to rise. At last I managed to get to bed, but, oh, I did
not sleep, only dozed at intervals, for the drunkard never knows the
blessings of undisturbed repose. I awoke in the night with a raging
thirst. No sooner was one draught taken than the horrible dry feeling
returned; and so I went on, swallowing repeated glassfuls of the spirit
until at last I had drained the very last drop which the jug contained.
My appetite grew by what it fed on; and, having a little money by me, I
with difficulty got up, made myself look as tidy as possible, and then
went out to buy more rum, with which I returned to the house.

The fact will, perhaps, seem incredible, but so it was that I drank
spirits continually without tasting a morsel of food for the next three
days. This could not last long; a constitution of iron strength could
not endure such treatment, and mine was partially broken down by
previous dissipation.

I began to experience a feeling hitherto unknown to me. After the
three days' drinking to which I have just referred, I felt, one night,
as I lay on my bed, an awful sense of something dreadful coming over
me. It was as if I had been partially stunned, and now in an interval
of consciousness was about to have the fearful blow, which had
prostrated me, repeated. There was a craving for sleep, sleep, blessed
sleep, but my eyelids were as if they could not close. Every object
around me I beheld with startling distinctness, and my hearing became
unnaturally acute. Then, to the ringing and roaring in my ears would
suddenly succeed a silence so awful that only the stillness of the
grave might be compared with it.

At other times, strange voices would whisper unintelligible words, and
the slightest noise would make me start like a guilty thing. But the
horrible, burning thirst was insupportable, and to quench it and induce
sleep I clutched again and again the rum bottle, hugged my enemy, and
poured the infernal fluid down my parched throat. But it was no use,
none; I could not sleep. Then I bethought me of tobacco; and
staggering from my bed to a shelf near by, with great difficulty I
managed to procure a pipe and some matches. I could not stand to light
the latter, so I lay again on the bed, and scraped one on the wall. I
began to smoke, and the narcotic leaf produced a stupefaction. I dozed
a little, but, feeling a warmth on my face, I awoke and discovered my
pillow to be on fire! I had dropped a lighted match on