I have no means of ascertaining the duration of this swoon; but, with
returning recollection, I again put out my hand, which rested on the
cold and almost naked carcase beside me. I felt roused by the touch, and
started on my feet--the moon at this instant emerging from a mass of
dark clouds, streamed full on the dead body, pale and blood-stained, the
features distorted, as if by some terrible death. Fear now prompted me
to fly: I ran as if the wind had lent me wings--not daring to look back,
lest my eyes should again rest on the grisly form I had just left. I
fled onwards for some time; the moon now enabling me to follow the
beaten track, which, to my great joy, brought me suddenly, at the turn
of a high bank, within sight of a cheerful fire gleaming through a
narrow door, seemingly the entrance to some wayside tavern. Bursts of
hilarity broke from the interior; the voice of revelry and mirth came
upon my ear, as though I was just awakening from a dream. It was as if I
had heard the dead laugh in their cold cerements. As I stepped across
the threshold, the boisterous roar of mirth made me shudder; and it
seemed, by the alarm visible in the countenances of the guests, that my
appearance presented something as terrible to their apprehensions.
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