'Now hear me, God!' he gabbled awry: 'Let not this man ever again know
surcease from torment, in bed, at board, in his body, or in his mind.
Let his lust consummate in frostbite; let the worm burrow in his
entrails, and the maggot in his brain. May his drink be salt, and his
meat bitter as aloes. May his short lease of wicked life be cancelled,
and death seize him, and damnation wither in the moment of his supreme
impenitence. Darken his vision, so that for evermore it shall see
despair and the mockery of fruitless hope. Let him walk a
self-conscious leper in the sunshine, and strive vainly to propitiate
the loathing in eyes in which he sees himself reflected an abhorred and
filthy ape. May the curse of Assisi----'