noon
But this was no easy matter . I soon became entangled in a dense undergrowth , which so confused me that at last I confessed despairingly to myself that for the first time in this wood I was hopelessly lost . And in what terrible circumstances ! At intervals a flash of lightning would throw a vivid blue glare down into the interior of the wood and only serve to show that I had lost myself in a place where even at noon in cloudless weather progress would be most difficult ; and now the light would only last a moment , to be followed by thick gloom ; and I could only tear blindly on , bruising and lacerating my flesh at every step , falling again and again , only to struggle up and on again , now high above the surface , climbing over prostrate trees and branches , now plunged to my middle in a pool or torrent of water . Hopeless -- utterly hopeless seemed all my mad efforts ; and at each pause , when I would stand exhausted , gasping for breath , my throbbing heart almost suffocating me , a dull , continuous , teasing pain in my bitten leg served to remind me that I had but a little time left to exist -- that by delaying at first I had allowed my only chance of salvation to slip by . How long a time I spent fighting my way through this dense black wood I know not ; perhaps two or three hours , only to me the hours seemed like years of prolonged agony . At last , all at once , I found that I was free of the close undergrowth and walking on level ground ; but it was darker here darker than the darkest night ; and at length , when the lightning came and flared down through the dense roof of foliage overhead , I discovered that I was in a spot that had a strange look , where the trees were very large and grew wide apart , and with no undergrowth to impede progress beneath them .