idea had dawned upon me while Nannie was undressing me--I was composed
enough now to press my face to a pane, and look out. There was a small
space amidst the storm dimly illuminated from the windows below, and
the moment I looked--out of the darkness into this dim space, as if
blown thither by the wind, rushed a figure on horseback, his large
cloak flying out before him, and the mane of the animal he rode
streaming out over his ears in the fierceness of the blast. He pulled
up right under my window, and I thought he looked up, and made
threatening gestures at me; but I believe now that horse and man pulled
up in sudden danger of dashing against the wall of the house. I shrank
back, and when I peeped out again he was gone. The same moment the
pendulum gave a click and stopped; one more rattle of rain against the
windows, and then the wind stopped also. I crept back to my bed in a
new terror, for might not this be the Prince of the Power of the Air,
come to see who was meddling with his affairs? Had he not come right
out of the storm, and straight from the trees? He must have something
to do with it all! Before I had settled the probabilities of the
question, however, I was fast asleep.

I awoke--how long after, I cannot tell--with the sound of voices in my
ears. It was still dark. The voices came from below. I had been
dreaming of the strange horseman, who had turned out to be the awful
being concerning whom Nannie had enlightened me as going about at night
to buy little children from their nurses, and make bagpipes of their
skins. Awaked from such a dream, it was impossible to lie still without
knowing what those voices down below were talking about. The strange
one must belong to the being, whatever he was, whom I had seen come out
of the storm; and of whom could they be talking but me? I was right in
both conclusions.