Page:Edgar Huntly, or The Sleep Walker.djvu/212

 the slightest motion; it was an element as fitted for repose as for exercise. But now the buoyant spirit seemed to have flown: my muscles were shrunk; the air and water were equally congealed, and my most vehement exertions were requisite to sustain me on the surface.

At first I had moved along with my wonted celerity and ease, but quickly my forces were exhausted; my pantings and efforts were augmented, and I saw that to cross the river again was impracticable; I must continue, therefore, to search out some accessible spot in the bank along which I was swimming.

Each moment diminished my stock of strength, and it behoved me to make good my footing before another minute should escape. I continued to swim, to survey the bank, and to make ineffectual attempts to grasp the rock; the shrubs which grew upon it would not uphold me, and the fragments which for a moment inspired me with hope, crumbled away as soon as they were touched.

At length I noticed a pine which was rooted in a crevice near the water; the trunk, or any part of the root, was beyond my reach, but I trusted that I could catch hold of the branch which hung lowest, and that, when caught, it would assist me in gaining the trunk, and thus deliver me from the death which could not be otherwise averted.

The attempt was arduous: had it been made when I first reached the bank, no difficulty had attended it; but now, to throw myself Some feet above the surface, could scarcely be expected from one whose utmost efforts seemed to be demanded to keep him from sinking; yet this exploit, arduous as it was, was attempted and accomplished; Happily the twigs were strong enough to sustain my weight till I caught at other branches, and finally placed myself upon the trunk.

This danger was now past; but I admitted the conviction that others no less formidable remained to be encountered, and that my ultimate destiny was death. I looked upwards:—new efforts might enable me to gain the summit of this steep; but perhaps I should thus be placed merely in the situation from which I had just been delivered: it was of little moment whether the scene of my imprisonment was