No distinct impression of this headlong course remains in my mind, save the sensation of mad fear such as I had never felt before.  I came to myself on the edge of the dark valley which surrounded the town.  All my pursuers had dropped off before that time; and I have the recollection of flinging myself upon the ground on my face in the extremity of fatigue and exhaustion.  I must have lain there undisturbed for some time.  A few steps came and went, passing me; but no one took any notice, and the absence of the noise and crowding gave me a momentary respite.  But in my heat and fever I got no relief of coolness from the contact of the soil.  I might have flung myself upon a bed of hot ashes, so much was it unlike the dewy cool earth which I expected, upon which one can always throw one’s self with a sensation of repose.  Presently the uneasiness of it made me struggle up again and look around me.  I was safe; at least the cries of the pursuers had died away, the laughter which made my blood boil offended my ears no more.  The noise of the city was behind me, softened into an indefinite roar by distance, and before me stretched out the dreary landscape in which there seemed no features of attraction.  Now that I was nearer to it, I found it not so unpeopled as I thought.  At no great distance from me was the mouth of one of the mines, from which came an indication of subterranean lights; and I perceived that the flying figures which I had taken for travellers between one city and another were in reality wayfarers endeavoring to keep clear of what seemed a sort of press-gang at the openings.  One of them, unable to stop himself in his flight, adopted the same expedient as myself, and threw himself on the ground close to me when he had got beyond the range of pursuit.  It was curious that we should meet there, he flying from a danger which I was about to face, and ready to encounter that from which I had fled.  I waited for a few minutes till he had recovered his breath, and then, ‘What are you running from?’ I said.  ’Is there any danger there?’ The man looked up at me with the same continual question in his eyes,—­Who is this fool?

‘Danger!’ he said.  ’Are you so new here, or such a cursed idiot, as not to know the danger of the mines?  You are going across yourself, I suppose, and then you’ll see.’

‘But tell me,’ I said; ’my experience may be of use to you afterwards, if you will tell me yours now.’

‘Of use!’ he cried, staring; ’who cares?  Find out for yourself.  If they get hold of you, you will soon understand.’

I no longer took this for rudeness, but answered in his own way, cursing him too for a fool.  ‘If I ask a warning I can give one; as for kindness,’ I said, ‘I was not looking for that.’