conversation between mother and son, most of which he understood, he
had drawn conclusions which tended more and more to alarm him at his
total loss of power over his limbs. From the expressions of the old
woman, which marked an entire indifference about him, he anticipated
that she would be apt to mistake his apparent want of animation for a
real one; and busied himself with all the horrors which such an error
might occasion. But he was mistaken. The old woman followed the
directions of her son to the letter. When her preparations were
finished, a pleasant odour began to diffuse itself over the house; she
drew near to the sick stranger; and rubbed his breast with a handful of
the liquor. Almost immediately he felt the genial effects: the muscles
of his face relaxed; he breathed more freely; his lips opened; and she
poured a few spoonfuls of the cordial down his throat. Then wrapping
him up in blankets, she raised him with a strength like that of a stout
man rather than of an aged woman, and laid him down by the fire-side.
Here the cordial, combined with previous exhaustion and agitation, and
the genial warmth of the fire, soon threw him into a profound sleep. He
slept as powerless as a child that is rocked by its nurse, lulled by
the unintelligible songs which the old woman continued to murmur to her
spinning-wheel--and which still echoed through his dreams, though they
had lost their power to alarm him.

Some hours he had slumbered, when he suddenly awoke to perfect
consciousness and (what gave him still greater satisfaction) to the
entire command of his limbs. He unswathed himself from his blankets;
stood upright on his feet; and felt a lively sense of power and freedom
as he was once more able to stretch out his arms and legs. In the house
all was silent. The fire upon the hearth was glimmering with a sullen
glow of red light; and it appeared to be about day-break; window there
was none; but through a sort of narrow loop-hole penetrated a grey beam
of early light. This however lent no aspect of cheerfulness to the hut.
On the contrary, the ruddy blaze of a fire had given a more human and
habitable (though at the same time more picturesque) air to a dwelling
which seemed expressly contrived to shut out the sun and the
revelations of day light.--Looking round, he observed that the old
woman was asleep: he drew near and touched her: she did not however
awaken under the firmest pressure of his hand; but still in dreams