Page:Frank Owen - The Scarlett Hill, 1941.djvu/353

RV 348 (VICTORY) dealt to the armies of Shih Ssu-ming and the forces scattered.

An Lu-shan, Emperor of the Great Yen Dynasty by his own proclamation, had proved his mastery over vast multitudes of men, but he could not control the morbid pustules that were ravaging large areas of his skin, preventing him from resting. Sometimes they festered, became infected and swelled into abscesses. At night he lay upon his pallet and tossed and turned in torment from a thousand itching blotches. He felt as though some horrible insect were crawling under his skin. And his body burned with a relentless fire, the fluid boiled in the pustules. And the fire crept into his very eyes, they smarted and flamed like liquid metal. So intense was the heat, he had difficulty in seeing. Smoke from the fire blurred into a haze; nothing was clear. When the itching became too frightful to endure, he scratched the pustules and they broke into a slimy wetness, releasing pain that ravaged his flesh like knives turning in raw wounds.

Night after night he endured torture, so weary from loss of sleep that he whimpered incoherently. Finally one night, when he had veered into a region bordering on coma, he regained his faculties quickly and sprang from his couch. His heart beat as painfully as though it were gnawing its way to freedom. He had the feeling that some frightful monstrosity stalked about in the room near him, perhaps a demon or a pitiless dragon. RV 348 (348)