II


Pelle was awakened by a distant sound resembling thunder, that came
nearer and nearer out of the night and kept close to the prison. He lay
still and listened shudderingly in the hope of hearing the reassuring
step of the watchman passing his door, while fancies chased one another
in his heavy head like riderless horses. The hollow, threatening sound
grew ever louder and clearer, until it suddenly shattered the stillness
of the night with a thunderous roar, which seemed to bring everything
crashing down. It was as though a great gulf had opened and swallowed
everything.

In one panic-stricken bound he was at the window, his heart beating
tumultuously; but the next moment he was ashamed of his mistake. It had
been the same terrifying Doomsday that he had dreaded in the days of his
childhood, when the lightning zig-zagged among the rocks at home; and
yet it was nothing but the noise of the first farm-carts as they passed
from the highroad onto the stone paving of the town. It was the solitude
brooding in his imagination, making it start in fear at every sound. But
that would wear off.

He stretched himself and shook off the nightmare. Free! No gaoler was
coming like a bad spirit to shatter the night's happy dream of freedom.
He _was_ free! His pallet had not to be hooked up to the wall at a
certain hour; he could lie as long as he wanted to, the whole day, if he