distinctness to sounds vague in themselves. I thought that I could
actually hear the breathing of the person who was slowly returning down
the lobby. At the head of the staircase there appeared to occur a pause;
and I could distinctly hear two or three sentences hastily whispered;
the steps then descended the stairs with apparently less caution. I now
ventured to walk quickly and lightly to the lobby-door, and attempted
to open it; it was indeed fast locked upon the outside, as was also the
other.

I now felt that the dreadful hour was come; but one desperate expedient
remained--it was to awaken Emily, and by our united strength to attempt
to force the partition-door, which was slighter than the other, and
through this to pass to the lower part of the house, whence it might be
possible to escape to the grounds, and forth to the village.

I returned to the bedside and shook Emily, but in vain. Nothing that
I could do availed to produce from her more than a few incoherent
words--it was a death-like sleep. She had certainly drank of some
narcotic, as had I probably also, spite of all the caution with which I
had examined everything presented to us to eat or drink.

I now attempted, with as little noise as possible, to force first one
door, then the other--but all in vain. I believe no strength could have
effected my object, for both doors opened inwards. I therefore collected
whatever movables I could carry thither, and piled them against the
doors, so as to assist me in whatever attempts I should make to
resist the entrance of those without. I then returned to the bed and
endeavoured again, but fruitlessly, to awaken my cousin. It was not
sleep, it was torpor, lethargy, death. I knelt down and prayed with an
agony of earnestness; and then seating myself upon the bed, I awaited my
fate with a kind of terrible tranquillity.

I heard a faint clanking sound from the narrow court which I have
already mentioned, as if caused by the scraping of some iron instrument
against stones or rubbish. I at first determined not to disturb the
calmness which I now felt, by uselessly watching the proceedings of
those who sought my life; but as the sounds continued, the horrible
curiosity which I felt overcame every other emotion, and I determined,
at all hazards, to gratify it. I therefore crawled upon my knees to the
window, so as to let the smallest portion of my head appear above the
sill.

The moon was shining with an uncertain rad