The Unknown; Or, the Northern Gallery. Or, the Northern Gallery

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1826. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... my peace of mind, of those wrongs which many years ago I suffered, harried me beyond myself: you will scarcely credit how great was its effect at that instant on my senses, when I tell you, that for the instant, I even believed myself to behold the atrocious enemy I was describing. I doubt not, from the exclamation which I made, that you actually believed me to see some person. Yes, indeed 1 did, replied Eleonora; and you did see some one, did you not? Oh! no, no, returned the hermit; it has more than once occurred to me before, that my ideas have been so strengthened by the phrenzied agony of my mind, that I have believed them real.--There was no one near. Are you sure of that? asked Eleonora; I thought myself, that I beheld a figure of extreme lankness, of a ghastly and terrific visage, whose mournful habit, of a raven black, With a faint and melancholy smile, Agatha interrupted her; Such a one, she I said, was I describing, and the interest with which you listened to my words, led you, my dear child, to experience the same impression which my mind underwent. Eleonora was not less surprised by this declaration, than she had been alarmed by the appearance which she had a few minutes before beheld; she could not believe that her senses had deceived her; and she knew not whether to suppose that Agatha had really believed the form which had stood before her to have been the creation of her own fancy, or that she had any private motive for wishing to lead her into that belief. A considerable silence ensued; Eleonora could not withdraw her eyes from the entrance of the hermitage, and Agatha sat with the palms of her hands pressed to her forehead, as if endeavouring to regain her composure of mind; when she spoke, she again apologised to Eleonora for the ...