vement of the jaws, in this effort to cry aloud, showed me that
they were bound up, as is usual with the dead. I felt, too, that I lay
upon some hard substance, and by something similar my sides were,
also, closely compressed. So far, I had not ventured to stir any of my
limbs--but now I violently threw up my arms, which had been lying at
length, with the wrists crossed. They struck a solid wooden substance,
which extended above my person at an elevation of not more than six
inches from my face. I could no longer doubt that I reposed within a
coffin at last.

And now, amid all my infinite miseries, came sweetly the cherub
Hope--for I thought of my precautions. I writhed, and made spasmodic
exertions to force open the lid: it would not move. I felt my wrists for
the bell-rope: it was not to be found. And now the Comforter fled for
ever, and a still sterner Despair reigned triumphant; for I could not
help perceiving the absence of the paddings which I had so carefully
prepared--and then, too, there came suddenly to my nostrils the strong
peculiar odor of moist earth. The conclusion was irresistible. I was
not within the vault. I had fallen into a trance while absent from
home-while among strangers--when, or how, I could not remember--and
it was they who had buried me as a dog--nailed up in some common
coffin--and thrust deep, deep, and for ever, into some ordinary and
nameless grave.

As this awful conviction forced itself, thus, into the innermost
chambers of my soul, I once again struggled to cry aloud. And in this
second endeavor I succeeded. A long, wild, and continuous shriek, or
yell of agony, resounded through the realms of the subterranean Night.

"Hillo! hillo, there!" said a gruff voice, in reply.

"What the devil's the matter now!" said a second.

"Get out o' that!" said a third.

"What do you mean by yowling in that ere kind of style, like a
cattymount?" said a fourth; and hereupon I was seized and shaken
without ceremony, for several minutes, by a junto of very rough-looking
individuals. They did not arouse me from my slumber--for I was wide
awake when I screamed--but they restored me to the full possession of my
memory.

This adventure occurred near Richmond, in Virginia. Accompanied by a
friend, I had proceeded, upon a gunning expedition, some miles down the
banks of the James River. Night approached, and we were overtaken by
a storm. The cabin of a small sloop lying at anchor in the stream, and
la