wall, but forming
from the battlements a precipice some thousand feet in depth. The
strongest nerve turned sick and giddy to look beneath, and the side of
the tower overlooking it was almost always kept unguarded.

It was near midnight when Stanley, who was that night on command,
after completing his rounds, and perceiving every sentinel on duty,
found himself unconsciously on the part of the tower we have named.
So pre-occupied was his mind, that he looked beneath him without
shrinking; and then retracing his steps some twenty or thirty yards
from the immediate and unprotected edge, wrapped his mantle closely
round him, and lying down, rested his head on his arm, and permitted
the full dominion of thought. He was in that dreamy mood, when the
silence and holiness of nature is so much more soothing than even the
dearest sympathy of man; when every passing cloud and distant star,
and moaning wind, speaks with a hundred tongues, and the immaterial
spirit holds unconscious commune with beings invisible, and immaterial
as itself. Above his head, heavy clouds floated over the dark azure of
the heavens, sometimes totally obscuring the mild light of the full
moon; at others merely shrouding her beams in a transparent veil,
from which she would burst resplendently, sailing majestically along,
seeming the more light and lovely from the previous shade. One
brilliant planet followed closely on her track, and as the dark masses
of clouds would rend asunder, portions of the heavens, studded with
glittering stars, were visible, seeming like the gemmed dome of some
mighty temple, whose walls and pillars, shrouded in black drapery,
were lost in the distance on either side. Gradually, Stanley's
thoughts became indistinct; the stars seemed to lose their radiance,
as covered by a light mist; a dark cloud appearing, in his half
dormant fancy, to take the gigantic proportions of a man, hovered on
the battlement. It became smaller and smaller, but still it seemed
a cloud, through which the moonlight gleamed; but a thrill passed
through him, as if telling of some impalpable and indefinable object
of dread. With a sudden effort he shook off the lethargy of half
sleep, and sprung to his feet, at the very moment a gleaming sword was
pointed at his throat. "Ha, villain! at thy murderous work again!" he
exclaimed, and another moment beheld him closed in deadly conflict
with his mysterious foe. A deep and terrible oath, and then a mocking
laugh, e