I started, and looked again.

I bore a light in my hand, and brought it nearer my eyes, in order to dispel any illusive mists that might have hovered before them.

Once more I fixed my eyes upon the bed, in hope that this more stedfast scrutiny would annihilate the object which before seemed to be there.
This then was the sight which Carwin had predicted! This was the event which my understanding was to find inexplicable! This was the fate which had been reserved for me, but which, by some untoward chance, had befallen on another! I had not been terrified by empty menaces.

Violation and death awaited my entrance into this chamber.

Some inscrutable chance had led HER hither before me, and the merciless fangs of which I was designed to be the prey, had mistaken their victim, and had fixed themselves in HER heart.