ct horrible to
gaze upon.

"_Gott im Himmel! was fuer ein schrecklicker Stuerm!_" exclaimed the man to
whom I had paid the money.

In a few minutes the men departed, and I stood at the window watching
them, as they drove furiously away. At length they disappeared altogether
from my view.

I was now alone in the house. The storm was as furious as ever. I had
never before felt so wretched. I was restless and uneasy, and a thousand
dark thoughts flitted across my distracted brain as I wandered from room
to room. It was already quite dark, and I was at least a couple of miles
distant from any living soul. The frequent flashes of lightning, the loud
peals of thunder, the dead body of the man, and my own nervous and
superstitious temperament, constituted a multitude of anxieties, fears,
and apprehensions, that might have caused the stoutest heart to quail
beneath their influence. I seated myself in the sitting-room that had been
provided for me, and took up my _meerschaum_, and endeavored to compose
myself. It was, however, in vain. I was exceedingly restless, and I know
not what vague and indefinable apprehensions entered my imagination.
Whenever I have felt a presentiment of evil, it has invariably been
followed by some danger or difficulty. It was so in the present instance.
I drew the curtains in front of the windows, for I could not bear to look
upon the storm that was raging with unabated vehemence out of doors, and I
drew my chair closer to the fire, and sat for a considerable time. At
length, between ten and eleven o'clock, I took from a small cabinet a
bottle containing some excellent French brandy. I poured a portion of it
into a tumbler, and diluted it with warm water. I took two or three
copious draughts, which I thought imparted new life to my frame.

I was in this way occupied, when a sudden noise in a corner of the room
caused a feeling of horror to thrill through my whole system. I sprang
upon my legs in a moment; my eyes stared wildly, and every limb in my body
shook as though with convulsions. For a moment, I stood still, steadfastly
fixing my eyes upon the place from whence the noise proceeded. All was
quiet. I heard nothing save the beating of the rain against the windows,
and low peals of distant thunder. I walked across the room, and I
discovered that a riding-whip had fallen from the nail from which it had
been suspended. Satisfied that there was no occasion for alarm, I resumed
my seat, and indulge