the house to send for a physician. They did so, but I immediately
repented having summoned him, and endeavored, but ineffectually, to get
out of his way when he arrived. He saw at a glance what was the matter
with me, ordered the persons about me to watch me carefully, and on no
account to let me have any spirituous liquors. Everything stimulating
was vigorously denied me; and there came on the drunkard's remorseless
torture: delirium tremens, in all its terrors, attacked me. For three
days I endured more agony than pen could describe, even were it guided
by the mind of Dante. Who can feel the horrors of the horrible malady,
aggravated as it is by the almost ever-abiding consciousness that it is
self-sought. Hideous faces appeared on the wall and on the ceiling and
on the floors; foul things crept along the bedclothes, and glaring eyes
peered into mine. I was at one time surrounded by millions of
monstrous spiders that crawled slowly over every limb, whilst the
beaded drops of perspiration would start to my brow, and my limbs would
shiver until the bed rattled again. Strange lights would dance before
my eyes, and then suddenly the very blackness of darkness would appall
me by its dense gloom. All at once, while gazing at a frightful
creation of my distempered mind, I seemed struck with sudden blindness.
I knew a candle was burning in the room but I could not see it, all was
so pitchy dark. I lost the sense of feeling, too, for I endeavored to
grasp my arm in one hand, but consciousness was gone. I put my hand to
my side, my head, but felt nothing, and still I knew my limbs and frame
were there. And then the scene would change! I was falling--falling
swiftly as an arrow--far down into some terrible abyss; and so like
reality was it that as I fell I could see the rocky sides of the
horrible shaft, where mocking, jibing, fiend-like forms were perched;
and I could feel the air rushing past me, making my hair stream out by
the force of the unwholesome blast. Then the paroxysm sometimes ceased
for a few moments, and I would sink back on my pallet, drenched with