Be that as it may, I am a firm
believer in a special Providence; and that, too, as discovered in the
most trivial as well as the most important concerns of life. It was
whilst cutting down upon what seemed like wainscoting, over which the
papering of the room had been laid, that my knife glanced on something
much harder than the rest. Turning aside my spoils, I saw what through
the dusk appeared very like the hinge of a concealed door. My curiosity
was roused, and I made a hasty pull, which at once drew down a mighty
fragment from the wall, consisting of plaster, paper, and rotten canvas;
and some minutes elapsed ere the subsiding cloud of dust enabled me to
discern the _terra incognita_ I had just uncovered. Sure enough there
was a door, and as surely did the spirit of enterprise prompt me to open
it. With difficulty I accomplished my purpose; it yielded at length to
my efforts; but the noise of the half-corroded hinges, grating and
shrieking on their rusty pivots, may be conceived as sufficiently dismal
and appalling. I know not if once at least I did not draw back, or let
go my hold incontinently, as the din "grew long and loud.
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