midday
I made great progress in Latin and Greek under the teaching of the agreeable , well-informed minister , in whose house I lived , and in other subjects under one of the masters of the college ; but in my leisure hours I sought the spots which gave so much occupation to my fancy , and therefore Trondenæs was anything but the right place for my diseased mind . My nervous excitability has some connection with the moon 's changes as I have since noticed . At such times the church exercised an almost irresistible fascination over me ; I stole there unnoticed and alone , and would sit for hours lost in thought over one thing and another , indistinct creations of my imagination , and among them Susanna 's light form , which sometimes seemed to float towards me , without my ever being quite able to see her face . It was late in the spring of the second year I was at Trondenæs , that one midday , being under the influence of one of these unhealthy moods , I sat in the church on a raised place near the high altar , meditating , with Susanna 's blue cross in my hand . My eye fell on a large dark picture on the wall beside the altar , which I had often seen , but without its having made any special impression on me . It represented in life-size a martyr who has been cast into a thorn-bush ; the sharp thorns , as long as daggers , pierced his body in all directions , and he could not utter a complaint , because one great sharp thorn went into his throat and out at his open mouth . The expression of this face struck me all at once as terrible .