Page:Phosphor (1888).djvu/98

98 The passage ascended towards it. This gave me a fresh impetus, and with hope in my breast I climbed the steep path.

My feet and hands, bleeding from the many sharp rocks they had come in contact with, caused me great pain; but now I seemed to forget them.

That light was to me as a star of hope, guiding my weary, faltering footsteps from hell to heaven.

The earth still shook, occasionally with such violence, that I was thrown off my feet.

Now that I saw some chance of getting out of the place, I felt hopeless—that I was doomed to die—that however near I came to the light I should never reach it. This was an additional torture.

A piece of rock fell from above, and striking my left shoulder felled me to the ground. Though nearly insensible from the effects of the blow, I managed to regain my feet and stumbled on.

I had not advanced two hundred yards from the spot, when there was a mighty shock, and hundreds of tons of earth fell from the sides, and covered the place where I had been standing. Nearer and nearer I approached the light.

Yes! thank God! I could see the sky.

At last I was in the open air, the fresh wind of