The Pit and the Pendulum By Edgar Allan Poe

Impia tortorum longos hic turba furores contempt of human torture. I saw that the Sanguinis innocui, non satiata, aluit. decrees of what to me was Fate, were still Sospite nunc patria, fracto nunc funeris issuing from those lips. I saw them writhe antro, Mors ubi dira fuit vita salusque patent. with a deadly locution. I saw them fashion [Quatrain composed for the gates of a the syllables of my name; and I shuddered market to be erected upon the site of the Ja- because no sound succeeded. I saw, too, for a cobin Club House at Paris.] few moments of delirious hor- I WAS sick—sick unto ror, the soft and nearly imper- death with that long agony; ceptible waving of the sable and when they at length un- draperies which enwrapped bound me, and I was per- the walls of the apartment. mitted to sit, I felt that my And then my vision fell upon senses were leaving me. The the seven tall candles upon sentence—the dread sentence the table. At first they wore of death—was the last of the aspect of charity, and distinct accentuation which seemed white and slender an- reached my ears. After that, gels who would save me; but the sound of the inquisitorial then, all at once, there came a voices seemed merged in one most deadly nausea over my dreamy indeterminate hum. It spirit, and I felt every fibre conveyed to my soul the idea in my frame thrill as if I had of revolution—perhaps from touched the wire of a galvanic its association in fancy with battery, while the angel forms the burr of a mill wheel. This only for a brief became meaningless spectres, with heads of period; for presently I heard no more. Yet, for flame, and I saw that from them there would a while, I saw; but with how terrible an ex- be no help. And then there stole into my aggeration! I saw the lips of the black-robed fancy, like a rich musical note, the thought judges. They appeared to me white—whit- of what sweet rest there must be in the grave. er than the sheet upon which I trace these The thought came gently and stealthily, and words—and thin even to grotesqueness; thin it seemed long before it attained full appre- with the intensity of their expression of firm- ciation; but just as my spirit came at length ness—of immoveable resolution—of stern properly to feel and entertain it, the figures —  —

Created for Lit2Go on the web at fcit.usf.edu The Pit and the Pendulum By Edgar Allan Poe of the judges vanished, as if magically, from ing in mid-air the sad visions that the many before me; the tall candles sank into nothing- may not view; is not he who ponders over ness; their flames went out utterly; the black- the perfume of some novel flower—is not ness of darkness supervened; all sensations he whose brain grows bewildered with the appeared swallowed up in a mad rushing de- meaning of some musical cadence which has scent as of the soul into Hades. Then silence, never before arrested his attention. and stillness, night were the universe. Amid frequent and thoughtful endeav- I had swooned; but still will not say that ors to remember; amid earnest struggles to all of consciousness was lost. What of it there regather some token of the state of seeming remained I will not attempt to define, or nothingness into which my soul had lapsed, even to describe; yet all was not lost. In the there have been moments when I have deepest slumber—no! In delirium—no! In a dreamed of success; there have been brief, swoon—no! In death—no! even in the grave very brief periods when I have conjured up all is not lost. Else there is no immortality remembrances which the lucid reason of a for man. Arousing from the most profound later epoch assures me could have had refer- of slumbers, we break the gossamer web of ence only to that condition of seeming un- some dream. Yet in a second afterward, (so consciousness. These shadows of memory tell, frail may that web have been) we remember indistinctly, of tall figures that lifted and bore not that we have dreamed. In the return to me in silence down—down—still down— life from the swoon there are two stages; first, till a hideous dizziness oppressed me at the that of the sense of mental or spiritual; sec- mere idea of the interminableness of the de- ondly, that of the sense of physical, existence. scent. They tell also of a vague horror at my It seems probable that if, upon reaching the heart, on account of that heart’s unnatural second stage, we could recall the impressions stillness. Then comes a sense of sudden mo- of the first, we should find these impressions tionlessness throughout all things; as if those eloquent in memories of the gulf beyond. And who bore me (a ghastly train!) had outrun, in that gulf is—what? How at least shall we dis- their descent, the limits of the limitless, and tinguish its shadows from those of the tomb? paused from the wearisomeness of their toil. But if the impressions of what I have termed After this I call to mind flatness and damp- the first stage, are not, at will, recalled, yet, ness; and then all is madness—the madness after long interval, do they not come unbid- of a memory which busies itself among for- den, while we marvel whence they come? He bidden things. who has never swooned, is not he who finds Very suddenly there came back to my strange palaces and wildly familiar faces in soul motion and sound—the tumultuous mo- coals that glow; is not he who beholds float- tion of the heart, and, in my ears, the sound

