In certain
conditions of mind, and notably with criminals who fear discovery,
the effects of opium change very quickly; the downward steps
through which it would take months for an ordinary individual to
pass are descended with alarming rapidity, and the end is a
thousand times more horrible. Meschini could not have taken the
doses which a confirmed opium-eater swallows with indifference,
but the result produced was far greater in proportion to the
amount of the narcotic he consumed. Before the week which followed
the deed was ended, he began to see visions when he was apparently
awake. Shapeless, slimy things crawled about the floor of his
room, upon his table, even upon the sheets of his bed. Dark
shadows confronted him, and changed their outlines unexpectedly.
Forms rose out of the earth at his feet and towered all at once to
the top of the room, taking the appearance of San Giacinto and
vanishing suddenly into the air. The things he saw came like
instantaneous flashes from another and even more terrible world,
disappearing at first so quickly as to make him believe them only
the effects of the light and darkness, like the ghost he had seen
in his coat. In the beginning there was scarcely anything alarming
in them, but as he started whenever they came, he generally took
them as a warning that he needed more brandy to keep him up.
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