Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 November 1887 — HORRORS OF NIGHTMARE. [ARTICLE]

HORRORS OF NIGHTMARE.

Curious Attack of au Entire French Reelmeat. A French physician has recorded a very extraordinary case in which the nightmare attacked an entire regiment of soldiers. Dr. Laurent, the physician in question, said he was surgeon of the first battalion of the La Tour d’Auvergne Regiment, when it was garrisoned at Palmi, in Calabria. At midnight, in the month of June, the o der to march with all possible speed to Tropea, forty miles away, was given. At--7 o'clock on the following evening Trol- - was reached, scarcely a single halt having been made by the way. The men arrived in a pitiful state of exhaustion and fatigue, in consequence mainly of the intense heat, found their rations cooked, their quarters prepared, and, after a hearty meal, retired for the night in an abandoned monastery, a building much too small for their number, sleeping upon heaps of straw, some in one room, some in others. Just before occupying their unwholesome quarters some of the soldiers heard that the monastery was haunted by a demon dog, and spread the story from one to another, some uncomfortably, most of them merrily. There seemed little fear of their sleep being disturbed after such a day’s work as they had done. But at midnight the deep silence was suddenly broken by loud, wild cries of terror. The white-faced soldiers rushed tumultuously from their chambers in every direction, and one and all at once told the same tale of superstitious terror. One and all had been visited by the phantom dog! The monastery was abandoned, and the weary soldiers, veterans in war and famous for their bravery, wandered about the town or slept in sheds and outhouses rather than again face the terrors of what was undoubtedly a bad attack of nightmare, consequent upon sleep following an undigested meal taken while in a condition of great fatigue. Some idea of the awful state of terror into which the distorted images of the fancy or memory have thrown people may be gleaned from the fa t that medical men have recorded many cases in which they have resulted in death. An artist of eminence, whose engraved pictures are now to be seen in every print-shop window—one of the writer's best friends—his ,the nightmare occasionally, but with him it invariably takes one form. He seems to be awakened by a sensation of coldness, such as might be caused by the sudden admission of outdoor air, and at the same time sees a man’s hand busy with _ thejwindow-fastening. 1 q slips quietly from his bed, takes up the poker, conceals himself behind the windowcurtain, hears the fastening of the window thrust back, and with a sensation of spiteful glee ra ses his weapon to bring it down with all its force upon the head which he knows will in a minute or two be thrust into his room. The window is softly and slowly raised, and he is in a quiver of eagerness to deal the vengeful blow, a grim smile on his face, a fierce flash in his eye, when lo! the head appears. But horror of horrors! The artist’s upraised arm is still and rigid; he cannot strike the blow. And the face then turned toward him is one of hideous, mockery and scorn, with a protruding tongue, the fangs of a wild beast, and ti e expression of a tiend. And so he remains face to sace 1 with his frightful enemy, utterly helpless, and in a state of indescribable torture, ’lhe effect of nightmare in this form is, he tells me, an almost maddening one, and he can only account for its frequent repetition as resulting from au unusually powerful impression made upon his memory in conjunction with its curious ally, the imagination, which is, in his case, one of more than usual power.— London Exchange.