Chapter 14: The Sea Of Sleep

For A Considerable Period After The Last Incident Which I Have Narrated In My Diary, I Had Serious Thoughts Of Leaving This House, And Might Have Done So; But For The Great And Wonderful Thing, Of Which I Am About To Write.

How Well I Was Advised, In My Heart, When I Stayed On Here--Spite Of Those Visions And Sights Of Unknown And Unexplainable Things; For, Had I Not Stayed, Then I Had Not Seen Again The Face Of Her I Loved. Yes, Though Few Know It, None Now Save My Sister Mary, I Have Loved And, Ah! Me--Lost.

I Would Write Down The Story Of Those Sweet, Old Days; But It Would Be Like The Tearing Of Old Wounds; Yet, After That Which Has Happened, What Need Have I To Care? For She Has Come To Me Out Of The Unknown. Strangely, She Warned Me; Warned Me Passionately Against This House; Begged Me To Leave It; But Admitted, When I Questioned Her, That She Could Not Have Come To Me, Had I Been Elsewhere. Yet, In Spite Of This, Still She Warned Me, Earnestly; Telling Me That It Was A Place, Long Ago Given Over To Evil, And Under The Power Of Grim Laws, Of Which None Here Have Knowledge. And I--I Just Asked Her, Again, Whether She Would Come To Me Elsewhere, And She Could Only Stand, Silent.

It Was Thus, That I Came To The Place Of The Sea Of Sleep--So She Termed It, In Her Dear Speech With Me. I Had Stayed Up, In My Study, Reading; And Must Have Dozed Over The Book. Suddenly, I Awoke And Sat Upright, With A Start. For A Moment, I Looked ‘Round, With A Puzzled Sense Of Something Unusual. There Was A Misty Look About The Room, Giving A Curious Softness To Each Table And Chair And Furnishing.

Gradually, The Mistiness Increased; Growing, As It Were, Out Of Nothing. Then, Slowly, A Soft, White Light Began To Glow In The Room. The Flames Of The Candles Shone Through It, Palely. I Looked From Side To Side, And Found That I Could Still See Each Piece Of Furniture; But In A Strangely Unreal Way, More As Though The Ghost Of Each Table And Chair Had Taken The Place Of The Solid Article.

Gradually, As I Looked, I Saw Them Fade And Fade; Until, Slowly, They Resolved Into Nothingness. Now, I Looked Again At The Candles. They Shone Wanly, And, Even As I Watched, Grew More Unreal, And So Vanished. The Room Was Filled, Now, With A Soft, Yet Luminous, White Twilight, Like A Gentle Mist Of Light. Beyond This, I Could See Nothing. Even The Walls Had Vanished.

Presently, I Became Conscious That A Faint, Continuous Sound, Pulsed Through The Silence That Wrapped Me. I Listened Intently. It Grew More Distinct, Until It Appeared To Me That I Harked To The Breathings Of Some Great Sea. I Cannot Tell How Long A Space Passed Thus; But, After A While, It Seemed That I Could See Through The Mistiness; And, Slowly, I Became Aware That I Was Standing Upon The Shore Of An Immense And Silent Sea. This Shore Was Smooth And Long, Vanishing To Right And Left Of Me, In Extreme Distances. In Front, Swam A Still Immensity Of Sleeping Ocean. At Times, It Seemed To Me That I Caught A Faint Glimmer Of Light, Under Its Surface; But Of This, I Could Not Be Sure. Behind Me, Rose Up, To An Extraordinary Height, Gaunt, Black Cliffs.

Overhead, The Sky Was Of A Uniform Cold Grey Color--The Whole Place Being Lit By A Stupendous Globe Of Pale Fire, That Swam A Little Above The Far Horizon, And Shed A Foamlike Light Above The Quiet Waters.