bits lengthwise--and the soft
wet stuff between--four bits across; then a pang shot through me, and I
drew my hand away quickly, as I considered--WHOSE coffin was this? My
father's? Or was I thus plucking, like a man in delirium, at the
fragments of velvet on that cumbrous oaken casket wherein lay the
sacred ashes of my mother's perished beauty? I roused myself from the
apathy into which I had fallen. All the pains I had taken to find my
way through the vault were wasted; I was lost in the profound gloom,
and knew not where to turn. The horror of my situation presented itself
to me with redoubled force. I began to be tormented with thirst. I fell
on my knees and groaned alo