Up, up I went, gaining courage though feeling weaker and weaker. Having
the wall on my right for so long a time, and seeming to be always
ascending, I began to think that I was in a sort of circular
honey-combed cavern.
It must be borne in mind that my progress was exceedingly slow,
consequent upon the necessity of feeling my way, step by step,
apprehensive of going over the brink of a precipice in some moment of
undue confidence. How many times I lay down to sleep, how many times I
rose to continue the task, I cannot tell; but, having been immured so
long, without food and without light, I began to feel stealing over me
a weariness of exhaustion which required the utmost power of the will
to battle.
All this time I kept ascending. Suddenly the passage seemed to open
wide, and, all at once, a bright light shot into the cavern. For the
moment I was blinded; a painful sensation struck me across the brows;
but I determined to behold the light at whatever cost. I opened my
eyes; and now, the shock of the dazzling brightness having passed away,
I saw the most beautiful effect I had ever beheld in my whole life.
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