Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin — Read

. Men who with mankind were foes. / Or who, in desperate doubt of grace. / - Scott's Marmion

One wild moment of yelling agony -- one flash of a fierce and fiery light, that seemed to envelop and wither me soul and body -- one sound, that swept through my ears and brain like the last trumpet, as it will thrill on the senses of those who slept in guilt, and awake in despair -- one such moment, that condenses and crowds all imaginable sufferings in one brief and intense pang, and appears exhausted itself by the blow it has struck -- one such moment I remember, and no more. Many a month of gloomy unconsciousness rolled over me, without date or notice. One thousand waves may welter over a sunk wreck, and be felt as one. I have a dim recollection of refusing food, of resisting change of place, etc. but they were like the faint and successless attempts we make under the burden of the nightmare; and those with whom I had to do, probably regarded any opposition I could make no more than the tossings of a restless sleeper.