A STRANGE DREAM. 
9 
as she laboured through the waters broke sensibly 
upon my ear, in spite of the repelling power of slumber. 
Every instant I beheld, though indistinctly, objects of 
horror, which were on a sudden dispersed by the heavy 
pitching of the vessel, that for a moment restored 
me to consciousness; but sleep soon again overpow- 
ered my senses, and placed her terrifying phantoms 
before me. I fancied myself upon a rock in the midst 
of an illimitable ocean, the waters of which were 
raging around with frightful commotion : a huge ra- 
ven was perched close at my side, its hideous eyes 
glaring upon me with an expression that I could not 
mistake, and which shot through my frame a pang of 
irrepressible agony. The waters lashed the base of the 
rock with a fury that made it vibrate to the very 
foundation, and I felt as if I should be every instant 
cast among its mountainous billows. The whole sur- 
face of the ocean was as red as blood, which disclosed 
its hideous crimson every time the lightning, that 
was perpetually breaking from the heavens, illumined 
the shoreless expanse upon which my eyes were 
fixed in terror. In the hollows of the waves lay 
the bodies of the drowned, and of some persons yet 
alive, struggling in the last agonies of a most ap- 
palling death. At this moment the thunder crash- 
ed ; the lightning glared, struck the rock, and shi- 
vered it : the whole mass was riven ; it yawned at 
my feet, and a frightful chasm threatened to engulf 
me. The raven perched upon my breast, flapped its 
wings in my face, and I fell backward into the hor- 
rible abyss. 
I awoke in agony, and to my consternation found 
