n. Then the thought of
Manuela rushed in upon him, and he uttered a loud cry. The sound of his
voice in the confined space was terrible. It seemed to rush in upon his
brain with awful din. In his agony, a feeling of frantic despair came
over him, and, with the strength of a giant, he struggled to be free,
but still without success. Exhausted as much by his horror as by his
efforts, he lay for some minutes quite still, his brain keenly alive and
thirsting, as it were, for some sound that might convey hope. No sound
was to be heard, save the intense beating of his own pulsations which
seemed to throb into his ears, and down into his very extremities.

As he lay listening, it came strangely into his thoughts, with something
like a feeling of regret, that it would be very hard for him to die! So
much strong life as he possessed must, he thought, take long to destroy!
But again, the memory of poor Manuela, perhaps in a similar condition,
and certainly not far from him, banished the thoughts of self, and he
listened once more intently.

All was still as the grave. The effort at self-control, however, calmed
him a little, and, in a gentler mood, he tried to move his arms. The
left arm was fixed as in a vice, and gave him so much pain, that he
feared it had been broken. The right arm was also fast, but he felt
that he could move his hand.

It was a feeble straw for the buried man to clutch at, yet it was strong
enough to buoy up Hope in a stout heart. His courage returned, and with
calm, resolute patience he set to work, uttering the fervent prayer,
"Help me, O God!"

Where there was space for a hand to move freely, he knew there must be
space to remove rubbish, though it might be ever so little. In a few
minutes some handful of earth were thrust aside. Then, by drawing his
arm upwards and pushing it downwards, he loosened the rubbish around it,
and by slow degrees set it partially free. If he had been entombed in
solid earth, this, he was well aware, could not have been possible; but,
rightly judging that in a mass of mingled bricks, mortar, and beams
there must be spaces more or less open, he worked away, with patience
and in hope. The result was that he was able at last to touch with his
right hand the object which lay so crushingly on his chest. It was an
enormous beam. The utter impossibility of even moving it filled him for
a moment with despair, but again he cried to God for help. The cry was
answer