Sentence:  It is impossible to convey, in words, any idea of the hideous <WSD>phantasmagoria</WSD> of shifting limbs and faces which moved through the evil-smelling twilight of this terrible prison-house. Callot might have drawn it, Dante might have suggested it, but a minute attempt to describe its horrors would but disgust. There are depths in humanity which one cannot explore, as there are mephitic caverns into which one dare not penetrate. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A dreamlike state where real and imagined elements are blurred together.