- description
- # Attempting to Leave the Room
## Overview
"Attempting to Leave the Room" is a subsection of a larger work, detailing a specific scene within the narrative. It is part of Chapter XIII of a novel extracted from the file "israel_potter.txt" and is included in the "Melville Complete Works" collection. The text spans from line 3251 to 3282.
## Context
This subsection is situated within [Chapter XIII. HIS ESCAPE FROM THE HOUSE, WITH VARIOUS ADVENTURES FOLLOWING.](arke:01KG8AJJ261FWJ1RK528BTY9AX) of a novel. It follows the subsection titled [Donning the Disguise](arke:01KG8AK5MXMJ9BWXGCHP71JM4G) and precedes the subsection [Escape from the House and Initial Journey](arke:01KG8AK5MX6MWF7YRE40SJE4GV). The entire narrative is sourced from the text file [israel_potter.txt](arke:01KG89J1DKC9HHJRKY25JZBEXW) and is part of the broader [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection.
## Contents
The text describes the protagonist, Israel, attempting to leave a room after dark. He waits until midnight, then cautiously enters the closet, steeling himself for the risks involved. He tries the door, finding it stuck and then unexpectedly bursting open. As he moves down the hall, he is met with alarmed faces peering from doorways. Despite his fear, Israel maintains a steady pace, drawing attention and causing a woman in widow's weeds to faint. He steps over her and continues his determined exit.
- description_generated_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:43.435Z
- description_model
- gemini-2.5-flash-lite
- description_title
- Attempting to Leave the Room
- end_line
- 3282
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:47:55.385Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 3251
- text
- Waiting long and anxiously till darkness came, and then till he thought
it was fairly midnight, he stole back into the closet, and standing for
a moment uneasily in the middle of the floor, thinking over all the
risks he might run, he lingered till he felt himself resolute and calm.
Then groping for the door leading into the hall, put his hand on the
knob and turned it. But the door refused to budge. Was it locked? The
key was not in. Turning the knob once more, and holding it so, he
pressed firmly against the door. It did not move. More firmly still,
when suddenly it burst open with a loud crackling report. Being
cramped, it had stuck in the sill. Less than three seconds passed when,
as Israel was groping his way down the long wide hall towards the large
staircase at its opposite end, he heard confused hurrying noises from
the neighboring rooms, and in another instant several persons, mostly
in night-dresses, appeared at their chamber-doors, thrusting out
alarmed faces, lit by a lamp held by one of the number, a rather
elderly lady in widow’s weeds, who by her appearance seemed to have
just risen from a sleepless chair, instead of an oblivious couch.
Israel’s heart beat like a hammer; his face turned like a sheet. But
bracing himself, pulling his hat lower down over his eyes, settling his
head in the collar of his coat, he advanced along the defile of wildly
staring faces. He advanced with a slow and stately step, looked neither
to the right nor the left, but went solemnly forward on his now faintly
illuminated way, sounding his cane on the floor as he passed. The faces
in the doorways curdled his blood by their rooted looks. Glued to the
spot, they seemed incapable of motion. Each one was silent as he
advanced towards him or her, but as he left each individual, one after
another, behind, each in a frenzy shrieked out, “The Squire, the
Squire!” As he passed the lady in the widow’s weeds, she fell senseless
and crosswise before him. But forced to be immutable in his purpose,
Israel, solemnly stepping over her prostrate form, marched deliberately
on.
- title
- Attempting to Leave the Room