ith this very unsatisfactory speech, he left us. My father, after
brooding on what he had said for some time, knelt down, and was long in
prayer: then he murmured, "I will both lay me down in peace and sleep:
for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety." And I knew soon, by
his breathing, that he had indeed found rest in sleep. For me, I could
not close my eyes: the text that dwelt in my mind was, "My soul is
among lions." I thought of Madame Laccassagne and the other poor
women wandering in the fields, and pictured a thousand distressing
circumstances. Our solitary oil-lamp was beginning to languish for want
of trimming, and I thought, "What if it should leave us in darkness
altogether, and we should never know when it is day?" and dwelt on the
Egyptians in the plague of darkness, when none of them rose from his
place for three days. I was so feverish that it seemed to me a darkness
like that would madden me--I must dash my head against the wall, or do
something desperate; and I thought of Jonah in the whale's belly, when
the waters compassed him round about, and his soul fainted in that
hideous darkness; and again it was "three days." Then I thought, "Why
three days?" Was it because the Son of Man was three days in the heart
of the earth? And shall we remain here in this subterranean darkness
three days?

Just as the lamp seemed going out my loved mother stole out of the inner
dungeon, and trimmed it; then noiselessly stole to my side, and, seeing
my eyes open, smiled on me and kissed me, and then lay down beside my
father. Oh, the peace, the security of her presence! I sank into
dreamless sleep.

I was awakened by the most horrid noise I ever heard in my life. It
seemed like the roar of a lion close to my ear, and I started up in wild
affright, fancying myself a Christian prisoner about to be thrown to the
wild beasts. All around was dark as pitch--the lamp had gone out! The
frightful bellowing continued without intermission; and, besides, there
were sobs and screams, brutal laughter and cursing. Dreadful moment!
Presently a spark of light momentarily illumined our cell, and showed
the anxious face of my mother, as she re-kindled the lamp, surrounded by
the terrified children and girls, roused from their sleep by the hideous
uproar.

"Oh, what is it?--what is it?" cried I. My mother's lips moved, but she
could not make herself heard. Having succeeded in lighting the lamp, she
came close to me, and said--

"Th