"Come along,"
cried Sleep, "thou wilt never repent of thy journey." "Well," said I,
"may there never be night in Sleepton, and may Nightmare never have rest
save on an awl's point if ye bring me not back where ye found me."
Then away we went over hills and through forests, across seas and
valleys, over castles and towers, rivers and rocks, and where should we
alight but at one of the gates of the daughters of Belial, at the rear of
the City of Destruction, where I noticed that the three gateways of
Destruction contracted into one at the back, and opened upon the same
place--a murky, vaporous, pestilent place, full of noisome mists, and
terrible lowering clouds. "Prithee, good sir," asked I, "what place be
this?" "The chambers of Death," replied Sleep. And no sooner had I
asked than I could hear some wailing, groaning, and sighing; some
deliriously muttering to themselves or feebly moaning, others in great
travail, and with all the signs of man's departure from life; and, now
and then, would one give a long-drawn gasp, and lapse into silence. At
that moment, I heard a key being turned in a lock, and at the noise I
looked around for the door, and gazing steadfastly, perceived thousands
upon thousands of doors, seemingly afar off but really close at hand.
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