Thus circumstanced, she tried to banish reflection, but her busy
fancy would still hover over the subjects of her interest, and she
heard the clock of the castle strike two, before she closed her eyes.
From the disturbed slumber, into which she then sunk, she was soon
awakened by a noise, which seemed to arise within her chamber; but
the silence, that prevailed, as she fearfully listened, inclined her
to believe, that she had been alarmed by such sounds as sometimes
occur in dreams, and she laid her head again upon the pillow.
A return of the noise again disturbed her; it seemed to come from
that part of the room, which communicated with the private stair-
case, and she instantly remembered the odd circumstance of the door
having been fastened, during the preceding night, by some unknown
hand. Her late alarming suspicion, concerning its communication,
also occurred to her. Her heart became faint with terror. Half
raising herself from the bed, and gently drawing aside the curtain,
she looked towards the door of the stair-case, but the lamp, that
burnt on the hearth, spread so feeble a light through the apartment,
that the remote parts of it were lost in shadow.
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