The sound it made seemed to awake whatever energy of horror lay dormant within him. Bestirring himself, he lifted his head and repeated again that fearsome word:
Then he leaped to his feet, and his aspect grew terrible as he looked up and shouted, as it were, into the heavens that same dread word:
Filled with horror, I endeavored to take him by the arm, but he shook me off, and cried in a terrible voice:
"A fiend, a demon, a creature of the darkest hell! I have worshiped her, pardoned her, dreamed of her for fifteen years in solitudes dedicated to God! O Creator of all good! What sacrilege I have committed! How shall I ever atone for a manhood wasted on a dream, and for thoughts that must have made the angels of Heaven veil their faces in wonder and pity.
"You must have a story to tell," he now said, turning toward me, with the first look of natural human curiosity which I had seen in his face since I came.
"Yes," said I, "I have; but it will not serve to lessen your horror; it will only add to it."
"Nothing can add to it," was his low reply. "And yet I thank you for the warning."
Encouraged by his manner, which had become strangely self-possessed, I immediately began, and told him of the visit of this bridal party at your inn; then as I saw that he had judged himself correctly, and that he was duly prepared for all I could reveal, I added first your suspicions, and then a full account of our fatal discovery in the secret chamber.
He bore it like a man upon whom emotion has spent all its force; only, when I had finished, he gave one groan, and then, as if he feared I would mistake the meaning of this evidence of suffering, he made haste to exclaim:
"Poor Honora! My heart owes her one cry of pity, one tear of grief. I shall never weep for any one else; though, if I could, it would be for myself and the wasted years with which I have mocked God's providence."
Relieved to find him in this mood, I rose and shook his hand cordially.
"You will come back to Albany with me?" I entreated. "We have need of you, and this spot will never be a home to you again."
The echo was unexpected, but welcome. I led the way out of the cave.
He shook his head and cast one prolonged look around him.