Reading an old tale, I have a problem with the following sentences (because of the context, I pasted also the preceding sentence):
My memory is not what it was, and there are certain lacunae for which my readers must contrive to forgive me. The only wonder is, that my powers of recollection have survived at all, beneath the hideous burden they have had to bear; for, in a more than metaphoric sense, I have been as one condemned to carry with him, at all times and in all places, the loathsome incubi of things long dead and corrupt.
The first thing I am not sure of is the "I have been as one condemned". Can the "as" be omitted? My otherproblem is "carry with" - it does not seem to be the usual usage, does still mean "carry him with me", as in "still present whenever I go"? But who is "him"? I thought it refers to the incubus, but as there is the plural, incubi, I do not think so.