unusually takes place, under the merciful disposition
of Providence, in the death-bed, where debility is the chief feature
of the case. After a few moments of repose and dreamy reverie,
however, I roused myself from this state of apathy, and, influenced by
a sense of duty, as well as by a sympathy for the feelings of those
dearer than life itself, sprang to my feet once more, and struggled
manfully out of the mesh of branches in which I had been entangled,
till, after a few more violent efforts, I found myself getting into a
rather opener and more advanced growth of wood, and at length
succeeded in working my way out--almost to the very spot in the meadow
I had started from!

Whilst still within the wood, I had been favoured with some novel
experiences there--novel, at least, to me, as it was my first night in
such a position. Thus, almost every branch I grasped in the dark to
help me onward seemed crowded with snails, which smashed slimily under
my shuddering hand! Glowworms were sparkling in the underwood in such
myriads as I never witnessed before, save once in an evening-walk near
Salerno. The sense of utter solitude and unbroken silence within these
gloomy woods was truly awful. From time to time, as I advanced, a
casual opening in the branches exhibited a momentary glimpse of the
sky, with all its thousand twinkling fires; and shooting-stars of
intense brilliancy were darting across its dark, blue depths in almost
as great frequency as in those celebrated days of August and November,
when the path of our earth crosses the thickest showers of these
celestial fireworks.

On regaining the meadow, I felt quite at a loss whither to turn, or
what to attempt next. I had already been floundering about for some
half-dozen hours, and been ignorant all the while whether each
additional step were not only taking me a step further, not from home
alone, but from the very habitations of men. Almost done up at length,
and hopeless of extricating myself from my labyrinth till daylight
should come to my aid, I was again for a moment inclined quietly to
resign myself to what seemed my inevitable fate, and drop down to
sleep on a bank of earth under a hedge by which I was standing, and so
await the dawn. But the dank grass, the trees dropping with dew, the
creeping autumnal fog, and increasing cold, made me pause, and feel
that to sleep in my light summer dress under such circumstances was,
if not to die, at least to contract, duri