Once more I paused. The passage was of considerable extent, and at the
end of it I perceived light as from a lamp or candle. This impelled me
to go forward, till I reached the foot of a staircase. A candle stood
upon the lowest step.

This was a new proof that the house was not deserted. I struck my heel
against the floor with some violence; but this, like my former signals,
was unnoticed. Having proceeded thus far, it would have been absurd to
retire with my purpose uneffected. Taking the candle in my hand, I
opened a door that was near. It led into a spacious parlour, furnished
with profusion and splendour. I walked to and fro, gazing at the objects
which presented themselves; and, involved in perplexity, I knocked with
my heel louder than ever; but no less ineffectually.

Notwithstanding the lights which I had seen, it was possible that the
house was uninhabited. This I was resolved to ascertain, by proceeding
to the chamber which I had observed, from without, to be illuminated.
This chamber, as far as the comparison of circumstances would permit me
to decide, I believed to be the same in which I had passed the first
night of my late abode in the city. Now was I, a second time, in almost
equal ignorance of my situation, and of the consequences which impended,
exploring my way to the same recess.

I mounted the stair. As I approached the door of which I was in search,
a vapour, infectious and deadly, assailed my senses. It resembled
nothing of which I had ever before been sensible. Many odours had been
met with, even since my arrival in the city, less supportable than this.
I seemed not so much to smell as to taste the element that now
encompassed me. I felt as if I had inhaled a poisonous and subtle fluid,
whose power instantly bereft my stomach of all vigour. Some fatal