was sufficiently conscious to hear his exclamations, they only provoked my
keen anger; but after a time, my senses became clouded, and I sank into a
stupor. As near as I can judge, this must have been three o'clock in the
morning, rather more than five hours after the hasheesh began to take
effect. I lay thus all the following day and night, in a state of gray,
blank oblivion, broken only by a single wandering gleam of consciousness.
I recollect hearing François' voice. He told me afterwards that I arose,
attempted to dress myself, drank two cups of coffee, and then fell back
into the same death-like stupor; but of all this, I did not retain the
least knowledge. On the morning of the second day, after a sleep of thirty
hours, I awoke again to the world, with a system utterly prostrate and
unstrung, and a brain clouded with the lingering images of my visions. I
knew where I was, and what had happened to me, but all that I saw still
remained unreal and shadowy. There was no taste in what I ate, no
refreshment in what I drank, and it required a painful effort to
comprehend what was said to me and return a coherent answer. Will and
Reason had come back, but they still sat unsteadily upon their thrones.

My friend, who was much further advanced in his recovery, accompanied me
to the adjoining bath, which I hoped would assist in restoring me. It was
with great difficulty that I preserved the outward appearance of
consciousness. In spite of myself, a veil now and then fell over my mind,
and after wandering for years, as it seemed, in some distant world, I
awoke with a shock, to find myself in the steamy halls of the bath, with a
brown Syrian polishing my limbs. I suspect that my language must have been
rambling and incoherent, and that the menials who had me in charge
understood my condition, for as soon as I had stretched myself upon the
couch which follows the bath, a glass of very acid sherbet was presented
to me, and after drinking it I experienced instant relief. Still the spell
was not wholly broken, and for two or three days I continued subject to