wing which
path to take, and whether to proceed or not. I was almost naked. I
had been severely bruised. My feet, otherwise accustomed to the naked
ground, had become quite lacerated by the pursuit I had undertaken; and
altogether, I was so worn with grief, so broken-hearted, that I
laid myself down on the wet earth in a state of desperation that was
succeeded by a torpor of all my senses. Here I lay until the first rays
of the morning glared in my eyes, and brought me gradually to a sense of
my situation.

'"What has happened?" said I. "Where am I? How came I here? Either the
demons and wicked angels of another world have been at work this night,
or else I am most grossly abused. To see that glorious orb rising in
that clear unclouded sky; to mark the soothing serenity of nature, the
morning freshness, the song of the birds, the lowing of yon cattle,
and the quiet and seclusion of my yonder paternal village, I ought to
suppose that the images of horror, of indescribable horror, now floating
in my mind, must be those of a diseased imagination. Is it possible
that in this secluded spot, under this lovely sky, in the midst of these
bounteous gifts of nature, I could have seen man murdering his fellow
creature, the blazing cottage, the mangled corse, the bleeding head;
and, O cruel, O killing thought, that I should have been bereft of my
dear, my innocent wife?" and then, then only, was I restored to a full
possession of every occurrence that had taken place; and tears which
before had refused to flow now came to my assistance, and relieved my
burning temples and my almost suffocating bosom. I got up, and walked
slowly to the village. All was hushed into quiet; a slight smoke was
here and there to be seen; stray cattle were grazing on the outskirts;
strangers on horseback seemed to be busily employed in preparations
of some kind or other, and the wretched peasantry were seen huddled
together in groups, scarcely awake from the suddenness of the
destruction which had visited them, and uncertain of the fate which
might still be in reserve. As for me, the loss which I had already
sustained made me expect every other attendant misfortune. I had made my
mind up to find my relations dead, to see the total ruin of our house,
and to know that I was a solitary outcast on the face of the world,
without a wife, without a home, without parents, without a friend. But
no, imagination had worked up the picture too highly; for one of the