Page:Edgar Huntly, or The Sleep Walker.djvu/81

 of these tidings will be the messenger of death—a fatal sympathy will seize her—she will shrink, and swoon, and perish at the news! Fond and short—sighted wretch! this is the price thou hast given for security! In the rashness of thy thought thou saidst—'Nothing is wanting but his death to restore us to confidence and safety.' Lo! the purchase is made! Havoc and despair, that were restrained during his life, were let loose by his last sigh; now only is destruction made sure—thy lady, thy Clarice, thy friend, and thyself are, by this act, involved in irretrievable and common ruin!'

"I started from my attitude: I was scarcely conscious of any transition,-the interval was fraught with stupor and amazement; it seemed as if my senses had been hushed in sleep, while the powers of locomotion were unconsciously exerted to bear me to my chamber. By whatever means the change was effected, there I was

"I have been able to proceed thus far: I can scarcely believe the testimony of my memory that assures me of this. My task is almost executed; but whence shall I obtain strength enough to finish it? What I have told is light as gossamer compared with the insupportable and crushing horrors of that which is to come. Heaven, in token of its vengeance, will enable me to proceed: it is fitting that my scene should thus close!

"My fancy began to be infected with the errors of my understanding: the mood into which my mind was plunged was incapable of any propitious intermission; all within me was tempestuous and dark; my ears were accessible to no sounds but those of shrieks and lamentations. It was deepest midnight, and all the noises of a great metropolis were hushed; yet I listened as if to catch some strain of the dirge that was begun: sable robes, sobs, and a dreary solemnity encompassed me on all sides; I was haunted to despair by images of death, imaginary clamours, and the train of funeral pageantry: I seemed to have passed forward to a distant era of my life; the effects which were to come were already realised— the foresight of misery created it, and set me in the midst of that hell which I feared.

"From a paroxysm like this the worst might reasonably