I was too much appalled to move at once from the window,but I did so soon enough to avoid his eye.He was looking fixedly into the narrow quadrangle upon which the window opened.I shrank back unperceived,to pass the rest of the day in terror and despair.I went to my room early that night,but I was too miserable to sleep.
At about twelve o'clock,feeling very nervous,I determined to call my cousin Emily,who slept,you will remember,in the next room,which communicated with mine by a second door.By this private entrance I found my way into her chamber,and without difficulty persuaded her to return to my room and sleep with me.
We accordingly lay down together,she undressed,and I with my clothes on,for Iwas every moment walking up and down the room,and felt too nervous and miserable to think of rest or comfort.
Emily was soon fast asleep,and I lay awake,fervently longing for the first pale gleam of morning,reckoning every stroke of the old clock with an impatience which made every hour appear like six.
It must have been about one o'clock when I thought I heard a slight noise at the partition-door between Emily's room and mine,as if caused by somebody's turning the key in the lock.I held my breath,and the same sound was repeated at the second door of my room--that which opened upon the lobby--the sound was here distinctly caused by the revolution of the bolt in the lock,and it was followed by a slight pressure upon the door itself,as if to ascertain the security of the lock.
The person,whoever it might be,was probably satisfied,for I heard the old boards of the lobby creak and strain,as if under the weight of somebody moving cautiously over them.My sense of hearing became unnaturally,almost painfully acute.I suppose the imagination added 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 Ishould 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 Ifelt 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 radiance upon the antique grey buildings,and obliquely upon the narrow court beneath,one side of which was therefore clearly illuminated,while the other was lost in obscurity,the sharp outlines of the old gables,with their nodding clusters of ivy,being at first alone visible.
Whoever or whatever occasioned the noise which had excited my curiosity,was concealed under the shadow of the dark side of the quadrangle.I placed my hand over my eyes to shade them from the moonlight,which was so bright as to be almost dazzling,and,peering into the darkness,I first dimly,but afterwards gradually,almost with full distinctness,beheld the form of a man engaged in digging what appeared to be a rude hole close under the wall.Some implements,probably a shovel and pickaxe,lay beside him,and to these he every now and then applied himself as the nature of the ground required.He pursued his task rapidly,and with as little noise as possible.
'So,'thought I,as,shovelful after shovel- ful,the dislodged rubbish mounted into a heap,'they are digging the grave in which,before two hours pass,I must lie,a cold,mangled corpse.I am THEIRS--I cannot escape.'
I felt as if my reason was leaving me.
I started to my feet,and in mere despair I applied myself again to each of the two doors alternately.I strained every nerve and sinew,but I might as well have attempted,with my single strength,to force the building itself from its foundation.Ithrew myself madly upon the ground,and clasped my hands over my eyes as if to shut out the horrible images which crowded upon me.