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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
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