Page:The Necromancer, or, The Tale of the Black Forest Vol. 1.djvu/217

 of his apartment flew open, and a white figure was going to enter the room.

"Fearless," these are his own words, "did I start up, unsheath my sword and run towards the phantom; it retreated, but I pursued, and pierced it with my sword, it gave an hollow scream, but what farther happened I cannot tell, I awoke as if from a deluding dream, and was lying stretched on the floor at the bottom of the stairs, surrounded by a great number of people with lighted candles; terrible pains had seized me, and my sword was still in my hand."

When the narrator had finished his wonderful tale, I perceived visible marks of its authenticity on his face, and inquired whether he had been hurt by the fall. He told me he had suffered no material injury except a few bruises.

The Austrian began now to question him.