To my unspeakable surprize, notwithstanding every motive to fear, you lighted a candle and proceeded to your chamber.
"I retired to that room below from which a door leads into the cellar.
This door concealed me from your view as you passed.

I thought upon the spectacle which was about to present itself.

In an exigence so abrupt and so little foreseen, I was again subjected to the empire of mechanical and habitual impulses.

I dreaded the effects which this shocking exhibition, bursting on your unprepared senses, might produce.
"Thus actuated, I stept swiftly to the door, and thrusting my head forward, once more pronounced the mysterious interdiction.

At that moment, by some untoward fate, your eyes were cast back, and you saw me in the very act of utterance.