“Edric! Edric! thank God he is alive!” exclaimed he. “Edric! my beloved Edric! for God’s sake, let us leave this den of horrors! come, come!”
Reassured by his tutor’s voice, Edric arose, and taking one hasty, shuddering glance around as the light gleamed on the sarcophagus, he hurried out of the tomb. Neither he nor the doctor spoke as they passed through the vestibule, where the colossal figures still sat in awful majesty; indeed, as their torches were extinguished, their gigantic forms looked still more terrific than before, from the wavering and indistinct light thrown upon them. Edric shuddered as he looked, and hurried on with hasty strides to the place where they had left the guide, whom they found kneeling in a corner, hiding his face in his hands, and roaring out, “O Lord, defend us! Heaven have mercy upon us! Lord have mercy upon us! Heaven have mercy upon us!”
“He has been in that state for more than an hour,” said the doctor mournfully; “for, after I came to myself, I tried to rouse him, but all to no purpose.”
“Then you also fainted?” said Edric, with difficulty compelling himself to speak.
“Why,” resumed the doctor with some hesitation, “I don’t know that you can exactly call it fainting; but the fact was, when I saw you touch the plate upon the mummy’s breast, and start back, looking so horribly frightened, I—I thought I had better call for assistance; so as I ran for that purpose, somehow or other I fell down, and lay insensible I don’t know how long. When I came to myself, I tried to rouse the guide, and when I found I could not, I came to seek you; but now that we are both recovered, I really don’t know what is to become of us; for this fellow will never be able to show us the way out, and I’m sure I don’t know the road.”
“Let us try to find it, at any rate,” said Edward faintly.
“Oh, for God’s sake, take me too!” screamed the guide. “If you have any mercy, don’t leave me in this fearful place.”
“Take the light then, and lead the way,” said Edric. The guide obeyed, shaking in every limb, and every now and then casting a terrified look behind, whilst the quivering flame of the torch betrayed the unsteadiness of the trembling hands that bore it. In this manner they proceeded starting at every sound, and frightened even at their own shadows, without daring to stop till they reached the plain.
“Thank God!” cried the doctor, the moment they stepped out of the Pyramid; looking round him, gasping for breath, and inhaling the fresh air with rapture.
“Thank God!” reiterated Edric and the guide, as they walked rapidly towards the place where they had left their balloon. When arrived there, however, they looked for it in vain; and fancying themselves under the influence of a delusion, they rubbed their eyes, and again looked, but without success.
“Dear me, it is very strange!” said the doctor; “this is certainly the place, and yet, where can it be?”
“Where, indeed!” repeated Edric; “horrors and unaccountable incidents environ us at every step; I am not naturally timid, yet—”
“Ah!” screamed the doctor, as he tumbled over a man lying with his face upon the ground; “Oh!” groaned he, as Edric and the guide with difficulty raised him; “would to Heaven I were safe at home again in my own comfortable little study, indulging in pleasing anticipations of that, which I find is anything in the world but pleasing in reality.”
X
We left Dr. Entwerfen in the last chapter uttering a very moral, if not a very new, exclamation on the vanity of human expectations; which had scarcely escaped from his lips, ere cruel Fate, resolving not to be accused in vain, supplied him with yet more abundant cause for lamentation. We have before mentioned, that the doctor had stumbled as he quitted the Pyramids, and that his friends raised him from the ground; but what was his consternation and dismay when, on looking round to thank them, he found he was surrounded by armed men, who commanded him in the royal name to surrender! Sadly did the doctor turn his woeful eyes upon Edric, but, alas! he was in the same predicament as himself; and, in spite of their entreaties, they were marched off to prison, without being at all informed of what crime they had committed.
Sadly passed the night, and gloomy dawned the day upon the unfortunate travellers, whose minds were harassed and bewildered by the extraordinary success of their awful experiment, and whose misery was infinitely increased by the suspense they had to suffer, both on account of their ignorance of the crime of which they were accused, and its probable punishment if they should be found guilty. Soon after daybreak, a summons arrived for them to appear, and they were conducted as criminals before the same magistrate who, the day before, had treated them with such officious kindness.
Very different, however, was the solemn judge who, clothed in all the insignia of magisterial dignity, now sat upon the bench, from the easy, good-tempered gentleman of the Pyramids; and the unlucky travellers saw, in an instant, that they were not likely to experience any favour from their previous acquaintance with him. The court was thronged with people, and the prisoners saw that they were regarded with curiosity, mingled with horror and supernatural fear. It is not agreeable to feel oneself an object of disgust to anyone; and though Edric magnanimously and frequently repeated to himself that it was
