, half asleep and at prayer; for
their cadences were blended and slurred into each other, as they
repeated, in an awe-struck and earnest undertone, the prayers in which
they were engaged. It was certainly the strangest sound I ever heard,
and resembled a thousand subterraneous groans, uttered in a kind of low,
deep, unvaried chant. Nothing could produce a sense of gloomy alarm in
a weak superstitious mind equal to this; and it derived much of its wild
and singular character, as well as of its lethargic influence, from its
continuity; for it still--still rung lowly and supernaturally on my ear.
Perhaps the deep, wavy prolongation of the bass of a large cathedral
bell, or that low, continuous sound, which is distinct from its higher
and louder intonations, would give a faint notion of it, yet only a
faint one; for the body of hoarse monotony here was immense. Indeed,
such a noise had something so powerfully lulling, that human nature,
even excited by the terrible suggestions of superstitious fear, was
scarcely able to withstand it.

Now the poor pilgrims forget, that this strong disposition to sleep
arises from the weariness produced by their long journeys--by the
exhausting penance of the station, performed without giving them time
to rest--by the other still more natural consequence of not giving
them time to sleep--by the drowsy darkness of the chapel--and by the
heaviness caught from the low peculiar murmur of the pilgrims, which
would of itself overcome the lightest spirit. I was here but a very
short time when I began to doze, and just as my chin was sinking
placidly on my breast, and the words of an Ave Maria dying upon my
lips, I felt the charm all at once broken by a well-meant rap upon the
occiput, conferred through the instrumentality of a little angry-looking
squat urchin of sixty years, and a remarkably good black-thorn cudgel,
with which he was engaged in thwacking the heads of such sinners, as,
not having the dread of insanity and the regulations of the place before
their eyes, were inclined to sleep. I declare the knock I received
told to such a purpose on my head, that nothing occurred during the
pilgrimage that vexed me so much.

After all, I really slept the better half of the night; yet so
indescribably powerful was the apprehension of derangement, that my
hypocritical tongue wagged aloud at the prayers, during these furtive
naps. Nay, I not only slept but dreamed. I experienced also that
singular st