This was a
dreadful trial: and no doubt the counterfeit sleep would immediately have
been detected, when suddenly a dreadful spectacle drew off the attention
of the murderer. Solemnly, and in ghostly silence, uprose in her dying
delirium the murdered girl; she stood upright, she walked steadily for a
moment or two, she bent her steps towards the door. The murderer turned
away to pursue her; and at that moment the boy, feeling that his one
solitary chance was to fly while this scene was in progress, bounded out
of bed. On the landing at the head of the stairs was one murderer, at the
foot of the stairs was the other: who could believe that the boy had the
shadow of a chance for escaping? And yet, in the most natural way, he
surmounted all hindrances. In the boy's horror, he laid his left hand on
the balustrade, and took a flying leap over it, which landed him at the
bottom of the stairs, without having touched a single stair. He had thus
effectually passed one of the murderers: the other, it is true, was still
to be passed; and this would have been impossible but for a sudden
accident. The landlady had been alarmed by the faint scream of the young
woman; had hurried from her private room to the girl's assistance; but at
the foot of the stairs had been intercepted by the younger brother, and
was at this moment struggling with _him_. The confusion of this life-and-
death conflict had allowed the boy to whirl past them.
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