been visited by a grinding pain in the
stomach, and my whole body had been suffused with cold sweat; and indeed
these memorials of the drow have never entirely disappeared--even at the
present time they display themselves in my system, especially after much
fatigue of body, and excitement of mind. So there I sat in the dingle
upon my stone, nerveless and hopeless, by whatever cause or causes that
state had been produced--there I sat with my head leaning upon my hand,
and so I continued a long, long time. At last I lifted my head from my
hand, and began to cast anxious, unquiet looks about the dingle--the
entire hollow was now enveloped in deep shade--I cast my eyes up; there
was a golden gleam on the tops of the trees which grew towards the upper
parts of the dingle; but lower down, all was gloom and twilight--yet,
when I first sat down on my stone, the sun was right above the dingle,
illuminating all its depths by the rays which it cast perpendicularly
down--so I must have sat a long, long time upon my stone. And now, once
more, I rested my head upon my hand, but almost instantly lifted it again
in a kind of fear, and began looking at the objects before me, the forge,
the tools, the branches of the trees, endeavouring to follow their rows,
till they were lost in the darkness of the dingle; and now I found my
right hand grasping convulsively the three fore fingers of the left,
first collectively, and then successively, wringing them till the joints
cracked; then I became quiet, but not for long.

Suddenly I started up, and could scarcely repress the shriek which was
rising to my lips. Was it possible? Yes, all too certain; the evil one
was upon me; the inscrutable horror which I had felt in my boyhood had
once more taken possession of me. I had thought that it had forsaken me;
that it would never visit me again; that I had outgrown it; that I might
almost bid defiance to it; and I had even begun to think of it without
horror, as we are in the habit of doing of horrors of which we conceive
we run no danger; and, lo! when least thought of, it had seized me again.
Every moment I felt it gathering force, and making me more wholly its
own. What should I do?--resist, of course; and I did resist. I grasped,
I tore, and strove to fling it from me; but of what avail were my
efforts? I could only have got rid of it by getting rid of myself: it
was a part of myself, or rather it was all myself. I rushed amongst the
trees,