of distant-thunder (the
noise of the more distant waves, doubtless, on the shore) mingled
with the roaring of the neighbouring torrent, and with the crashing,
groaning, and even screaming of the trees in the glen whose boughs were
tormented by the gale. Within the house, windows clattered, and doors
clapped, and the walls, though sufficiently substantial for a building
of the kind, seemed to me to totter in the tempest.

But still the heavy steps perambulating the apartment over my head were
distinctly heard amid the roar and fury of the elements. I thought more
than once I even heard a groan; but I frankly own that, placed in this
unusual situation, my fancy may have misled me. I was tempted several
times to call aloud, and ask whether the turmoil around us did not
threaten danger to the building which we inhabited; but when I thought
of the secluded and unsocial master of the dwelling, who seemed to avoid
human society, and to remain unperturbed amid the elemental war, it
seemed that to speak to him at that moment would have been to address
the spirit of the tempest himself, since no other being, I thought,
could have remained calm and tranquil while winds and waters were thus
raging around.

In process of time, fatigue prevailed over anxiety and curiosity. The
storm abated, or my senses became deadened to its terrors, and I fell
asleep ere yet the mysterious paces of my host had ceased to shake the
flooring over my head.

It might have been expected that the novelty of my situation, although
it did not prevent my slumbers, would have at least diminished their
profoundness, and shortened their duration. It proved otherwise,
however; for I never slept more soundly in my life, and only awoke when,
at morning dawn, my landlord shook me by the shoulder, and dispelled
some dream, of which, fortunately for you, I have no recollection,
otherwise you would have been favoured with it, in hopes you might have
proved a second Daniel upon the occasion.

'You sleep sound--' said his full deep voice; 'ere five years have
rolled over your head, your slumbers will be lighter--unless ere then
you are wrapped in the sleep which is never broken.'

'How!' said I, starting up in the bed; 'do you know anything of me--of
my prospects--of my views in life?'

'Nothing,' he answered, with a grim smile; 'but it is evident you are
entering upon the world young, inexperienced, and full of hopes, and I
do but prophesy to you what I would to