If, previous to this disclosure, I should change my blood-stained garments and withdraw into the country, shall I not be pursued by the most vehement suspicions, and, perhaps, hunted to my obscurest retreat by the ministers of justice?
I am innocent; but my tale, however circumstantial or true, will scarcely suffice for my vindication.

My flight will be construed into a proof of incontestable guilt.
While harassed by these thoughts, my attention was attracted by a faint gleam cast upon the bottom of the staircase.

It grew stronger, hovered for a moment in my sight, and then disappeared.

That it proceeded from a lamp or candle, borne by some one along the passages, was no untenable opinion, but was far less probable than that the effulgence was meteorous.

I confided in the latter supposition, and fortified myself anew against the dread of preternatural dangers.