I was aroused from this stupor by sounds that evidently arose in the next chamber.

Was it possible that I had been mistaken in the figure which I had seen on the bank?
or had Carwin, by some inscrutable means, penetrated once more into this chamber?
The opposite door opened; footsteps came forth, and the person, advancing to mine, knocked.
So unexpected an incident robbed me of all presence of mind, and, starting up, I involuntarily exclaimed, "Who is there ?" An answer was immediately given.

The voice, to my inexpressible astonishment, was Pleyel's.
"It is I.Have you risen?
If you have not, make haste; I want three minutes conversation with you in the parlour--I will wait for you there." Saying this he retired from the door.
Should I confide in the testimony of my ears?
If that were true, it was Pleyel that had been hitherto immured in the opposite chamber: he whom my rueful fancy had depicted in so many ruinous and ghastly shapes: he whose footsteps had been listened to with such inquietude! What is man, that knowledge is so sparingly conferred upon him! that his heart should be wrung with distress, and his frame be exanimated with fear, though his safety be encompassed with impregnable walls! What are the bounds of human imbecility! He that warned me of the presence of my foe refused the intimation by which so many racking fears would have been precluded.
Yet who would have imagined the arrival of Pleyel at such an hour?
His tone was desponding and anxious.

Why this unseasonable summons?
and why this hasty departure?
Some tidings he, perhaps, bears of mysterious and unwelcome import.
My impatience would not allow me to consume much time in deliberation: I hastened down.

Pleyel I found standing at a window, with eyes cast down as in meditation, and arms folded on his breast.