breath came from them; and then for the first time a change passed over
his countenance: he pressed upon those lips one long and last kiss, and,
without word, or sign, or tear, he turned from the chamber. Two hours
afterwards he was found senseless upon the ground; it was upon the spot
where he had met Emily the night before.

For weeks he knew nothing of this earth--he was encompassed with the
spectres of a terrible dream. All was confusion, darkness, horror--a
series and a change of torture! At one time he was hurried through the
heavens in the womb of a fiery star, girt above and below and around with
unextinguishable but unconsuming flames. Wherever he trod, as he
wandered through his vast and blazing prison, the molten fire was his
footing, and the breath of fire was his air. Flowers, and trees, and
hills were in that world as in ours, but wrought from one lurid and
intolerable light; and, scattered around, rose gigantic palaces and domes
of the living flame, like the mansions of the city of Hell. With every
moment there passed to and fro shadowy forms, on whose countenances was
engraven unutterable anguish; but not a shriek, not a groan, rung through
the red air; for the doomed, who fed and inhabited the flames, were
forbidden the consolation of voice. Above there sat, fixed and black,
a solid and impenetrable cloud-Night frozen into substance; and from the
midst there hung a banner of a pale and sickly flame, on which was
written "For Ever." A river rushed rapidly beside him. He stooped to
slake the agony of his thirst--the waves were waves of fire; and, as he
started from the burning draught, he longed to shriek aloud, and could
not. Then he cast his despairing eyes above for mercy; and saw on the
livid and motionless banner "For Ever."

A change came o'er the spirit of his dream