ted with his
chamber, but, by passing from one to the other, I might finally discover
it. Some token, directing my footsteps, might occur, though at present
unforeseen.

Actuated by these considerations, I once more entered Thetford's
habitation. I regretted that I had not procured the counsel or
attendance of my new friend; but some engagements, the nature of which
he did not explain, occasioned him to leave me as soon as breakfast was
finished.

CHAPTER XVIII.

I wandered over this deserted mansion, in a considerable degree, at
random. Effluvia of a pestilential nature assailed me from every corner.
In the front room of the second story, I imagined that I discovered
vestiges of that catastrophe which the past night had produced. The bed
appeared as if some one had recently been dragged from it. The sheets
were tinged with yellow, and with that substance which is said to be
characteristic of this disease, the gangrenous or black vomit. The floor
exhibited similar stains.

There are many who will regard my conduct as the last refinement of
temerity, or of heroism. Nothing, indeed, more perplexes me than a
review of my own conduct. Not, indeed, that death is an object always to
be dreaded, or that my motive did not justify my actions; but of all
dangers, those allied to pestilence, by being mysterious and unseen, are
the most formidable. To disarm them of their terrors requires the
longest familiarity. Nurses and physicians soonest become intrepid or
indifferent; but the rest of mankind recoil from the scene with
unconquerable loathing.

I was sustained, not by confidence of safety, and a belief of exemption
from this malady, or by the influence of habit, which inures us to all
that is detestable or perilous, but by a belief that this was as
eligible an avenue to death as any other; and that life is a trivial
sacrifice in the cause of duty.

I passed from one room to the other. A portmanteau, marked with the
initials of Wallace's name, at length attracted my notice. From this
circumstance I inferred that this apartment had been occupied by him.
The room was neatly arranged, and appeared as if no one had lately used
it. There were trunks and drawers. That which I have mentioned was the
only one that bore marks of Wallace's ownership. This I lifted in my
arms with a view to remove it to Medlicote's house.

At that moment, methought I heard a footstep slowly and lingeringly
ascending the stair. I was disco