Then arose the question: "What was the import of this dream, the
effects of which I still felt through all my trembling frame, in the
violent throbbing of my heart, and the ghastly cessation of every
emotion save that of horror?"

Then I began to ponder, as I had done a thousand times before, over the
mysterious nature of dreams, the manner in which they had been employed
by the Almighty to communicate important truths to mankind, until I
came to the conclusion that dreams were revelations from the spirit
land, to warn us of dangers which threatened, or to punish us for
crimes committed in the flesh.

"What are the visions which haunt the murderer's bed," I thought, "but
phantoms of the past recalled by memory and conscience, and invested
with an actual presence in sleep?"

Dr. Young, that melancholy dreamer of sublime dreams, has said--

"If dreams infest the grave,
I wake emerging from a sea of dreams."

What a terrible idea of future punishment is contained in these words
to one, whose sleep like mine is haunted by unutterable terrors! Think
of an eternity of dreaming horrors. A hell condensed within the narrow
resting-place of the grave.

My reveries were abruptly dispelled by the sound of steps along the
passage which led to my chamber. My heart began to beat audibly. It was
the dead hour of the night--who could be waking at such an unusual
time? I sat up in the bed and listened.

I heard voices: two persons were talking in a loud tone in the passage,
that was certain. For a long time, I could not distinguish one word
from another, until my own name was suddenly pronounced in a louder
key; and in a voice which seemed perfectly familiar to my ears.

The garret in which I slept, was a long, low, dingy apartment which
formed a sort of repository for all the worn-out law books and waste
papers belonging to the office, and as I have before stated the only
furniture it possessed, was a mean truckle-bed on which I slept, and a
large iron chest, which Mr. Moncton had informed me, contained
title-deeds and other valuable papers, of which he himself kept the
key.

They were kept in my apartment for better security; as the stair which
led to the flat roof of the house opened into that chamber, and in case
of fire, the chest and its contents could be easily removed.

For a wonder, I had never felt the least curiosity about the chest and
its contents.

It stood in the old place, the day I first entered