t, it was with the view of
baffling the evil chance, as you would call it--in this instance my
mother's death.

'A favourable crisis occurred in my mother's complaint, and she
recovered; this crisis took place about six o'clock in the morning;
almost simultaneously with it there happened to myself a rather
remarkable circumstance connected with the nervous feeling which was
rioting in my system. I was lying in bed in a kind of uneasy doze, the
only kind of rest which my anxiety on account of my mother permitted me
at this time to take, when all at once I sprang up as if electrified; the
mysterious impulse was upon me, and it urged me to go without delay, and
climb a stately elm behind the house, and touch the topmost branch;
otherwise--you know the rest--the evil chance would prevail. Accustomed
for some time as I had been, under this impulse, to perform extravagant
actions, I confess to you that the difficulty and peril of such a feat
startled me; I reasoned against the feeling, and strove more strenuously
than I had ever done before; I even made a solemn vow not to give way to
the temptation, but I believe nothing less than chains, and those strong
ones, could have restrained me. The demoniac influence, for I can call
it nothing else, at length prevailed; it compelled me to rise, to dress
myself, to descend the stairs, to unbolt the door, and to go forth; it
drove me to the foot of the tree, and it compelled me to climb the trunk;
this was a tremendous task, and I only accomplished it after repeated
falls and trials. When I had got amongst the branches, I rested for a
time, and then set about accomplishing the remainder of the ascent; this
for some time was not so difficult, for I was now amongst the branches;
as I approached the top, however, the difficulty became greater, and
likewise the danger; but I was a light boy, and almost as nimble as a
squirrel, and, moreover, the nervous feeling was within me, impelling me
upward. It was only by means of a spring, however, that I was enabled to
touch the top of the tree; I sprang, touched the top of the tree, and
fell a distance of at least twenty feet, amongst the branches; had I
fallen to the bottom I must have been killed, but I fell into the middle
of the tree, and presently found myself astride upon one of the boughs;
scratched and bruised all over, I reached the ground, and regained my
chamber unobserved; I flung myself on my bed quite exhausted; presently
they