When I had gazed long enough to assure myself that no strange object was within sight,'I have been too much of a rake lately;I am racking out my nerves,'said I,speaking aloud,with a view to reassure myself.
I rang the bell,and,attended by old Martha,I retired to settle for the night.
While the servant was--as was her custom--arranging the lamp which I have already stated always burned during the night in my chamber,I was employed in undressing,and,in doing so,I had recourse to a large looking-glass which occupied a considerable portion of the wall in which it was fixed,rising from the ground to a height of about six feet--this mirror filled the space of a large panel in the wainscoting opposite the foot of the bed.
I had hardly been before it for the lapse of a minute when something like a black pall was slowly waved between me and it.
'Oh,God!there it is,'I exclaimed,wildly.'I have seen it again,Martha--the black cloth.'
'God be merciful to us,then!'answered she,tremulously crossing herself.'Some misfortune is over us.'
'No,no,Martha,'said I,almost instantly recovering my collectedness;for,although of a nervous temperament,I had never been superstitious.'I do not believe in omens.You know I saw,or fancied Isaw,this thing before,and nothing followed.'
'The Dutch lady came the next morning,' replied she.
'But surely her coming scarcely deserved such a dreadful warning,'Ireplied.
'She is a strange woman,my lady,'said Martha;'and she is not GONE yet--mark my words.'
'Well,well,Martha,'said I,'I have not wit enough to change your opinions,nor inclination to alter mine;so I will talk no more of the matter.Good-night,'and so I was left to my reflections.
After lying for about an hour awake,I at length fell into a kind of doze;but my imagination was still busy,for I was startled from this unrefreshing sleep by fancying that I heard a voice close to my face exclaim as before:
'There is blood upon your ladyship's throat.'
The words were instantly followed by a loud burst of laughter.
Quaking with horror,I awakened,and heard my husband enter the room.Even this was it relief.
Scared as I was,however,by the tricks which my imagination had played me,Ipreferred remaining silent,and pretending to sleep,to attempting to engage my husband in conversation,for I well knew that his mood was such,that his words would not,in all probability,convey anything that had not better be unsaid and unheard.
Lord Glenfallen went into his dressing- room,which lay upon the right-hand side of the bed.The door lying open,I could see him by himself,at full length upon a sofa,and,in about half an hour,I became aware,by his deep and regularly drawn respiration,that he was fast asleep.
When slumber refuses to visit one,there is something peculiarly irritating,not to the temper,but to the nerves,in the consciousness that some one is in your immediate presence,actually enjoying the boon which you are seeking in vain;at least,I have always found it so,and never more than upon the present occasion.
A thousand annoying imaginations harassed and excited me;every object which I looked upon,though ever so familiar,seemed to have acquired a strange phantom-like character,the varying shadows thrown by the flickering of the lamplight,seemed shaping themselves into grotesque and unearthly forms,and whenever my eyes wandered to the sleeping figure of my husband,his features appeared to undergo the strangest and most demoniacal contortions.
Hour after hour was told by the old clock,and each succeeding one found me,if possible,less inclined to sleep than its predecessor.
It was now considerably past three;my eyes,in their involuntary wanderings,happened to alight upon the large mirror which was,as I have said,fixed in the wall opposite the foot of the bed.A view of it was commanded from where I lay,through the curtains.As I gazed fixedly upon it,I thought I perceived the broad sheet of glass shifting its position in relation to the bed;I riveted my eyes upon it with intense scrutiny;it was no deception,the mirror,as if acting of its own impulse,moved slowly aside,and disclosed a dark aperture in the wall,nearly as large as an ordinary door;a figure evidently stood in this,but the light was too dim to define it accurately.
It stepped cautiously into the chamber,and with so little noise,that had I not actually seen it,I do not think I should have been aware of its presence.It was arrayed in a kind of woollen night-dress,and a white handkerchief or cloth was bound tightly about the head;I had no difficulty,spite of the strangeness of the attire,in recognising the blind woman whom I so much dreaded.
She stooped down,bringing her head nearly to the ground,and in that attitude she remained motionless for some moments,no doubt in order to ascertain if any suspicious sound were stirring.
She was apparently satisfied by her observations,for she immediately recommenced her silent progress towards a ponderous mahogany dressing-table of my husband's.When she had reached it,she paused again,and appeared to listen attentively for some minutes;she then noiselessly opened one of the drawers,from which,having groped for some time,she took something,which I soon perceived to be a case of razors.She opened it,and tried the edge of each of the two instruments upon the skin of her hand;she quickly selected one,which she fixed firmly in her grasp.She now stooped down as before,and having listened for a time,she,with the hand that was disengaged,groped her way into the dressing-room where Lord Glenfallen lay fast asleep.
I was fixed as if in the tremendous spell of a nightmare.I could not stir even a finger;I could not lift my voice;I could not even breathe;and though I expected every moment to see the sleeping man murdered,I could not even close my eyes to shut out the horrible spectacle,which Ihad not the power to avert.