nor was I altogether without a strong prompting of eager
curiosity to know what precise shape and semblance these strange
creatures wore. Thus impelled, I set about examining the spot, and
seeing in what way I might be able to approach the window. The trees on
either side were too low, and the ivy which grew against the ruined wall
itself offered the only means of ascent. I was an expert climber, and
well knew that, though the ivy will often afford good and safe footing,
it will always give way beneath the grasp of the hand, and that the
stones of the wall would afford me the only security. In this wise it
was, therefore, I began the ascent, and, with slow and careful steps, I
arrived at last within a few feet of the window-sill. My impatience at
this moment overcame all my prudence, and, with an eager spring, I tried
to catch the stone. I missed it, and grasping the ivy in my despair, the
branches gave way, and, after a brief struggle, and with a loud cry of
terror, I fell backwards to the ground.

The stars seemed to flit to and fro above me; trees, mountains, and
rocks seemed to heave in mad commotion around; my brain was filled
with the wildest images of peril and suffering; and then came blank
unconsciousness.

I was sitting rather than lying on a low pallet-bed stretched
against the wall; in front of me a window curtained with a worn
horseman's cloak; and around me in the room, which was lofty and
spacious, were a few rudely fashioned articles of furniture, and two or
three utensils for cooking,--all of the very meanest kind. My arm was
bound with a bandage where I had been bled, and my great debility, and a
sense of half-incoherence in all my thoughts, told of severe illness. At
a table beneath the window, and bent over it as if writing, sat a tall,
very old man, in a coarse woollen blouse of red-brown stuff, with a cap
of the same color and material; sandals, fastened round the ankles with
leather thongs, formed the protection of his feet; these, and a belt
with a gourd for carrying water attached to it, made up his whole
costume.

His face, when he seemed to look towards me, was harshly lined and
severe; the lower jaw projected greatly, and the character of the whole
expression was cold and stern: but the head was lofty and capacious, and
indicated considerable powers of thought and reflection.

There was over me a sense of weakness so oppressive and so overwhelming
that though I saw the objects I have here