collection of the terrible spectacle her daring hand had formerly
unveiled in an apartment of the castle, till, suddenly conjecturing,
that it concealed the body of her murdered aunt, she seized it, in a fit
of desperation, and drew it aside. Beyond, appeared a corpse, stretched
on a kind of low couch, which was crimsoned with human blood, as was
the floor beneath. The features, deformed by death, were ghastly and
horrible, and more than one livid wound appeared in the face. Emily,
bending over the body, gazed, for a moment, with an eager, frenzied eye;
but, in the next, the lamp dropped from her hand, and she fell senseless
at the foot of the couch.

When her senses returned, she found herself surrounded by men, among
whom was Barnardine, who were lifting her from the floor, and then bore
her along the chamber. She was sensible of what passed, but the extreme
languor of her spirits did not permit her to speak, or move, or even to
feel any distinct fear. They carried her down the stair-case, by which
she had ascended; when, having reached the arch-way, they stopped, and
one of the men, taking the torch from Barnardine, opened a small door,
that was cut in the great gate, and, as he stepped out upon the road,
the light he bore shewed several men on horseback, in waiting. Whether
it was the freshness of the air, that revived Emily, or that the objects
she now saw roused the spirit of alarm, she suddenly spoke, and made an
ineffectual effort to disengage herself from the grasp of the ruffians,
who held her.

Barnardine, meanwhile, called loudly for the torch, while distant voices
answered, and several persons approached, and, in the same instant, a
light flashed upon the court of the castle. Again he vociferated for the
torch, and the men hurried Emily through the gate. At a short distance,
under the shelter of the castle walls, she perceived the fellow, who had
taken the light from the porter, holding it to a man, busily employed
in altering the saddle of a horse, round which were several horsemen,
looking on, whose harsh features received the full glare of the torch;
while the broken ground beneath them, the opposite walls, with the
tufted shrubs, that overhung their summits, and an embattled watch-tower
above, were reddened with the gleam, which, fading gradually away, left
the remoter ramparts and the woods below to the obscurity of night.

'What do you waste time for, there?' said Barnardine with an oath, as he
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