not warn him; all my force seemed to have been spent on the single
shriek I had uttered as I turned my back on the wall. I lay prone
upon the floor, and knew that I had swooned.

And thus, on seeking me, C. would doubtless have found me, lying
insensible among the rubbish, with the rooms restored to the condition
in which we had seen them by day, my success in withdrawing myself
having dissolved the spell and destroyed the enchantment. But as
it was, I awoke from my swoon only to find that I had been dreaming.





XXIV. The Square in the Hand




The foregoing dream was almost immediately succeeded by another,
in which I dreamt that I was concerned in a very prominent way in
a political struggle in France for liberty and the people's rights.
My part in this struggle was, indeed, the leading one, but my friend
C. had been drawn into it at my instance, and was implicated in a
secondary manner only. The government sought our arrest, and, for
a time, we evaded all attempts to take us, but at last we were
surprised and driven under escort in a private carriage to a military
station, where we were to be detained for examination. With us
was arrested a man popularly known as "Fou," a poor weakling whom I
much pitied. When we arrived at the station which was our destination,