Page:Edgar Huntly, or The Sleep Walker.djvu/106

 However this affected me but little in comparison with other incidents: not only the countenance was human, but in spite of shaggy and tangled locks, and an air of melancholy wildness, I speedily recognised the features of the fugitive Clithero!

One glance was not sufficient to make me acquainted with this scene: I had come hither partly in pursuit of this man; but some casual appendage of his person, something which should indicate his past rather than his present existence, was all that I hoped to find: that he should be found alive in this desert—that he should have gained this summit, access to which was apparently impossible, were scarcely within the boundaries of belief.

His scanty and coarse garb had been nearly rent away by brambles and thorns; his arms, bosom, and cheek were overgrown and half concealed by hair: there was somewhat in his attitude and looks denoting more than anarchy of thoughts and passions; his rueful, ghastly, and imm0vable eyes testified not only that his mind was ravaged by despair, but that he was pinched with famine.

These proofs of his misery thrilled to my inmost heart; horror and shuddering invaded me as I stood gazing upon him, and for a time I was without the power of deliberating on the measures which it was my duty to adopt for his relief. The first suggestion was, by calling, to inform him of my presence: I knew not what counsel or comfort to offer; by what words to bespeak his attention, or by what topics to mollify his direful passions, I knew not; though so near, the gulf by which we were separated was impassable:—all that I could do was to speak.

My surprise and my horror were still strong enough to give a shrill and piercing tone to my voice. The chasm and the rocks loudened and reverberated my accents while I exclaimed—"Man!—Clithero!"

My summons was effectual. He shook off his trance in a moment: he had been stretched upon his back, with his eyes fixed upon a craggy projecture above, as if he were in momentary expectation of its fall and crushing him to atoms; now he started on his feet. He was conscious of the voice, but not of the quarter whence it came: he was looking