search the apartment? I know not; unless terror was the cause. I feared to look, to move, almost to breathe, for it seemed to my enervated mind as though the slightest motion might conjure into existence some loathsome vision. A faint, glimmering light, that I now, for the first time, perceived through the window in the opposite wing of the castle, which before had been perfectly dark, was somewhat consolatory to me. Its movement seemed to denote that there was one waking being besides myself in the vicinity of this fearful chamber; perhaps, stationed there by the Baron, through anxiety for ourselves.
While I was rejoicing in my reanimated courage, I suddenly heard a low, but distinct knocking at the door! A slight shudder, which, however, I soon suppressed, prevented me from immediately admitting my nocturnal visitor; and the knocking was repeated more loudly. I took a pistol under my arm; and, with a light in my hand, I approached the well bolted door. In the meantime, I heard behind me, a low call; and turning round, a female figure met my eyes, in the act of entering the room, by a concealed door in the tapestry. She wore a veil curiously embroidered with silver stars; and her height and appearance strikingly reminded me of the figure I had seen in my dream. For a moment, I gazed upon her in doubt, amazement, and awe; but soon she re-assured me by removing its covering from her face; and—and Adelaide stood before me! The surprise which I experienced was about to escape in an ejaculation; but she put her finger on her lips, as a sign for silence.
The mystery of the chamber was now disclosed to me. Adelaide was a somnambulist. My terror of the world of spirits now yielded to one quite as agitating, which destroyed the happiness, which the presence of the beloved of my heart must otherwise have occasioned me. How probable was it that my companions might awake, and what embarrassments and
