How long I remained in a kind of uneasy, fitful slumber, I cannot tell; but I awoke shivering with cold—­puzzled to tell where I was, and my brain addled with the broken fragments of half a dozen dreams, all mingling and mixing themselves with the unpleasant realities of my situation.  What an infernal contrivance for a bed, thought I, as my head came thump against the top, while my legs projected far beyond the foot-rail; the miserable portion of clothing over me at the same time being only sufficient to temper the night air, which in autumn is occasionally severe and cutting.  This will never do.  I must ring the bell and rouse the house, if only to get a fire, if they don’t possess such a thing as blankets.  I immediately rose, and groping my way along the wall endeavoured to discover the bell, but in vain; and for the same satisfactory reason that Von Troil did not devote one chapter of his work on “Iceland” to “snakes,” because there were none such there.  What was now to be done?  About the geography of my present abode I knew, perhaps, as much as the public at large know about the Coppermine river and Behring’s straits.  The world, it was true, was before me, “where top choose,” admirable things for an epic, but decidedly an unfortunate circumstance for a very cold gentleman in search of a blanket.  Thus thinking, I opened the door of my chamber, and not in any way resolved how I should proceed, I stepped forth into the long corridor, which was dark as midnight itself.

Tracing my path along the wall, I soon reached a door which I in vain attempted to open; in another moment I found another and another, each of which were locked.  Thus along the entire corridor I felt my way, making every effort to discover where any of the people of the house might have concealed themselves, but without success.  What was to be done now?  It was of no use to go back to my late abode, and find it comfortless as I left it; so I resolved to proceed in my search; by this time I had arrived at the top of a small flight of stairs, which I remembered having come up, and which led to another long passage similar to the one I had explored, but running in a transverse direction, down this I now crept, and reached the landing, along the wall of which I was guided by my hand, as well for safety as to discover the architrave of some friendly door, where the inhabitant might be sufficiently Samaritan to lend some portion of his bed-clothes; door after door followed in succession along this confounded passage, which I began to think as long as the gallery of the lower one; at last, however, just as my heart was sinking within me from disappointment, the handle of a lock turned, and I found myself inside a chamber.  How was I now to proceed? for if this apartment did not contain any of the people of the hotel, I had but a sorry excuse for disturbing the repose of any traveller who might have been more fortunate than myself in the article of blankets.  To go back however, would be absurd,