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PHOSPHOR.
39

Perhaps the brain was the soul, and instead of the soul leaving the body, it remained with it; and by feeling and knowing all the horrors the body was subjected to, suffered for the sins it had committed on earth.

What had I ever done that I should undergo this cruciation?

They placed the coffin on the ground and read the burial service over me.

When it was finished, they lifted the coffin, and carried it to a vault.

Thank God! they were not going to bury me in the earth.

Then they put me on a shelf, and left.

I could hear the iron door slam as they shut and locked it.

I was alone.

How long I remained like this I know not, but suddenly felt as if a single needle had been run in my left side, then as if several pierced my heart.

The pricks extended; it seemed as if innumerable small sharp instruments were being plunged into every portion of my body.

Now and then I felt one of my muscles twitch.

I breathed.

My blood began to circulate, slowly at first, and then more rapidly, traversing my veins like molten lead, and causing excruciating pain.