_The Somnambulist._
One night I was sitting in my room, devouring an old romance which I had
brought from the library. It was late. The fire blazed bright; but the
candles were nearly burnt out, and I grew sleepy over the volume,
romance as it was.
Suddenly I found myself on my feet, listening with an agony of
intention. Whether I had heard anything I could not tell; but I felt as
if I had. Yes; I was sure of it. Far away, somewhere in the labyrinthine
pile, I heard a faint cry. Driven by some secret impulse, I flew,
without a moment’s reflection, to the closet door, lifted the tapestry
within, unfastened the second door, and stood in the great waste echoing
hall, amid the touches, light and ghostly, of the cobwebs set afloat in
the eddies occasioned by my sudden entrance.
A faded moonbeam fell on the floor, and filled the place with an ancient
dream-light, which wrought strangely on my brain, and filled it, as if
it, too, were but a deserted, sleepy house, haunted by old dreams and
memories. Recollecting myself, I went back for a light; but the candles
were both flickering in the sockets, and I was compelled to trust to the
moon. I ascended the staircase. Old as it was, not a board creaked, not
a banister shook--the whole felt solid as rock. Finding, at length, no
more stair to ascend, I groped my way on; for here there was no direct
light from the moon--only the light of the moonlit air. I was in some
trepidation, I confess; for how should I find my way back? But the worst
result likely to ensue was, that I should have to spend the night
without knowing where; for with the first glimmer of morning, I should
be able to return to my room. At length, after wandering into several
rooms and out again, my hand fell on a latched door. I opened it, and
entered a long corridor, with many windows on one side. Broad strips of
moonlight lay slantingly across the narrow floor, divided by regular
intervals of shade.
I started, and my heart swelled; for I saw a movement somewhere--I could
neither tell where, nor of what: I was only aware of motion. I stood in
the first shadow, and gazed, but saw nothing. I sped across the light to
the next shadow, and stood again, looking with fearful fixedness of gaze
towards the far end of the corridor. Suddenly a white form glimmered and
vanished. I crossed to the next shadow. Again a glimmer and vanishing,
but nearer. Nerving myself to the utmost, I ceased the stealthiness of
my movements, and went forward, slowly and steadily. A tall form,
apparently of a woman, dressed in a long white robe, appeared in one of
the streams of light, threw its arms over its head, gave a wild
cry--which, notwithstanding its wildness and force, had a muffled sound,
as if many folds, either of matter or of space, intervened--and fell at
full length along the moonlight. Amidst the thrill of agony which shook
me at the cry, I rushed forward, and, kneeling beside the prostrate
figure, discovered that, unearthly as was the scream which had preceded
her fall, it was the Lady Alice. I saw the fact in a moment: the Lady
Alice was a somnambulist. Startled by the noise of my advance, she had
awaked; and the usual terror and fainting had followed. She was cold and
motionless as death. What was to be done? If I called, the probability
was that no one would hear me; or if any one should hear--but I need not
follow the course of my thought, as I tried in vain to recover the poor
girl. Suffice it to say, that both for her sake and my own, I could not
face the chance of being found, in the dead of night, by common-minded
domestics, in such a situation.
I was kneeling by her side, not knowing what to do, when a horror, as
from the presence of death suddenly recognized, fell upon me. I thought
she must be dead. But at the same moment, I hear, or seemed to hear,
(how should I know which?) the rapid gallop of a horse, and the clank of
a loose shoe.
In an agony of fear, I caught her up in my arms, and, carrying her on my
arms, as one carries a sleeping child, hurried back through the
corridor. Her hair, which was loose, trailed on the ground; and, as I
fled, I trampled on it and stumbled. She moaned; and that instant the
gallop ceased. I lifted her up across my shoulder, and carried her more
easily. How I found my way to the stair I cannot tell: I know that I
groped about for some time, like one in a dream with a ghost in his
arms. At last I reached it, and descending, crossed the hall, and
entered my room. There I placed Lady Alice upon an old couch, secured
the doors, and began to breathe--and think. The first thing was to get
her warm, for she was cold as the dead. I covered her with my plaid and
my dressing-gown, pulled the couch before the fire, and considered what
to do next.