on my knees and elbows thrust the whole strength of my back
against the lid. But although it creaked it did not yield; the notched
line was not deep enough. I had to resume my old position--which I only
managed to do with infinite trouble--and work afresh. At last after
another supreme effort the lid was cleft from end to end.

I was not saved as yet, but my heart beat with renewed hope. I had
ceased pushing and remained motionless, lest a sudden fall of earth
should bury me. I intended to use the lid as a screen and, thus
protected, to open a sort of shaft in the clayey soil. Unfortunately
I was assailed by unexpected difficulties. Some heavy clods of earth
weighed upon the boards and made them unmanageable; I foresaw that I
should never reach the surface in that way, for the mass of soil was
already bending my spine and crushing my face.

Once more I stopped, affrighted; then suddenly, while I was stretching
my legs, trying to find something firm against which I might rest my
feet, I felt the end board of the coffin yielding. I at once gave a
desperate kick with my heels in the faint hope that there might be a
freshly dug grave in that direction.

It was so. My feet abruptly forced their way into space. An open grave
was there; I had only a slight partition of earth to displace, and soon
I rolled into the cavity. I was saved!

I remained for a time lying on my back in the open grave, with my
eyes raised to heaven. It was dark; the stars were shining in a sky of
velvety blueness. Now and then the rising breeze wafted a springlike
freshness, a perfume of foliage, upon me. I was saved! I could breathe;
I felt warm, and I wept and I stammered, with my arms prayerfully
extended toward the starry sky. O God, how sweet seemed life!

CHAPTER V

MY RESURRECTION

My first impulse was to find the custodian of the cemetery and ask
him to have me conducted home, but various thoughts that came to me
restrained me from following that course. My return would create general
alarm; why should I hurry now that I was master of the situation? I felt
my limbs; I had only an insignificant wound on my left arm, where I had
bitten myself, and a slight feverishness lent me unhoped-for strength. I
should no doubt be able to walk unaided.

Still I lingered; all sorts of dim visions confused my mind. I had felt
beside me in the open grave some sextons' tools which had been left
there, and I conceived a sudden desire to repair the