her any apprehension, added, 'As I rested on the
wall, opposite to your casement, the consideration of your melancholy
situation and of my own called from me involuntary sounds of
lamentation, which drew you, I fancy, to the casement; I saw there a
person, whom I believed to be you. O! I will say nothing of my emotion
at that moment; I wished to speak, but prudence restrained me, till
the distant foot-step of a sentinel compelled me suddenly to quit my
station.

'It was some time, before I had another opportunity of walking, for I
could only leave my prison, when it happened to be the turn of one
man to guard me; meanwhile I became convinced from some circumstances
related by him, that your apartment was over mine, and, when again I
ventured forth, I returned to your casement, where again I saw you, but
without daring to speak. I waved my hand, and you suddenly disappeared;
then it was, that I forgot my prudence, and yielded to lamentation;
again you appeared--you spoke--I heard the well-known accent of your
voice! and, at that moment, my discretion would have forsaken me
again, had I not heard also the approaching steps of a soldier, when I
instantly quitted the place, though not before the man had seen me.
He followed down the terrace and gained so fast upon me, that I was
compelled to make use of a stratagem, ridiculous enough, to save myself.
I had heard of the superstition of many of these men, and I uttered
a strange noise, with a hope, that my pursuer would mistake it for
something supernatural, and desist from pursuit. Luckily for myself I
succeeded; the man, it seems, was subject to fits, and the terror he
suffered threw him into one, by which accident I secured my retreat. A
sense of the danger I had escaped, and the increased watchfulness, which
my appearance had occasioned among the sentinels, deterred me ever
after from walking on the terrace; but, in the stillness of night,
I frequently beguiled myself with an old lute, procured for me by a
soldier, which I sometimes accompanied with my voice, and sometimes, I
will acknowledge, with a hope of making myself heard by you; but it was
only a few evenings ago, that this hope was answered. I then thought I
heard a voice in the wind, calling me; yet, even then I feared to reply,
lest the sentinel at the prison door should hear me. Was I right, madam,
in this conjecture--was it you who spoke?'

'Yes,' said Emily, with an involuntary sigh, 'you was right indeed.'