Page:Edgar Huntly, or The Sleep Walker.djvu/270

 probability of my tale! Can you not confide in me, that Euphemia Lorimer is now alive, is happy, is the wife of Sarsefield—that her brother is forgotten, and his murderer regarded without enmity or vengeance?"

He looked at me with a strange expression of contempt.

"Come," said he, at length, "make out thy assertion to be true: fall on thy knees, and invoke the thunder of heaven to light on thy head if thy words be false! Swear that Euphemia Lorimer is alive, happy, forgetful of Wiatte, and compassionate of me! Swear that thou hast seen her, talked with her, received from her own lips the confession of her pity for him who aimed a dagger at her bosom! Swear that she is Sarsefleld's wife!"

I put my hands together, and lifting my eyes to heaven, exclaimed—"I comply with your conditions—I call the omniscient God to witness that Euphemia Lorimer is alive—that I have seen her with these eyes, have talked with her, have inhabited the same house for months!"

These asseverations were listened to with shuddering; he laid not aside, however, an air of incredulity and contempt.

"Perhaps," said he, "thou canst point out the place of her abode—canst guide me to the city, the street, the very door of her habitation?"

"I can. She resides at this moment in the city of New-York, in Broadway, in a house contiguous to the"

Tis well!" exclaimed my companion, in a tone loud, abrupt, and in the utmost degree vehement—tis well! Rash and infatuated youth! thou hast ratified, beyond appeal or forgiveness, thy own doom—thou hast once more let loose my steps, and sent me on a fearful journey—thou hast furnished the means of detecting thy imposture! I will fly to the spot which thou describest; I will ascertain thy falsehood with my own eyes: if she be alive, then am I reserved for the performance of a new crime; my evil destiny will have it so; if she be dead, I shall make thee expiate."

So saying, he darted through the door, and was gone in a moment beyond my sight and my reach. I ran to the road, looked on every side, and called; but my calls were