With every thunderclap, with every howl of the dogs, he knew this evening turning into night was exceptionally bloody. Rising from the tops of the far-off apartments was mist. He looked out the window. The blackness of the eminent night was spreading like poison, down the spine of the world, clouding the mind, as laudanum would do if drunk with coffee, and gripping the body in restraint.

The clouds had invaded the city as an army of brusque infantrymen would, armed with rifles and carbines... read more