I
remember, as it were, the instant when my thoughts ceased to flow and my
senses were arrested by the leaden wand of forgetfulness. My return to sensation and to consciousness took place in no such
tranquil scene. I emerged from oblivion by degrees so slow and so faint,
that their succession cannot be marked. When enabled at length to attend
to the information which my senses afforded, I was conscious for a time
of nothing but existence. It was unaccompanied with lassitude or pain,
but I felt disinclined to stretch my limbs or raise my eyelids. My
thoughts were wildering and mazy, and, though consciousness was present,
it was disconnected with the locomotive or voluntary power. From this state a transition was speedily effected. I perceived that my
posture was supine, and that I lay upon my back. I attempted to open my
eyes. The weight that oppressed them was too great for a slight exertion
to remove. The exertion which I made cost me a pang more acute than any
which I ever experienced. My eyes, however, were opened; but the
darkness that environed me was as intense as before. I attempted to rise, but my limbs were cold, and my joints had almost
lost their flexibility. My efforts were repeated, and at length I
attained a sitting posture. I was now sensible of pain in my shoulders
and back. I was universally in that state to which the frame is reduced
by blows of a club, mercilessly and endlessly repeated; my temples
throbbed, and my face was covered with clammy and cold drops: but that
which threw me into deepest consternation was my inability to see. I
turned my head to different quarters; I stretched my eyelids, and
exerted every visual energy, but in vain. I was wrapped in the murkiest
and most impenetrable gloom. The first effort of reflection was to suggest the belief that I was
blind: that disease is known to assail us in a moment and without
previous warning. This, surely, was the misfortune that had now befallen
me. Some ray, however fleeting and uncertain, could not fail to be
discerned, if the power of vision were not utterly extinguished. In what
circumstances could I possibly be placed, from which every particle of
light should, by other means, be excluded? This led my thoughts into a new train. I endeavoured to recall the past;
but the past was too much in contradiction to the present, and my
intellect was too much shattered by external violence, to allow me
accurately to review it. Since my sight availed nothing to the knowledge of my condition, I
betook myself to other instruments. The element which I breathed was
stagnant and cold. The spot where I lay was rugged and hard. I was
neither naked nor clothed: a shirt and trousers composed my dress, and
the shoes and stockings, which always accompanied these, were now
wanting. What could I infer from this scanty garb, this chilling
atmosphere, this stony bed? I had awakened as from sleep. What was my condition when I fell asleep? Surely it was different from the present. Then I inhabited a lightsome
chamber and was stretched upon a down bed; now I was supine upon a
rugged surface and immersed in palpable obscurity. Then I was in perfect
health; now my frame was covered with bruises and every joint was racked
with pain. What dungeon or den had received me, and by whose command was
I transported hither? After various efforts I stood upon my feet. At first I tottered and
staggered. I stretched out my hands on all sides, but met only with
vacuity. I advanced forward. At the third step my foot moved something
which lay upon the ground: I stooped and took it up, and found, on
examination, that it was an Indian tomahawk. This incident afforded me
no hint from which I might conjecture my state. Proceeding irresolutely and slowly forward, my hands at length touched a
wall. This, like the flooring, was of stone, and was rugged and
impenetrable. I followed this wall. An advancing angle occurred at a
short distance, which was followed by similar angles. I continued to
explore this clue, till the suspicion occurred that I was merely going
round the walls of a vast and irregular apartment. The utter darkness disabled me from comparing directions and distances. This discovery, therefore, was not made on a sudden, and was still
entangled with some doubt. My blood recovered some warmth, and my
muscles some elasticity; but in proportion as my sensibility returned,
my pains augmented. Overpowered by my fears and my agonies, I desisted
from my fruitless search, and sat down, supporting my back against the
wall. My excruciating sensations for a time occupied my attention. These, in
combination with other causes, gradually produced a species of delirium. I existed, as it were, in a wakeful dream. With nothing to correct my
erroneous perceptions, the images of the past occurred in capricious
combinations and vivid hues. Methought I was the victim of some tyrant
who had thrust me into a dungeon of his fortress, and left me no power
to determine whether he intended I should perish with famine, or linger
out a long life in hopeless imprisonment. Whether the day was shut out
by insuperable walls, or the darkness that surrounded me was owing to
the night and to the smallness of those crannies through which daylight
was to be admitted, I conjectured in vain. Sometimes I imagined myself buried alive. Methought I had fallen into
seeming death, and my friends had consigned me to the tomb, from which a
resurrection was impossible. That, in such a case, my limbs would have
been confined to a coffin, and my coffin to a grave, and that I should
instantly have been suffocated, did not occur to destroy my supposition. Neither did this supposition overwhelm me with terror or prompt my
efforts at deliverance. My state was full of tumult and confusion, and
my attention was incessantly divided between my painful sensations and
my feverish dreams. There is no standard by which time can be measured but the succession of
our thoughts and the changes that take place in the external world. From
the latter I was totally excluded. The former made the lapse of some
hours appear like the tediousness of weeks and months. At length, a new
sensation recalled my rambling meditations, and gave substance to my
fears. I now felt the cravings of hunger, and perceived that, unless my
deliverance were speedily effected, I must suffer a tedious and
lingering death. I once more tasked my understanding and my senses to discover the nature
of my present situation and the means of escape. I listened to catch
some sound. I heard an unequal and varying echo, sometimes near and
sometimes distant, sometimes dying away and sometimes swelling into
loudness. It was unlike any thing I had before heard, but it was evident
that it arose from wind sweeping through spacious halls and winding
passages. These tokens were incompatible with the result of the
examination I had made. If my hands were true, I was immured between
walls through which there was no avenue.