ore,
ascended the hill.

Pale and breathless, it was with difficulty I could support myself. He
anxiously inquired into the cause of my affright, and the motive of my
unusual absence. He had returned from my brother's at a late hour, and
was informed by Judith, that I had walked out before sun-set, and had
not yet returned. This intelligence was somewhat alarming. He waited
some time; but, my absence continuing, he had set out in search of me.
He had explored the neighbourhood with the utmost care, but, receiving
no tidings of me, he was preparing to acquaint my brother with this
circumstance, when he recollected the summer-house on the bank, and
conceived it possible that some accident had detained me there. He again
inquired into the cause of this detention, and of that confusion and
dismay which my looks testified.

I told him that I had strolled hither in the afternoon, that sleep had
overtaken me as I sat, and that I had awakened a few minutes before
his arrival. I could tell him no more. In the present impetuosity of my
thoughts, I was almost dubious, whether the pit, into which my brother
had endeavoured to entice me, and the voice that talked through the
lattice, were not parts of the same dream. I remembered, likewise, the
charge of secrecy, and the penalty denounced, if I should rashly divulge
what I had heard. For these reasons, I was silent on that subject, and
shutting myself in my chamber, delivered myself up to contemplation.

What I have related will, no doubt, appear to you a fable. You will
believe that calamity has subverted my reason, and that I am amusing
you with the chimeras of my brain, instead of facts that have really
happened. I shall not be surprized or offended, if these be your
suspicions. I know not, indeed, how you can deny them admission. For, if
to me, the immediate witness, they were fertile of perplexity and doubt,
how must they affect another to whom they are recommended only by
my testimony? It was only by subsequent events, that I was fully and
incontestibly assured of the veracity of my senses.

Meanwhile what was I to think? I had been assured that a design had been
formed against my life. The ruffians had leagued to murder me. Whom had
I offended? Who was there with whom I had ever maintained intercourse,
who was capable of harbouring such atrocious purposes?

My temper was the reverse of cruel and imperious. My heart was touched
with sympathy for the children of misfortune