CHAPTER XX 260
I had put on some clothes , though horror shook all my limbs ; I issued from my apartment . The sleepers were all aroused : ejaculations , terrified murmurs sounded in every room ; door after door unclosed ; one looked out and another looked out ; the gallery filled . Gentlemen and ladies alike had quitted their beds ; and " Oh ! what is it ?" -- " Who is hurt ?" -- " What has happened ?" -- " Fetch a light !" -- " Is it fire ?" -- " Are there robbers ?" -- " Where shall we run ?" was demanded confusedly on all hands . But for the moonlight they would have been in complete darkness . They ran to and fro ; they crowded together : some sobbed , some stumbled : the confusion was inextricable .
" Where the devil is Rochester ?" cried Colonel Dent . " I cannot find him in his bed ."
" Here ! here !" was shouted in return . " Be composed , all of you : I ' m coming ."
And the door at the end of the gallery opened , and Mr . Rochester advanced with a candle : he had just descended from the upper storey . One of the ladies ran to him directly ; she seized his arm : it was Miss Ingram .
" What awful event has taken place ?" said she . " Speak ! let us know the worst at once !"
" But don ' t pull me down or strangle me ," he replied : for the Misses Eshton were clinging about him now ; and the two dowagers , in vast white wrappers , were bearing down on him like ships in full sail .
" All ' s right ! -- all ' s right !" he cried . " It ' s a mere rehearsal of Much Ado about Nothing . Ladies , keep off , or I shall wax dangerous ."
And dangerous he looked : his black eyes darted sparks . Calming himself by an effort , he added -
" A servant has had the nightmare ; that is all . She ' s an excitable , nervous person : she construed her dream into an apparition , or something of that