Edgar Huntley

excluded, which rushed tumultuously upon me the moment I was at leisure to receive them.

re. The intelligence in which plans of mischief might be generated was extinguished or flown. Lifeless were the hands ready to execute the dictates of that intelligence. The contriver of enormous evil was, in one moment, bereft of the power and the will to injure. Our past tranquillity had been owing to the belief of his death. Fear and dismay had resumed their dominion wh

ze my fears. In the long catalogue of contingencies, this, indeed, was to be found; but it was as little likely to happen as any other. It could not happen without a serie

e consequence would have been the same. My understanding had been neutral. Could it be? In a space so short, was it possible that so tremendous a deed had be

that I was going. Passing objects were observed. If I adverted to the series of my own reflections, my attention was not seized and fastened by them

with wonder! I no longer attended to my steps. When I emerged from my stupor, I found that I had trodden back the way which I

ons. "The deed," said I, "is irretrievable. I have kill

evolence of her temper. Her brother was sordidly wicked,--a hoary ruffian, to whom the language of pity was as unintelligible as the gabble of monkeys. His heart was fortified against c

this being as more intimately her brother, than would have happened in different circumstances. It was her obstinate persuasion that their fates were blended. The rumour of his death she had never credited. It was a topic

cript, though unpublished, was widely circulated. None could resist her simple and touching eloquence, nor rise from the perusal without resigning his heart to the most impetuous impulses of admiration, and enlisting himself

I read in it the condemnation of my deed, the agonies she was preparing to suffer

to her. Such the services which it was the business of my life to perform. I had snatched her brother from existence. I had torn from her the hope which she so ardently and indefatig

d upon me. The impassioned and vehement anxiety with which, in former days, she had deprecated the vengeance of her lover against Wiatte, rung in my ears. My senses were shocked anew by the dreadful sounds, "Touch not my brother. Wherever you meet with him, of whatever outrage he

g any. Of that degree of wickedness I was, perhaps, incapable. Alas! I have immersed myself sufficiently deep in crime

my distraction.--"My lady," said I, "believed her fate to be blended with that of Wiatte. Who shall affirm that the persuasion is a groundless one? She had lived and prospered, notwithstanding the general belief that her brother was dead. She would

arrived. The same blow that bereaved hi

e cogency of faith? That the pulses of life are at the command of the will? The bearer of these tidings will b

death to restore us to confidence and safety.' Lo! the purchase is made. Havoc and despair, that were restrained during his life, were let loose by his l

por, and amazement. It seemed as if my senses had been hushed in sleep, while the powers of locomotion we

but whence shall I obtain strength enough to finish it? What I have told is light as gossamer, compared with the insupportable and crushing h

ions. It was deepest midnight, and all the noises of a great metropolis were hushed. Yet I listened as if to catch some strain of the dirge that was begun. Sable robes, sobs, and a dreary solemnity encompassed me on all sides, I was haunted to despair by images o

nder on the scene, and deliberate, in a state that partook of calm, on the circumstances of my situation. My mind was harassed by the repetition of one idea. Conjecture deepened into certainty. I could place the object in no light whi

endent of sensible communication? Could she arrive at a knowledge of his miserable and by other than verbal means? I had heard of such extraordinary copartnerships in being and modes

f events, equally beyond the reach of foresight with those which had just happened, might introduce, with equal abruptness, a similar disaster. What, at that moment, was her condition? Reposing in safety in her chamber, as her family imagined. Bu

myself, were at rest. Winding passages would conduct me, without danger of disturbing them, to the hall, from which double staircases ascended. One of these led to a saloon above, on the east side of which was a door that communicated with a suite of rooms occupied by the lady of the mansion. The first was

oval of my doubts. Not that my hopes were balanced by my fears. That the same tragedy had been performed in her chamber and in the street, nothi

tion was too perfectly engrossed to allow me to spare any to a casual object. I cannot affirm that no one observed me. This, however, was probable from the distribution of the dwelling. It consisted of a central edifice and two wings, one of which was appropriated to domesti

eating heart, the staircase. The door of the antechamber was unfastened. I entered, totally regardless of disturbing the girl who slept within. The bed which she occupied was concealed by curtains. Whet

unds and blood? Yet this was reserved for me. A few paces would set me in the midst of a scene of which I was the abhorred contriver. Was it right to proceed? There were still the remnants of doubt. My forebodings might possibly be groundless. All within might be safety and ser

t. I could not lift my eyes from the ground. I advanced to the middle of the room. Not a sound like

quiet and order. My heart leaped with exultation. "Can it be," said I

e to the perils of my present situation. If she, indeed, were there, would not my intrusion awaken her? She would start and perceive me, at this hour, standing at her bedside. How should I accou

