joy of waking, what transports of gratitude and relief!

[Illustration: "WAITING"]

Ah me! the recollection!

* * * * *

At last a terrible unforgettable night arrived when my presentiment was
fulfilled.

I awoke in the little lumber-room of "Parva sed Apta," where the door
had always been that led to and from our palace of delight; but there
was no door any longer--nothing but a blank wall....

I woke back at once in my cell, in such a state as it is impossible to
describe. I felt there must be some mistake, and after much time and
effort was able to sink into sleep again, but with the same result: the
blank wall, the certainty that "Magna sed Apta" was closed forever, that
Mary was dead; and then the terrible jump back into my prison
life again.

This happened several times during the night, and when the morning
dawned I was a raving madman. I took the warder who first came
(attracted by my cries of "Mary!") for Colonel Ibbetson, and tried to
kill him, and should have done so, but that he was a very big man,
almost as powerful as myself and only half my age.

Other warders came to the rescue, and I took them all for Ibbetsons, and
fought like the maniac I was.