It happened in this wise.

The professor was not an expert swimmer, but he could keep above water,
and was particularly fond of floating. One summer day as he lay on the
surface of the tepid sea quite unconcernedly, the sense of comfort led
to a slight somnolence. All at once he felt the water heaving under him
as if suddenly parted by some heavy body, and then seething against his
person. In an instant he thought of a shark, and turned quickly to swim
away from the monster; but whether from hurry, fright, or his own
weight, he lost his balance and sank heavily. While all this happened
quick as a flash, the moments seemed like centuries to him, and his
imagination, excited by the sudden rush of blood to the head, worked so
swiftly, that, as the professor said afterwards, if he should try to set
down everything that came into his mind then, it would make a good-sized
book. Scenes of his childhood, incidents of his youth, the faces of his
favorite pupils since the beginning of his career as a teacher, the
death of his mother, the breakfast he had eaten that morning,--all
passed before him in quick succession, and mingled together without
becoming confused; while as a musical accompaniment, there kept sounding
in his ears the verse of Valaoritis in "The Bell":

"Ding-dong! The bell!"

The night before poor Mr. Plateas had been reading "The Bell" of the
poet of Leucadia,--that pathetic picture of the enamored young sailor,
who, on returning to his village, throws himself into the sea to reach
more speedily the shore, where he hears the tolling knell and sees the
funeral procession of his beloved, and as he buffets the waves is
devoured by the monster of the deep. The poetical description of this
catastrophe had so affected him that he afterwards attributed his