Under the
impressions, naturally excited by the communication he had held with the
traveller in the mountains, Eben Dudley found his mind equally divided
between the expectation of seeing, at each moment, one of the men whom he
had induced to quit the valley so unceremoniously, returning to obtain,
surreptitiously, admission within the gate, or of being made an unwilling
witness of some wicked manifestation of that power which was temporarily
committed to the invisibles. In both of these expectations, however, he
was fated to be disappointed Notwithstanding the strong spiritual bias of
the opinions of the credulous sentinel, there was too much of the dross of
temporal things in his composition, to elevate him altogether above the
weakness of humanity. A mind so encumbered began to weary with its own
contemplations; and, as it grew feeble with its extraordinary efforts, the
dominion of matter gradually resumed its sway. Thought, instead of being
clear and active, as the emergency would have seemed to require, began to
grow misty. Once or twice the borderer half arose, and appeared to look
about him with observation; and then, as his large frame fell heavily back
into its former semi-recumbent attitude, he grew tranquil and stationary.
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