OR THE DESERT ISLAND. 99

of repose had returned ; and Philip, elated at his own inge-
nuity and industry, betook himself to his mattrass. Di-
verting his mind from all serious thoughts, slumber soon
closed his eyes.

But when frightful dreams infest our sleep the empire of
conscience even then is fearful. His enemy seemed again
present: ghastly and melancholy he stood by Philip’s bed,
upbraiding him for his inhumanity. Sometimes fancy
would change the picture; and stretched on the barren
beach Charles was seen expiring from hunger, heat and
thirst, or lying on the graves they had both prepared, a
lifeless, hideous corpse.

Tortured by such gloomy imaginings, Philip at length
awoke; but the impressions they left could not be so soon
effaced. The more he strove to banish all remembrance
of Charles from his mind, the more hideous his conceptions
became: sad, livid and stained with blood, the count
seemed again at his bedside, accusing him of hatred, re-
venge and murder. The miserable Merville found not the
promised repose ; a cold sweat bedewed his forehead, his res-
piration was almost choked, and this decisive night was to
him a night of horrors and sufferings more real and intense
than any he had ever before experienced.

Completely exhausted by this moral fatigue and torture,