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probable that the bandage crossed my bosom in the track of the pendulum?
Dreading to find my faint, and, as it seemed, in last hope frustrated,
I so far elevated my head as to obtain a distinct view of my breast. The
surcingle enveloped my limbs and body close in all directions--save in
the path of the destroying crescent.
Scarcely had I dropped my head back into its original position, when
there flashed upon my mind what I cannot better describe than as the
unformed half of that idea of deliverance to which I have previously
alluded, and of which a moiety only floated indeterminately through my
brain when I raised food to my burning lips. The whole thought was now
present--feeble, scarcely sane, scarcely definite,--but still entire.
I proceeded at once, with the nervous energy of despair, to attempt its
execution.
For many hours the immediate vicinity of the low framework upon which
I lay, had been literally swarming with rats. They were wild, bold,
ravenous; their red eyes glaring upon me as if they waited but for
motionlessness on my part to make me their prey. "To what food," I
thought, "have they been accustomed in the well?"
They had devoured, in spite of all my efforts to prevent them, all but a
small remnant of the contents of the dish. I had fallen into an habitual
see-saw, or wave of the hand about the platter: and, at length, the
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