Ladies’ Edinburgh Magazine > Volume 4

32S The Ladies' Edinburgh Magazine.
lying so peacefully on a pillow by my side. Life and power
of motion had come back to me at last. The club was
already raised with murderous iutent, when an unearthly
shriek of terror broke from my lips, and with the instinct of
an animal defending its young at the expense of life itself,
unheeding all consequences to myself, I sprang like a wild
cat upon the ruffian. I do not know now how I could have
done it, except that for the moment I was mad, actually mad.
I can still hear the wild echo of my voice ringing through
tlie room, and the yell of fear and rage with which it was
answered. The creature, startled by the sudden onset,
retreated, lost his balance, and rolled off the bed. I was too
frenzied by fear to remember clearly what happened ; it
seems a confused and hideous dream. I had lost all control
over myself; I could not stop. I rushed at him again as he
was rising, and pursued him with wild cries down the
passage. He fled before me, and I can still feel the weights
which seemed fastened to my feet when I tried to follow
him, not knowing where I went or what I was doing, only
longing to be rid for ever of this nightmare of terror. ' The
passage seemed to be miles long; I could still think that we
were there for hours, not seconds, he rushing down in the
darkness, I in mad and objectless pursuit of the white
garments I could just distinguish fluttering before me. The
window at the farthest end of the passage was wide open,
and out of this the figure leaped ; I could see the form
distinctly as it was balanced for a moment on the window
ledge, then I remember no more. I believe I should have
followed through the window myself, but mercifully uncon¬
sciousness seized me; I fell heavily to the ground, and when
next I opened my eyes I was lying upon my own bed, the
sun was shining brightly into the room, and my husband
and the doctor were anxiously bending over me.
' I did not go mad, as I thought I should have done : I had
not even a brain fever; but my nerves were so completely
shattered that I could not bear to be left alone even for a
moment, and it was long before I was able to relate to my
husband all I have now been telling you. He would not
allow me to talk about it; indeed, there was little need for
me to do so. The servants, roused by my shrieks, had at
length (when all was quiet) ventured up-stairs, and found me
lying senseless at the head of the staircase. In the early
morning, when my husband came home, he was greeted with
the double intelligence that his wife had been found in a
fainting fit in the passage, and that a poor woman living in