and plunged into the forest.

All that day he traveled, laying his course by the rounding sun. The
forest seemed interminable; nowhere did he discover a break in it, not
even a woodman's road. He had not known that he lived in so wild a
region. There was something uncanny in the revelation.

By nightfall he was fatigued, footsore, famished. The thought of his
wife and children urged him on. At last he found a road which led him
in what he knew to be the right direction. It was as wide and
straight as a city street, yet it seemed untraveled. No fields
bordered it, no dwelling anywhere. Not so much as the barking of a
dog suggested human habitation. The black bodies of the trees formed
a straight wall on both sides, terminating on the horizon in a point,
like a diagram in a lesson in perspective. Overhead, as he looked up
through this rift in the wood, shone great golden stars looking
unfamiliar and grouped in strange constellations. He was sure they
were arranged in some order which had a secret and malign
significance. The wood on either side was full of singular noises,
among which--once, twice, and again--he distinctly heard whispers in
an unknown tongue.

His neck was in pain and lifting his hand to it found it horribly
swollen. He knew that it had a circle of black where the rope had
bruised it. His eyes felt congested; he could no longer close them.
His tongue was swollen with thirst; he relieved its fever by thrusting
it forward from between his teeth into the cold air. How softly the
turf had carpeted the untraveled avenue--he could no longer feel the
roadway beneath his feet!