At length, summoning up his courage, he advanced to the spot on which the figure had seemed to be seated; but neither was there pressure of the grass nor any other circumstance to induce him to believe that what he had seen was real and substantial.
Full of those strange thoughts and confused apprehensions which awake in the bosom of one who conceives he has witnessed some preternatural appearance, the Master of Ravenswood walked back towards his horse, frequently, however, looking behind him, not without apprehension, as if expecting that the vision would reappear.

But the apparition, whether it was real or whether it was the creation of a heated and agitated imagination, returned not again; and he found his horse sweating and terrified, as if experiencing that agony of fear with which the presence of a supernatural being is supposed to agitate the brute creation.

The Master mounted, and rode slowly forward, soothing his steed from time to time, while the animal seemed internally to shrink and shudder, as if expecting some new object of fear at the opening of every glade.
The rider, after a moment's consideration, resolved to investigate the matter further.

"Can my eyes have deceived me," he said, "and deceived me for such a space of time?
Or are this woman's infirmities but feigned, in order to excite compassion?
And even then, her motion resembled not that of a living and existing person.

Must I adopt the popular creed, and think that the unhappy being has formed a league with the powers of darkness?
I am determined to be resolved; I will not brook imposition even from my own eyes." In this uncertainty he rode up to the little wicket of Alice's garden.
Her seat beneath the birch-tree was vacant, though the day was pleasant and the sun was high.