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Created for Lit2Go on the web at fcit.usf.edu The Pit and the Pendulum By Edgar Allan Poe of its beating. Then a pause in which all is proceedings, and attempted from that point blank. Then again sound, and motion, and to deduce my real condition. The sentence touch—a tingling sensation pervading my had passed; and it appeared to me that a very frame. Then the mere consciousness of exis- long interval of time had since elapsed. Yet tence, without thought—a condition which not for a moment did I suppose myself actu- lasted long. Then, very suddenly, thought, ally dead. Such a supposition, notwithstand- and shuddering terror, and earnest endeavor ing what we read in fiction, is altogether in- to comprehend my true state. Then a strong consistent with real existence;—but where desire to lapse into insensibility. Then a rush- and in what state was I? The condemned to ing revival of soul and a successful effort to death, I knew, perished usually at the autos- move. And now a full memory of the trial, da-fe, and one of these had been held on of the judges, of the sable draperies, of the the very night of the day of my trial. Had I sentence, of the sickness, of the swoon. Then been remanded to my dungeon, to await the entire forgetfulness of all that followed; of all next sacrifice, which would not take place that a later day and much earnestness of en- for many months? This I at once saw could deavor have enabled me vaguely to recall. not be. Victims had been in immediate de- So far, I had not opened my eyes. I felt mand. Moreover, my dungeon, as well as all that I lay upon my back, unbound. I reached the condemned cells at Toledo, had stone out my hand, and it fell heavily upon some- floors, and light was not altogether excluded. thing damp and hard. There I suffered it to A fearful idea now suddenly drove the blood remain for many minutes, while I strove to in torrents upon my heart, and for a brief imagine where and what I could be. I longed, period, I once more relapsed into insensibil- yet dared not to employ my vision. I dreaded ity. Upon recovering, I at once started to my the first glance at objects around me. It was feet, trembling convulsively in every fibre. I not that I feared to look upon things hor- thrust my arms wildly above and around me rible, but that I grew aghast lest there should in all directions. I felt nothing; yet dreaded be nothing to see. At length, with a wild des- to move a step, lest I should be impeded by peration at heart, I quickly unclosed my eyes. the walls of a tomb. Perspiration burst from My worst thoughts, then, were confirmed. every pore, and stood in cold big beads upon The blackness of eternal night encompassed my forehead. The agony of suspense grew at me. I struggled for breath. The intensity of length intolerable, and I cautiously moved the darkness seemed to oppress and stifle me. forward, with my arms extended, and my The atmosphere was intolerably close. I still eyes straining from their sockets, in the hope lay quietly, and made effort to exercise my of catching some faint ray of light. I proceed- reason. I brought to mind the inquisitorial ed for many paces; but still all was blackness

