[Dark Saint Alaick]

My agony was at length insufferable, and I awoke just in time to
perceive that a rat had run off with the lighted candle from the stand, but not in season to
prevent his making his escape with it through the hole, Very soon a strong, suffocating
odor assailed my nostrils; the house, I clearly perceived, was on fire. In a few minutes the
blaze broke forth with violence, and in an incredibly brief period the entire building was
wrapped in flames. All egress from my chamber, except through a window, was cut off.
The crowd, however, quickly procured and raised a long ladder. By means of this I was
descending rapidly, and in apparent safety, when a huge hog, about whose rotund
stomach, and indeed about whose whole air and physiognomy, there was something
which reminded me of the Angel of the Odd--when this hog, I say, which hitherto had
been quietly slumbering in the mud, took it suddenly into his head that his left shoulder
needed scratching, and could find no more convenient rubbing-post than that afforded by
the foot of the ladder. In an instant I was precipitated, and had the misfortune to fracture
my arm.