a moment, its enormous depth and hideous
precipices. Anon, I was transported to some ridge of AEtna, and made a
terrified spectator of its fiery torrents and its pillars of smoke.

However strange it may seem, I was conscious, even during my dream, of
my real situation. I knew myself to be asleep, and struggled to break
the spell, by muscular exertions. These did not avail, and I continued
to suffer these abortive creations till a loud voice, at my bed side,
and some one shaking me with violence, put an end to my reverie. My eyes
were unsealed, and I started from my pillow.

My chamber was filled with smoke, which, though in some degree luminous,
would permit me to see nothing, and by which I was nearly suffocated.
The crackling of flames, and the deafening clamour of voices without,
burst upon my ears. Stunned as I was by this hubbub, scorched with heat,
and nearly choaked by the accumulating vapours, I was unable to think or
act for my own preservation; I was incapable, indeed, of comprehending
my danger.

I was caught up, in an instant, by a pair of sinewy arms, borne to the
window, and carried down a ladder which had been placed there. My
uncle stood at the bottom and received me. I was not fully aware of my
situation till I found myself sheltered in the HUT, and surrounded by
its inhabitants.

By neglect of the servant, some unextinguished embers had been placed in
a barrel in the cellar of the building. The barrel had caught fire;
this was communicated to the beams of the lower floor, and thence to the
upper part of the structure. It was first discovered by some persons
at a distance, who hastened to the spot and alarmed my uncle and the
servants. The flames had already made considerable progress, and my
condition was overlooked till my escape was rendered nearly impossible.

My danger being known, and a ladder quickly procured, one of the
spectators ascended to my chamber, and effected my deliverance in the
manner before related.

This incident, disastrous as it may at first seem, had, in reality, a
beneficial effect upon my feelings. I was, in some degree, roused from
the stupor which had seized my faculties. The monotonous and gloomy
series of my thoughts was broken. My habitation was levelled with the
ground, and I was obliged to seek a new one. A new train of images,
disconnected with the fate of my family, forced itself on my attention,
and a belief insensibly sprung up, that tranquillity, if not happ