It was a human figure.

Nothing could be briefer than the glance that I fixed upon this apparition; yet there was room enough for the vague conception to suggest itself, that the dying man had started from his bed and was approaching me.

This belief was, at the same instant, confuted, by the survey of his form and garb.

One eye, a scar upon his cheek, a tawny skin, a form grotesquely misproportioned, brawny as Hercules, and habited in livery, composed, as it were, the parts of one view.
To perceive, to fear, and to confront this apparition were blended into one sentiment.

I turned towards him with the swiftness of lightning; but my speed was useless to my safety.