And coldness, by degrees, my senses numb’d.[1290]

“When I awoke as ’twere from a long dream

Of agonizing thought, I was confined

Within these walls,[1291] and knew they call’d me mad.”

[Gestures.]

“And having wound their loathsome track to the top

Of this huge, mouldering monument of Rome,

Hang hissing at the nobler man below.”