There was a colloquy between the Doctor and my hostess, and the word _cataplasma_ sounded repeatedly; also I heard again "_dosi forti_." The night that followed was perhaps the most horrible I ever passed.

Crushed with a sense of uttermost fatigue, I could get no rest.

From time to time a sort of doze crept upon me, and I said to myself, "Now I shall sleep"; but on the very edge of slumber, at the moment when I was falling into oblivion, a hand seemed to pluck me back into consciousness.

In the same instant there gleamed before my eyes a little circle of fire, which blazed and expanded into immensity, until its many-coloured glare beat upon my brain and thrilled me with torture.

No sooner was the intolerable light extinguished than I burst into a cold sweat; an icy river poured about me; I shook, and my teeth chattered, and so for some minutes I lay in anguish, until the heat of fever re-asserted itself, and I began once more to toss and roll.