Page:Edgar Huntly, or The Sleep Walker.djvu/190

 it among the bushes, I reached the bubbling source: though scanty and brackish, it afforded me unspeakable refreshment.

Thou wilt think, perhaps, that my perils were now at an end—that the blood I had already shed was sufficient for my safety: I fervently hoped that no new exigence would occur, compelling me to use the arms that I bore in my own defence; I formed a sort of resolution to shun the contest with a new enemy, almost at the expense of my own life; I was satiated and gorged with slaughter, and thought upon a new act of destruction with abhorrence and loathing.

But though I dreaded to encounter a new enemy, I was sensible that an enemy might possibly be at hand. I had moved forward with caution, and my sight and hearing were attentive to the slightest tokens. Other troops, besides that which I encountered, might be hovering near, and of that troop I remembered that one at least had survived.

The gratification which the spring had afforded me was so great, that I was in no haste to depart. I lay upon a rock, which chanced to be shaded by a tree behind me: from this post I could overlook the road to some distance, and at the same time be shaded from the observation of others.

My eye was now caught by movements which appeared like those of a beast: in different circumstances I should have instantly supposed it to be a wolf, or panther, or bear; now my suspicions were alive on a different account, and my startled fancy figured to itself nothing but a human adversary.

A thicket was on either side of the road: that opposite to my station was discontinued at a small distance by the cultivated field; the road continued along this field, bounded by the thicket on the one side, and the open space on the other: to this space the being, who was now descried, was cautiously approaching.

He moved upon all fours, and presently came near enough to be distinguished. His disfigured limbs, pendants from his ears and nose, and his shorn locks, were indubitable