628 The Bark Figure : [Dec. 



keen as to compel me to draw close to the fire, either from constitutional 

 indolence, or from some feeling which I could not recognize, I refrained 

 from shutting it, even after the candles had been lighted. A view of 

 part of the avenue was commanded from the chair on which I sat, and I 

 had watched, not vnthout interest, the gradual shutting in of the scene 

 by the shadows of night; and even now, when my eyes were presented 

 only with a black and desert waste, they ever and anon withdrew, with 

 imconscious abruptness, from the bright embers, which are the grand 

 attraction of an idler's eyes, to explore the empty gloom without. 



In the midst of a reverie, in which the incidents of the last two even- 

 ings appeared before me with a dreamy indistinctness, I was suddenly 

 startled by something more vivid. It seemed to me to have been an instan- 

 taneous hght flashing in the avenue, and then lost in darkness ; but in the 

 confused state of my faculties, I could not accurately determine whether 

 the appearance had not altogether been imaginary. It was sufficient, 

 however, to dissipate in some measure the langour which had crept over 

 my soul, and to stir up the undefined and disagreeable feelings which 

 seemed to have sunk to the bottom. A certain feehng of shame alone 

 prevented me from getting up and shutting the window and drawing 

 the curtains ; but I compounded between my wishes and my pride, 

 by determining to ring very soon for a servant to perform these 

 offices. 



In the mean time, I bent my eyes pertinaciously upon the fire, and 

 attempted to feel interested in the solution of those problems which are 

 offered to idle ingenuity by the burning cinders ; but in the midst of an 

 attempt to reconcile certain incongruities in the luminous phenomena, I 

 became aware, although not by direct observation, that a human face 

 was looking in at the open window. I did not turn my head instanta- 

 neously. A moment, perhaps two or three, intervened, during which a 

 succession of ideas flashed upon my brain, and danced before my eyes, 

 which it would take a volume to catalogue. It seemed as if the events 

 of the two last evenings, and the feelings which had accompanied or 

 followed them, were all congregated in that spark of time. A thousand 

 sensations of shame, pride, anger, fear, and superstitious dismay, swelled 

 my heart almost to bursting ; and at length I rose from my chair, and 

 rushed towards the window in an agony of conflicting emotions. 



The appearance had vanished ; but I went out into the night, fixing 

 an eager gaze upon the gloom. The next moment the mysterious light 

 appeared and disappeared in the distance, and I threw myself, with a 

 sudden bound, from the window, and rushed down the avenue. My 

 feet splashed in the humid mould, and the rain blinded my vision ; but 

 I ran on. A second time the Hght appeared. Onward I rushed, gather- 

 ing fury, like a descending rock, tiU a third time it flashed in my very 

 eyes ! The next bound gave to my grasp what I had pursued, and I 

 fell with a heavy shock to the earth upon the body of a man. 



Let me proceed. This fearful interval of suspense was not of long 

 duration. The mysterious light fell once more upon my face, and then 

 turned slowly upon that of the dark figure. A powerful hand, at the 

 same moment, wrenched ray fingers from the throat which they grasped, 

 and a voice, full of good humour, but at the saime time of surprise, almost 

 amounting to alarm, exclaimed, " Zure, your honour, whoy, bless us, 

 you won't strangle Hoomphrey, the watchman, wool ye }" 



