Page:Edgar Huntly, or The Sleep Walker.djvu/222

 But did not he say that one had escaped? The only females in the family were my sisters: one of these had been reserved for a fate worse than death—to gratify the innate and insatiable cruelty of savages, by suffering all the torments their invention can suggest, or to linger out years of dreary bondage and unintermitted hardship in the bosom of the wilderness: to restore her to liberty, to cherish this last survivor of my unfortunate race, was a sufficient motive to life and to activity.

But soft! Had not rumour whispered that the captive was retaken? Oh! who was her angel of deliverance? Where did she now abide? Weeping over the untimely fall of her protector and her friend—lamenting and upbraiding the absence of her brother? Why should I not haste to find her—to mingle my tears with hers, to assure her of my safety, and expiate the involuntary crime of my desertion, by devoting all futurity to the task of her consolation and improvement?

The path was open and direct. My new motives would have trampled upon every impediment, and made me reckless of all dangers and all toils. I broke from my reverie; and without taking leave, or expressing gratitude to my informant, I ran with frantic expedition towards the river, and plunging into it, gained the opposite side in a moment.

I was sufficiently acquainted with the road: some twelve or fifteen miles remained to be traversed. I did not fear that my strength would fail in the performance of my journey: it was not my uncle's habitation to which I directed my steps. Inglefield was my friend; if my sister had existence, or was snatched from captivity, it was here that an asylum had been afforded to her, and here was I to seek the knowledge of my destiny: for this reason, having reached a spot where the road divided into two branches, one of which led to Inglefield's and the other to Huntly's, I struck into the former.

Scarcely had I passed the angle, when I noticed a building on the right hand, at some distance from the road. In the present state of my thoughts it would not have attracted my attention, had not a light gleamed from an upper window, and told me that all within were not at rest.