I have defeated your first attempt, madam; and
by the holy God, if ever you make another, chains, straw, darkness, and
the keeper's whip shall be your lasting portion!" With these astounding words he left the room, leaving me almost
fainting. I was now almost reduced to despair; my last cast had failed; I had no
course left but that of eloping secretly from the castle and placing
myself under the protection of the nearest magistrate. I felt if this
were not done, and speedily, that I should be _murdered_. No one, from mere description, can have an idea of the unmitigated
horror of my situation--a helpless, weak, inexperienced girl, placed
under the power and wholly at the mercy of evil men, and feeling that
she had it not in her power to escape for a moment from the malignant
influences under which she was probably fated to fall; and with a
consciousness that if violence, if murder were designed, her dying
shriek would be lost in void space; no human being would be near to aid
her, no human interposition could deliver her. I had seen Edward but once during his visit, and, as I did not meet with
him again, I began to think that he must have taken his departure--a
conviction which was to a certain degree satisfactory, as I regarded
his absence as indicating the removal of immediate danger. Emily also arrived circuitously at the same conclusion, and not without
good grounds, for she managed indirectly to learn that Edward's black
horse had actually been for a day and part of a night in the castle
stables, just at the time of her brother's supposed visit. The horse had
gone and, as she argued, the rider must have departed with it. This point being so far settled, I felt a little less uncomfortable;
when, being one day alone in my bedroom, I happened to look out from the
window, and, to my unutterable horror, I beheld, peering through an
opposite casement, my cousin Edward's face. Had I seen the evil one
himself in bodily shape, I could not have experienced a more sickening
revulsion. 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 I was 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 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 my 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 deathlike sleep. She had certainly drunk 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 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.