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amid friends that loved him, and sweeter endearments
of those who loved him as friends could not,
that in the first moments of waking, his startled
mind seemed to admit the knowledge of his situation
as if it had burst upon it for the first time, fresh
in all its appalling horrors. He gazed round with
an air of doubt and amazement, and took up a handful
of the straw upon which he lay, as though he
would ask himself what it meant. But memory,
too faithful to her office, soon unveiled the melancholy
past, while reason, shuddering at the task,
flashed before his eyes the tremendous future.
The contrast overpowered him. He remained for
some time lamenting, like a truth, the bright visions
that had vanished ; and recoiling from the present,
which clung to him as a poisoned garment.
When he grew more calm, he surveyed his
gloomy dungeon. Alas! the stronger light of day
only served to confirm what the gloomy indistinctness
of the preceding evening had partially disclosed,
the utter impossibility of escape. As,
however, his eyes wandered round and round, and
from place to place, he noticed two circumstances
which excited his surprise and curiosity. The one,
he thought might be fancy ; but the other, was
positive. His pitcher of water, and the dish which
contained his food, had been removed from his side
while he slept, and now stood near the door.
Were he even inclined to doubt this, by supposing
he had mistaken the spot where he saw them over
night, he could not, for the pitcher now in his
dungeon was neither of the same form nor colour
as the other, while the food was changed for some
other of better quality. He had been visited
therefore during the night. But how had the
person obtained entrance ? Could he have slept so
