Chapter 24
The Artilleryman's Dream of Underground
English edition
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1 On a moonless night, the inn atop Putney Hill stands black and silent, every window dark
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2 In the dark inn bedroom, the narrator sits bolt upright in the iron bed and prays
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3 At sunrise, a crouching shape in the bushes stands up: a ragged soldier with a cutlass
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4 At dawn, the artilleryman lowers his cutlass and grips the grey-haired narrator's hand
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5 Two filthy survivors crouch in a leafy bower on Wimbledon Common, staring at each other
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6 The philosopher grips the soldier's hand, moved by his resolve to live on underground
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7 In the bower, the artilleryman grips the narrator's arm and lifts his face to the sky
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8 The artilleryman's swagger drains away in the candlelit coal cellar.
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9 From a Putney rooftop, sunlit gardens give way to a Thames choked with blood-red weed
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10 From a Putney rooftop at night, the narrator looks out over black, dead London.
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11 On the dark roof, the narrator is overcome with disgust at the day's cards and cigars
In the text →