Page:Edgar Huntly, or The Sleep Walker.djvu/267

 his scheme; and what more would be requisite for that end than to inform him of the truth?

The source of his dejection was the groundless belief that he had occasioned the death of his benefactress: it was this alone that could justly produce remorse or grief. It was a distempered imagination, both in him and in me, that had given birth to this opinion; since the terms of his narrative, impartially considered, were far from implying that catastrophe: to him, however, the evidence which he possessed was incontestible. No deductions from probability could overthrow his belief; this could only be effected by similar and counter evidence. To apprize him that she was now alive, in possession of some degree of happiness, the wife of Sarsefield, and an actual resident on this shore, would dissipate the sanguinary apparition that haunted him, cure his diseased intellects, and restore him to those vocations for which his talents, and that rank in society for which his education had qualified him. Influenced by these thoughts, I determined to visit his retreat. Being obliged to leave Solebury the next day, I resolved to set out the same afternoon, and stopping in Chetasco for the night, seek his habitation at the hour when he had probably retired to it.

This was done. I arrived at Beddington's at night-fall. My enquiries respecting Clithero obtained for me the same intelligence from him which I had received from Inglefield. Deb's hut was three miles from this habitation; and thither, when the evening had somewhat advanced, I repaired. This was the spot which had witnessed so many perils during the last year, and my emotions on approaching it were awful. With palpitating heart and quick steps I traversed the road, skirted on each side by thickets, and the area before the house. The dwelling was by no means in so ruinous a state as when I last visited it; the crannies between the logs had been filled up, and the light within was perceivable only at a crevice in the door.

Looking through this crevice, I perceived a fire in the chimney; but the object of my visit was no where to be seen. I knocked, and requested admission; but no answer was made. At length I lifted the latch, and entered. Nobody was there.