* * * * * It might be on the tenth night of my confinement, when, half-fainting with terror, I lay stretched out on the cold floor of my prison. I distinctly heard on the ground directly under me a light, but very audible knocking, which was repeated at measured intervals. I listened attentively. The noise was continued, as if with the determination to attract attention, and occasionally I could distinguish a strange sound of laughter, that also seemed to come out of the earth. I started from the floor, and threw myself on the straw couch; but the beating continued, with the same detestable variety of laughter and groans. At last I heard a low, stammering, hoarse voice syllabically pronounce my name--"Me-dar-dus!--Me-dar-dus!"--My blood ran ice cold through every vein; but with a vehement effort I gained courage enough to call out, "Who's there?"--The laughter now became louder--the beating and groaning were renewed; again the stammering demon addressed me--"Me-dar-dus!--Me-dar-dus!" I rose from bed, and stamped on the floor. "Whoever thou art," cried I; "man or devil, who art thus adding to the torments of an already miserable captive, step forth visibly before mine eyes, that I may look on thee, or desist from this unmeaning persecution!" The beating was now right under my feet. "He--he--he!--he--he--he!--Broth-er,--Broth-er! Open the door!--I am here--am here! Let us go hence to the wood--to the wood!" Now, methought I recognised the voice as one that I had known before, but it was not then so broken and so stammering. Nay, with a chill shivering of horror, I almost began to think there was something in the accents that I now heard, resembling the tones of my own voice, and involuntarily, as if I wished to try whether this were really so, I stammered, in imitation, "Me-dar-dus!--Me-dar-dus!" Hereupon the laughter was renewed, but it now sounded scornful and malicious.--"Broth-er,--Broth-er," said the voice, "do you know me again?--Open the door--the--the door!--We shall go hence, to the wood--to the wood!" "Poor insane wretch!" said I; "I cannot open the door for thee--I cannot enable thee to go forth into the pleasant woods, to hear the fresh rustling of the leaves, or breathe the fragrance of Heaven's pure atmosphere. I am, as thou art, shut up, hopeless and abandoned, within the gloomy walls of a prison." To this address I was answered only by sobs and moans, as if from the bitterness of despairing grief; and the knocking became always more faint and indistinct, till at last it ceased altogether; and from exhaustion, I sunk into troubled slumber. At length the morning light had broke in slanting gleams through the window; the locks and keys rattled, and the gaoler, whom I had not seen for many days, entered my room. "Through the last night," said he, "we have heard all sorts of strange noises in your apartment, and loud speaking. What means this?"