dale behind it. There I remained in concealment for some
time, bemoaning, the while, my misery, as I then believed, but which I
afterwards more justly named, my folly. I was so agitated, had so
thoroughly lost that presence of mind for which I had in former days
been distinguished, that I did not remove from my head the crown, which,
being ornamented with sunbeams, would have easily betrayed me. While
panting like a bayed lion, I heard a nestling on the other side of the
mountain, which I supposed was made by men beating the bushes to
discover any hiders. I now looked around for a more secure retreat, for
I doubted not that my flight had been noticed, and that these pursuers
would search on my side of the mountain. Behind me was

----A thick and matted forest, sunk between hills
All desolate and bare, whose dark and awful silence
Beckoned me.

I hurried thither, fiercely flinging aside the thorny bushes that clung
as fiercely to me, and came at last to the mouth of a cave. Creeping in,
I observed that the cave was deep, and as far as the light penetrated,
level. I determined to explore its recesses, though I think I should not
have been so hardy in my days of fortune.

After treading cautiously a hundred paces, I suddenly lost my footing,
and plunged with the quickness of lightning, into a hole that must have
had perpendicular sides.

Having shot through this passage, the abode of palpable darkness and
night, I suddenly perceived a faint light.

As when through clouds the moon doth gleam
With pallid smile.

As this light increased, my speed decreased, so that without pain or
trouble, I was soon brought to a stand between two high mountains. My
sensations, during this remarkable passage, were similar to those
experienced while tossing among the billows of the ocean. On recovering,
I found myself, to my great astonishment, in the same spot from which,
years before, I had plunged into the subterranean regions. A moment's
reflection gave me the means to account for the decrease of speed in the
latter part of my course. The weight of the atmosphere is much greater
on the surface of the globe, than below; consequently I was buoyed up by
the increasing resistance of the air towards the surface. Had this not
been the case, I should, unquestionably, at least in my own mind, have
shot off to the moon.

Still, being obnoxious to cavil, I will defer this hypothesis to the
astronomer's closer examinatio