dim and indescribable fear, which no earthly or human cause
can explain--that shrinking within self--that vague terror of the
future--that grappling, as it were, with some unknown shade--that
wandering of the spirit--whither?--that cold, cold creeping dread--of
what? As he entered the house, he met his confidential servant. He gave
him orders respecting the flight of the morrow, and then retired into
the chamber where he slept. It was an antique and large room: the
wainscot was of oak; and one broad and high window looked over the
expanse of country which stretched beneath. He sat himself by the
casement in silence--he opened it: the dull air came over his forehead,
not with a sense of freshness, but, like the parching atmosphere of the
east, charged with a weight and fever that sank heavy into his soul. He
turned:--he threw himself upon the bed, and placed his hands over his
face. His thoughts were scattered into a thousand indistinct forms, but
over all, there was one rapturous remembrance; and that was, that
the morrow was to unite him for ever to her whose possession had only
rendered her more dear. Meanwhile, the hours rolled on; and as he lay
thus silent and still, the clock of the distant church struck with
a distinct and solemn sound upon his ear. It was the half-hour after
midnight. At that moment an icy thrill ran, slow and curdling, through
his veins. His heart, as if with a presentiment of what was to follow,
beat violently, and then stopped; life itself seemed ebbing away; cold
drops stood upon his forehead; his eyelids trembled, and the balls
reeled and glazed, like those of a dying man; a deadly fear gathered
over him, so that his flesh quivered, and every hair in his head seemed
instinct with a separate life, the very marrow of his bones crept, and
his blood waxed thick and thick, as if stagnating into an ebbless and
frozen substance. He started in a wild and unutterable terror. There
stood, at the far end of the room, a dim and thin shape like moonlight,
without outline or form; still, and indistinct, and shadowy. He gazed
on, speechless and motionless; his faculties and senses seemed locked in
an unnatural trance. By degrees the shape became clearer and clearer to
his fixed and dilating eye. He saw, as through a floating and mist-like
veil, the features of Emily; but how changed!--sunken and hueless, and
set in death. The dropping lip, from which there seemed to trickle a
deep red stain like blood; the