No longer carried upward, I was now rapidly descending from some tremendous height.

I stretched forth my hands to grasp some tangible substance in order to break the horrors of that fall, but all above, around, and beneath me, was empty air;--the effort burst the chains of that ghastly slumber, and I awoke with a short stifled cry of terror, exclaiming with devotional fervour, "Thank God! it is only a dream!" The damp dews stood in large drops upon my brow, my hands were tightly clenched, and every hair upon my head seemed stiffened and erect with fear.
"Thank God!" I once more exclaimed in an agony of gratitude, "it is only a dream!" Then arose the question: "What was the import of this dream, the effects of which I still felt through all my trembling frame, in the violent throbbing of my heart, and the ghastly cessation of every emotion save that of horror ?" Then I began to ponder, as I had done a thousand times before, over the mysterious nature of dreams, the manner in which they had been employed by the Almighty to communicate important truths to mankind, until I came to the conclusion that dreams were revelations from the spirit land, to warn us of dangers which threatened, or to punish us for crimes committed in the flesh.
"What are the visions which haunt the murderer's bed," I thought, "but phantoms of the past recalled by memory and conscience, and invested with an actual presence in sleep ?" Dr.Young, that melancholy dreamer of sublime dreams, has said-- "If dreams infest the grave, I wake emerging from a sea of dreams." What a terrible idea of future punishment is contained in these words to one, whose sleep like mine is haunted by unutterable terrors! Think of an eternity of dreaming horrors.

A hell condensed within the narrow resting-place of the grave.
My reveries were abruptly dispelled by the sound of steps along the passage which led to my chamber.

My heart began to beat audibly.

It was the dead hour of the night--who could be waking at such an unusual time?
I sat up in the bed and listened.
I heard voices: two persons were talking in a loud tone in the passage, that was certain.