'Lost' Inbox

Hello
I see that folks have had this problem before, but can't find out how to solve it in any of the threads here.
My 'Mail' Account is very full. I was getting that message about 'having to take the account online' rather than my mail actually opening. Therefore I was having to repeatedly close and open Mail. I was also trying to delete as much old mail as I could.
In the course of closing Mail this a.m., I got what I now realize is the dreaded 'error in compaction' message, and when I reopened Mail, my Inbox only had 1 message in it! It had previously had a year's mail there.
I've discovered that if I go to mac.com and open my mail there, my most recent mails are there, but PLEASE is there any way I can retrieve my Inbox?
Thank you in anticipation of your help
PowerBook G4   Mac OS X (10.3.9)  
PowerBook G4   Mac OS X (10.3.9)  

robert,
This particular forum is for Tiger's Mail & Address Book. To avoid confusion on everyone's part, if you are using the older OS & app versions, you should post in the Support > Discussions > Mac OS X v10.3 & earlier > Mail & Address Book forum, unless your issue actually pertains to the Tiger versions in some way.

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