But it might have been long; for I knew there
were demons who took note of my swoon, and who could have arrested the
vibration at pleasure. Upon my recovery, too, I felt very --oh,
inexpressibly sick and weak, as if through long inanition. Even amid
the agonies of that period, the human nature craved food. With painful
effort I outstretched my left arm as far as my bonds permitted, and
took possession of the small remnant which had been spared me by the
rats. As I put a portion of it within my lips, there rushed to my mind
a half formed thought of joy --of hope. Yet what business had I with
hope? It was, as I say, a half formed thought --man has many such
which are never completed. I felt that it was of joy --of hope; but
felt also that it had perished in its formation. In vain I struggled
to perfect --to regain it. Long suffering had nearly annihilated all
my ordinary powers of mind. I was an imbecile --an idiot.
The vibration of the pendulum was at right angles to my length. I
saw that the crescent was designed to cross the region of the heart.
It would fray the serge of my robe --it would return and repeat its
operations --again --and again. Notwithstanding terrifically wide
sweep (some thirty feet or more) and the its hissing vigor of its
descent, sufficient to sunder these very walls of iron, still the
fraying of my robe would be all that, for several minutes, it would
accomplish.
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