The breath which accompanied it did not fan my hair, yet did every circumstance combine to persuade me that the lips which uttered it touched my very shoulder.
"Hold! Hold!" were the words of this tremendous prohibition, in whose tone the whole soul seemed to be wrapped up, and every energy converted into eagerness and terror.
Shuddering, I dashed myself against the wall, and by the same involuntary impulse, turned my face backward to examine the mysterious monitor.

The moon-light streamed into each window, and every corner of the room was conspicuous, and yet I beheld nothing! The interval was too brief to be artificially measured, between the utterance of these words, and my scrutiny directed to the quarter whence they came.

Yet if a human being had been there, could he fail to have been visible?
Which of my senses was the prey of a fatal illusion?
The shock which the sound produced was still felt in every part of my frame.
The sound, therefore, could not but be a genuine commotion.

But that I had heard it, was not more true than that the being who uttered it was stationed at my right ear; yet my attendant was invisible.
I cannot describe the state of my thoughts at that moment.

Surprize had mastered my faculties.