And their fiery tongues shot forward, cracking my prison door.
I was free[451]—with the heavy iron door dragging me down[452] to death;
I fought my way to the cabin,[453] choked with the burning breath
Of the flames that danced around me[454] like man-mocking fiends at play,
And then—O God! I can see it, and shall to my dying day.
There[455] lay my Nell as they’d left her, dead in her berth that night;
The flames flung a smile[456] on her features,—a horrible,[456a] lurid light,
God knows how I reached and touched her, but I found myself by her side;
I thought she was living a moment, I forgot that my Nell had died.
In the shock of those awful seconds reason came back to my brain;[457]