The String of Pearls (1850), p. 131

In the midst of all this, at length, he began to be conscious of one particular
impression or feeling, and that was, that some one was singing in a low, soft
voice, very near to him. This feeling, strange as it was in such a place,
momentarily increased in volume, until at length it began in its intensity to
absorb almost every other; and he gradually awakened from the sort of stupor
that had come over him. Yes some one was singing. It was a female voice, he
was sure of that, and as his mind became more occupied with that one subject
of thought, and his perceptive faculties became properly exercised, his intellect
altogether assumed a healthier tone. He could not distinguish the words that
were sung, but the voice itself was very sweet and musical; and as Tobias
listened, he felt as if the fever of his blood was abating, and that healthier
thoughts were taking the place of those disordered fancies that had held sway
within the chambers of his brain.

"What sweet sounds!" he said. "Oh! I do hope that singing will go on.
I feel happier to hear it; I do so hope it will continue. What sweet music!
Oh, mother, mother, if you could but see me now!"

He pressed his hands over his eyes, but he could not stop the gush of tears
that came from them, and which would trickle through his fingers. Tobias did
not wish to weep; but those tears, after all the horrors of the night, did him a
world of good, and he felt wonderfully better after they had been shed. Moreover,
the voice kept singing without intermission.

"Who can it be," thought Tobias, "that don't tire with so much of it."

Still the singer continued; but now and then Tobias felt certain that a very
wild note or two was mingled with the ordinary melody; and that bred a suspicion
in his mind, which gave him a shudder to think of, namely, that the singer
was mad.

<c It must be so/' said he. " No one in their senses could or would continue
for so long a period of time such strange snatches of song. Alas ! alas! it is
some one who is really mad, and confined for life in this dreadful place ; for life
do I say, am not I too confined for life here ? Oh ! help ! help ! help V 9

Tobias called out in so loud a tone, that the singer of the sweet strains that
had for a time lulled him to composure, heard him, and the strains which had
before been redolent of the softest and sweetest melody, suddenly changed to
the most terrific shrieks that can be imagined. In vain did Tobias place his
hands over his ears^ to shut out the horrible sounds. They would not be shut
out, but ran, as it were, into every crevice of his brain, nearly driving him dis-
tracted by their vehemence. But hoarser tones soon came upon his ears, and he
heard the loud, rough voice of a man say —

" What, do you want the whip so early this morning? The whip — do you
understand that r*

These words were followed by the iashing of what must have been a heavy
carter's whip, and then the shrieks died away in deep groans, every one of which
went to the heart of poor Tobias.

"I can never live amid all these horrors," he said. "Oh, why don't you kill
me at once ? it would be much bettei, and much more merciful. I can never
live long here. Help! help! help!"

When he shouted this word " help," it was certainly not with the most distant
idea of getting any help, but it was a word that came at once uppermost to
his tongue ; and so he called it out with all his might, that he should attract
the attention of some one; for the solitude, and the almost total darkness of the
place he was in, was beginning to fill him with new dismay. There was a faint
light in the cell, which made him know the difference between day and night;
but where that faint light came from he could not tell, for he could see no grating
or opening whatever ; but yet that was in consequence of his eyes not being fully
accustomed to the obscurity of the place ; otherwise he would have seen that
close up to the roof there was a narrow aperture, certainly not larger than any
one could have passed a hand through, although of some four or five feet in
length ; and from a passage beyond that, there came the dim borrowed light