Having proceeded thus far, it would have been absurd to
retire with my purpose uneffected. Taking the candle in my hand, I
opened a door that was near. It led into a spacious parlour, furnished
with profusion and splendour. I walked to and fro, gazing at the objects
which presented themselves; and, involved in perplexity, I knocked with
my heel louder than ever; but no less ineffectually.

Notwithstanding the lights which I had seen, it was possible that the
house was uninhabited. This I was resolved to ascertain, by proceeding
to the chamber which I had observed, from without, to be illuminated.
This chamber, as far as the comparison of circumstances would permit me
to decide, I believed to be the same in which I had passed the first
night of my late abode in the city. Now was I, a second time, in almost
equal ignorance of my situation, and of the consequences which impended,
exploring my way to the same recess.

I mounted the stair. As I approached the door of which I was in search,
a vapour, infectious and deadly, assailed my senses. It resembled
nothing of which I had ever before been sensible. Many odours had been
met with, even since my arrival in the city, less supportable than this.
I seemed not so much to smell as to taste the element that now
encompassed me. I felt as if I had inhaled a poisonous and subtle fluid,
whose power instantly bereft my stomach of all vigour. Some fatal
influence appeared to seize upon my vitals, and the work of corrosion
and decomposition to be busily begun.

For a moment, I doubted whether imagination had not some share in
producing my sensation; but I had not been previously panic-struck; and
even now I attended to my own sensations without mental discomposure.
That I had imbibed this disease was not to be questioned. So far the
chances in my favour were annihilated. The lot of sickness was drawn.

Whether my case would be lenient or malignant, whether I should recover
or perish, was to be left to the decision of the future. This incident,
instead of appalling me, tended rather to invigorate my courage. The
danger which I feared had come. I might enter with indifference on this
theatre of pestilence. I might execute, without faltering, the duties
that my circumstances might create. My state was no longer hazardous;
and my destiny would be totally uninfluenced by my future conduct.

The pang with which I was first seized, and the momentary inclination to
vomit, which it produced