feet in length,
and, where broadest, eight or nine inches in breadth. They were of solid
steel apparently, and their edges appeared to be sharp. Having noticed
these particulars, and some others, I again turned my eyes upon the
glorious prospect below, and soon became absorbed in contemplation.

From this, after some minutes, I was aroused by the voice of Pompey, who
declared that he could stand it no longer, and requested that I would be
so kind as to come down. This was unreasonable, and I told him so in a
speech of some length. He replied, but with an evident misunderstanding
of my ideas upon the subject. I accordingly grew angry, and told him
in plain words, that he was a fool, that he had committed an ignoramus
e-clench-eye, that his notions were mere insommary Bovis, and his
words little better than an ennemywerrybor'em. With this he appeared
satisfied, and I resumed my contemplations.

It might have been half an hour after this altercation when, as I was
deeply absorbed in the heavenly scenery beneath me, I was startled by
something very cold which pressed with a gentle pressure on the back of
my neck. It is needless to say that I felt inexpressibly alarmed. I knew
that Pompey was beneath my feet, and that Diana was sitting, according
to my explicit directions, upon her hind legs, in the farthest corner of
the room. What could it be? Alas! I but too soon discovered. Turning
my head gently to one side, I perceived, to my extreme horror, that the
huge, glittering, scimetar-like minute-hand of the clock had, in the
course of its hourly revolution, descended upon my neck. There was, I
knew, not a second to be lost. I pulled back at once--but it was too
late. There was no chance of forcing my head through the mouth of that
terrible trap in which it was so fairly caught, and which grew narrower
and narrower with a rapidity too horrible to be conceived. The agony of
that moment is not to be imagined. I threw up my hands and endeavored,
with all my strength, to force upward the ponderous iron bar. I might as
well have tried to lift the cathedral itself. Down, down, down it came,
closer and yet closer. I screamed to Pompey for aid; but he said that
I had hurt his feelings by calling him 'an ignorant old squint-eye:' I
yelled to Diana; but she only said 'bow-wow-wow,' and that I had told
her 'on no account to stir from the corner.' Thus I had no relief to
expect from my associates.

Meantime the ponderous and terrific Sc