At length, however, I took
courage, and did not hesitate to step firmly; endeavoring to cross
in as direct a line as possible. I had advanced some ten or twelve
paces in this manner, when the remnant of the torn hem of my robe
became entangled between my legs. I stepped on it, and fell
violently on my face.
In the confusion attending my fall, I did not immediately
apprehend a somewhat startling circumstance, which yet, in a few
seconds afterward, and while I still lay prostrate, arrested my
attention. It was this --my chin rested upon the floor of the
prison, but my lips and the upper portion of my head, although
seemingly at a less elevation than the chin, touched nothing. At the
same time my forehead seemed bathed in a clammy vapor, and the
peculiar smell of decayed fungus arose to my nostrils. I put forward
my arm, and shuddered to find that I had fallen at the very brink of a
circular pit, whose extent, of course, I had no means of
ascertaining at the moment. Groping about the masonry just below the
margin, I succeeded in dislodging a small fragment, and let it fall
into the abyss. For many seconds I hearkened to its reverberations
as it dashed against the sides of the chasm in its descent; at
length there was a sullen plunge into water, succeeded by loud echoes.
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