I was saved! I could breathe;
I felt warm, and I wept and I stammered, with my arms prayerfully
extended toward the starry sky. O God, how sweet seemed life!
CHAPTER V
MY RESURRECTION
My first impulse was to find the custodian of the cemetery and ask
him to have me conducted home, but various thoughts that came to me
restrained me from following that course. My return would create general
alarm; why should I hurry now that I was master of the situation? I felt
my limbs; I had only an insignificant wound on my left arm, where I had
bitten myself, and a slight feverishness lent me unhoped-for strength. I
should no doubt be able to walk unaided.
Still I lingered; all sorts of dim visions confused my mind. I had felt
beside me in the open grave some sextons' tools which had been left
there, and I conceived a sudden desire to repair the damage I had done,
to close up the hole through which I had crept, so as to conceal all
traces of my resurrection. I do not believe that I had any positive
motive in doing so. I only deemed it useless to proclaim my adventure
aloud, feeling ashamed to find myself alive when the whole world thought
me dead. In half an hour every trace of my escape was obliterated, and
then I climbed out of the hole.
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