not even modify my predominant idea. Obstacles like thes

he curtain, and beheld her tranquilly slumbering. I listened, but so profound was her sl

eness of desperation. I stood, for some moments, wrapped in delightful contemplation. Alas! it was a luminous but transient interv

akes, the phantom that soothed her will vanish. The tidings cannot be withheld from her. The murderer of thy brother cannot hope to enjoy thy smiles. Those ravishing accent

ps she will wake no more. I, her son,--I, whom the law of my birth doomed to poverty and hardship, but whom her unsolicited beneficence snatched from those evils, and endowed with the highest good known to intelligent beings, the consolations of science and the blandishments of a

forts are concentred in a single purpose, and that purpose a malignant one? I am the author of thy calamities. Whatever misery is reserved for thee, I am the source whence

e from the coming storm; to accelerat

er. As I set down the lamp, I struck the edge. Yet I saw it not, or noticed it not till I needed its assistance. By what accident it c

ounterwork.--Need I go further? Did you entertain any imagination of so frightful a catastrophe? I am overwhelmed by turns wi

efrauded, for a moment, of the empire of my muscles. A little moment for that sufficed. If my destruction had not been decreed, why was the image of Clarice so long exclu

extremity of horror that my evil genius was determined to urge me? Too s

was aimed at the bosom of the

out hand, grasping the blade, made it swerve widely from its aim. It des

ty on the author of my rescue. He that interposed to arrest my deed, that started into being and activity at a moment so pregna

ments of Mrs. Lorimer. Negligently habited in flowing and brilliant white, with features bursting wi

at her genius had overleaped all bounds, and interposed to save her, was no audacious imagination

nd who, awakened by the shriek that had been uttered, now opened her eyes. She started from her pi

her last. Fraught with this persuasion, knowing this to be the place and hour of repose of my lady, hurried forward by the impetuosity of my own conceptions, deceived by the faint gleam which p

yself headlong? The steel was yet in my hand. A single blow would have pierced

t which I had meditated as the dictate of compassion or of justice, it only added to the su

How should I explain my coming hither in this murderous guise, my arm lifted to destroy the idol of my soul and the darling child of my patroness? In what words should I unfold the tale of Wiat

my arm from the perpetration of a new iniquity. Once more frustrated the instigations of th

detestable enormity of suicide. She to whom my ingratitude was flagrant in proportion to the benefits of

otions which this spectacle was calculated to excite. She watched me in silence, and with an air of ineffable solicitude. Clarice, governed by

by reverie, and my gesticulations destitute of meaning. My tongue faltered without

e ills that fasten on us by shaking off existence, is a lot which the system of nature has denied to man. By escaping from l

the presence of these women to hide me forever from their scrutiny and their upbraiding, to snatc

ceptible, I was yet rooted to the spot. Had the pause been

nds and lifting them, exclaimed, in

this? How came yo

has perished by my hands. Fresh from the commission of this deed

ence. "Oh, say not so! I have just heard of hi

ith fierceness; "I know it.

cursed chance that hindered thee from killing me also! Dead

eful expression. Hope was utterly extinguished in her heart, and life fors

ad repented of concealment, and, in the interval that passed between our separation and my

by the tidings which I brought. Thus was every omen of mischief and misery fulfilled. Thus was the enmity of W

w full well, will never end. Death is but a shifting of the scene; and the endless progress of eternity, which to the good is merely the perfection of felicity, is to the wicked an accumulation of woe. The self-destroyer is his own enemy: this has ever

verse and rebellious principle. I banished myself forever from my native soil. I vowed never more to behol

or trammelling up the visible consequences and for eluding suspicion. The idea of abjuring my country and flying forever from the hateful scene partook, to my apprehension, of the vast, the boundless, an

conceptions with regard to the future were shapeless and confused. Successive incidents supplied me with a clue, and suggested, as they rose, the next step to be taken. I threw off the garb of affluence, and assumed a beggar's attire. That I had money about me for the accomplishment of my purposes was wholly accidental. I travelled along the coast, and, when I arrived at one

l a scheme? Yet now have I consented to this. I have confided in you the history of my disasters. I am not fearful of the use that you may be disposed to make of it. I shall quickly set myself beyond the reach

infested by memory in wakefulness and slumber. Yet I was anew distressed by the discovery that my thoughts found their way t

h. I can no otherwise account for my frequenting his shade than by the distant resemblance which the death of this man bore to that of which I was the perpetrator. Thi

liffs of that valley. Often have I brooded over my sorrows in the recesses of that cavern. This scene is adapted to my temper. Its mountain

o otherwise. The conduct that you have witnessed was that of a murderer. I will not upb