Motion seemed
to produce a mechanical influence upon me. I was ashamed of my
weakness. Besides, what aid could be afforded me by a lamp?
My fears had pictured to themselves no precise object. It would be
difficult to depict in words the ingredients and hues of that
phantom which haunted me. A hand invisible and of preternatural
strength, lifted by human passions, and selecting my life for its
aim, were parts of this terrific image. All places were alike
accessible to this foe; or, if his empire were restricted by local
bounds, those bounds were utterly inscrutable by me. But had I not
been told, by some one in league with this enemy, that every place
but the recess in the bank was exempt from danger?
I returned to the closet, and once more put my hand upon the lock.
Oh, may my ears lose their sensibility ere they be again assailed
by a shriek so terrible! Not merely my understanding was subdued
by the sound; it acted on my nerves like an edge of steel. It
appeared to cut asunder the fibers of my brain and rack every joint
with agony.
The cry, loud and piercing as it was, was nevertheless human.
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