se, listening whether I could detect
some lurking sign of human existence. Sometimes I rang at a bell; it
tinkled through the vaulted rooms, and silence succeeded to the sound. I
called myself hopeless, yet still I hoped; and still disappointment ushered
in the hours, intruding the cold, sharp steel which first pierced me, into
the aching festering wound. I fed like a wild beast, which seizes its food
only when stung by intolerable hunger. I did not change my garb, or seek
the shelter of a roof, during all those days. Burning heats, nervous
irritation, a ceaseless, but confused flow of thought, sleepless nights,
and days instinct with a frenzy of agitation, possessed me during that
time.

As the fever of my blood encreased, a desire of wandering came upon me. I
remember, that the sun had set on the fifth day after my wreck, when,
without purpose or aim, I quitted the town of Ravenna. I must have been
very ill. Had I been possessed by more or less of delirium, that night had
surely been my last; for, as I continued to walk on the banks of the
Mantone, whose upward course I followed, I looked wistfully on the stream,
acknowledging to myself that its pellucid waves could medicine my woes
for ever, and was unable to account to myself for my tardiness in seeking
their shelter from the poisoned arrows of thought, that were piercing me
through and through. I walked a considerable part of the night, and
excessive weariness at length conquered my repugnance to the availing
myself of the deserted habitations of my species. The waning moon, which
had just risen, shewed me a cottage, whose neat entrance and trim garden
reminded me of my own England. I lifted up the latch of the door and
entered. A kitchen first presented itself, where, guided by the moon beams,
I found materials for striking a light. Within this was a bed room; the
couch was furnished with sheets of snowy whiteness; the wood piled on the
hearth, and an array as for a meal, might almost have deceived me into the
dear belief that I had here found what I had so long sought--one
survivor, a companion for my loneliness, a solace to my despair. I steeled
myself against the delusion; the room itself was vacant: it was only
prudent, I repeated to myself, to examine the rest of the house. I fancied
that I was proof against the expectation; yet my heart beat audibly, as I
laid my hand on the lock of each door, and it sunk again, when I perceived
in each the same vacancy. Dark