The International Magazine, Volume 4, No. 5, December 1851Various
History
The International Magazine, Volume 4, No. 5, December 1851
Various
Art, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- History -- Periodicals
After she had thus thought for some two hours, gaining more and more
self-command every moment, as she turned and returned all the points
of her situation in her own mind, and viewed them in every different
aspect, she rose to retire to rest, lay down, and tried to sleep. At
first importunate thought troubled her. The same kind of ideas went
on--the same reasonings upon them--and slumber for more than one hour
would not visit her eyelids. But she was a very resolute woman, and
at length she determined that she would not think: she would banish
thought altogether; she would not let the mind rest for one moment upon
any subject whatsoever; and she succeeded. The absence of thought is
sleep; and she slept; but resolution ended where sleep begun, and the
images she had banished waking, returned to the mind in slumber. Her
rest was troubled. Growing fancies seemed to come thick upon her mind;
though the eyes remained closed, the features were agitated; the lips
moved. Sometimes she laughed; sometimes she moaned piteously; sometimes
tears found their way through her closed eyelids; and sobs struggled in
her bosom.
At length, between three and four o'clock in the morning, Mrs. Hazleton
rose up in bed. She opened her eyes, too; but there was a dull glassy
look about them--a fixed leaden stare, not natural to her waking hours.
Slowly she got out of bed, approached the table, took up a candle
which she had left burning there, and which was now nearly down to the
socket, and walked straight to the door, saying aloud, "Very dark--very
dark--every thing is dark."
She tried the door, but found it locked; and the constable slept on.
She then returned to the table, seated herself, and for some five or
ten minutes continued to twist her long hair round her fingers. She
then rose again, and went straight to the window, threw it up, and
seemed to look out. "Chilly--chilly," she said. "I must walk to warm
myself."
The sill of the window was somewhat high, but that was no obstacle; for
there was a chair near, and Mrs. Hazleton placed it for herself with as
much care as if she had been wide awake. When this was done she stepped
lightly upon it, and put her knee upon the window-sill, raised herself
suddenly upright, and struck her head sharply against the upper part of
the window. It is probable that the blow woke her, but at all events it
destroyed her balance, and she fell forward at once out of the window.
There was a loud shriek, and then a deep groan. But the constable slept
on, and no one knew the fate that had befallen her 'till Mr. Short, the
surgeon, passing the house, was attracted to the spot where she had
fallen, by a moan, and the sight of a white object lying beneath the
window.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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