I knew the chase would end there.'
'You have a strong fancy,' said the blind man, with a smile.
'Strengthen yours with blood, and see what it will come to.'
He groaned, and rocked himself, and looking up for the first time, said,
in a low, hollow voice:
'Eight-and-twenty years! Eight-and-twenty years! He has never changed
in all that time, never grown older, nor altered in the least degree.
He has been before me in the dark night, and the broad sunny day; in the
twilight, the moonlight, the sunlight, the light of fire, and lamp,
and candle; and in the deepest gloom. Always the same! In company, in
solitude, on land, on shipboard; sometimes leaving me alone for months,
and sometimes always with me. I have seen him, at sea, come gliding in
the dead of night along the bright reflection of the moon in the calm
water; and I have seen him, on quays and market-places, with his hand
uplifted, towering, the centre of a busy crowd, unconscious of the
terrible form that had its silent stand among them. Fancy! Are you real?
Am I? Are these iron fetters, riveted on me by the smith's hammer, or
are they fancies I can shatter at a blow?'
The blind man listened in silence.
Pages:
794
795
796
797
798
799
800
801
802
803
804
805
806
807
808
809
810
811
812
813
814
815
816
817
818