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Created for Lit2Go on the web at fcit.usf.edu The Pit and the Pendulum By Edgar Allan Poe and vacancy. I breathed more freely. It seemed identify my point of departure. The difficul- evident that mine was not, at least, the most ty, nevertheless, was but trivial; although, in hideous of fates. the disorder of my fancy, it seemed at first And now, as I still continued to step cau- insuperable. I tore a part of the hem from the tiously onward, there came thronging upon robe and placed the fragment at full length, my recollection a thousand vague rumors of and at right angles to the wall. In groping my the horrors of Toledo. Of the dungeons there way around the prison, I could not fail to en- had been strange things narrated—fables I counter this rag upon completing the circuit. had always deemed them—but yet strange, So, at least I thought: but I had not counted and too ghastly to repeat, save in a whisper. upon the extent of the dungeon, or upon my Was I left to perish of starvation in this sub- own weakness. The ground was moist and terranean world of darkness; or what fate, slippery. I staggered onward for some time, perhaps even more fearful, awaited me? That when I stumbled and fell. My excessive fa- the result would be death, and a death of tigue induced me to remain prostrate; and more than customary bitterness, I knew too sleep soon overtook me as I lay. Upon awak- well the character of my judges to doubt. The ing, and stretching forth an arm, I found mode and the hour were all that occupied or beside me a loaf and a pitcher with water. I distracted me. was too much exhausted to reflect upon this My outstretched hands at length encoun- circumstance, but ate and drank with avidity. tered some solid obstruction. It was a wall, Shortly afterward, I resumed my tour around seemingly of stone masonry—very smooth, the prison, and with much toil came at last slimy, and cold. I followed it up; stepping upon the fragment of the serge. Up to the with all the careful distrust with which cer- period when I fell I had counted fifty-two tain antique narratives had inspired me. This paces, and upon resuming my walk, I had process, however, afforded me no means of counted forty-eight more;—when I arrived ascertaining the dimensions of my dungeon; at the rag. There were in all, then, a hundred as I might make its circuit, and return to the paces; and, admitting two paces to the yard, point whence I set out, without being aware I presumed the dungeon to be fifty yards in of the fact; so perfectly uniform seemed the circuit. I had met, however, with many angles wall. I therefore sought the knife which had in the wall, and thus I could form no guess at been in my pocket, when led into the inquis- the shape of the vault; for vault I could not itorial chamber; but it was gone; my clothes help supposing it to be. had been exchanged for a wrapper of coarse I had little object—certainly no hope serge. I had thought of forcing the blade in these researches; but a vague curiosity prompt- some minute crevice of the masonry, so as to ed me to continue them. Quitting the wall,

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Created for Lit2Go on the web at fcit.usf.edu The Pit and the Pendulum By Edgar Allan Poe

I resolved to cross the area of the enclosure. as rapid closing of a door overhead, while a At first I proceeded with extreme caution, for faint gleam of light flashed suddenly through the floor, although seemingly of solid mate- the gloom, and as suddenly faded away. rial, was treacherous with slime. At length, I saw clearly the doom which had been however, I took courage, and did not hesitate prepared for me, and congratulated myself to step firmly; endeavoring to cross in as di- upon the timely accident by which I had es- rect a line as possible. I had advanced some caped. Another step before my fall, and the ten or twelve paces in this manner, when the world had seen me no more. And the death remnant of the torn hem of my robe became just avoided, was of that very character which entangled between my legs. I stepped on it, I had regarded as fabulous and frivolous in and fell violently on my face. the tales respecting the Inquisition. To the In the confusion attending my fall, I victims of its tyranny, there was the choice did not immediately apprehend a somewhat of death with its direst physical agonies, or startling circumstance, which yet, in a few death with its most hideous moral horrors. I seconds afterward, and while I still lay pros- had been reserved for the latter. By long suf- trate, arrested my attention. It was this—my fering my nerves had been unstrung, until I chin rested upon the floor of the prison, but trembled at the sound of my own voice, and my lips and the upper portion of my head, had become in every respect a fitting subject although seemingly at a less elevation than for the species of torture which awaited me. the chin, touched nothing. At the same time Shaking in every limb, I groped my way back my forehead seemed bathed in a clammy va- to the wall; resolving there to perish rather por, and the peculiar smell of decayed fungus than risk the terrors of the wells, of which my arose to my nostrils. I put forward my arm, imagination now pictured many in various and shuddered to find that I had fallen at the positions about the dungeon. In other con- very brink of a circular pit, whose extent, of ditions of mind I might have had courage to course, I had no means of ascertaining at the end my misery at once by a plunge into one moment. Groping about the masonry just of these abysses; but now I was the veriest of below the margin, I succeeded in dislodg- cowards. Neither could I forget what I had ing a small fragment, and let it fall into the read of these pits—that the sudden extinc- abyss. For many seconds I hearkened to its tion of life formed no part of their most hor- reverberations as it dashed against the sides rible plan. of the chasm in its descent; at length there Agitation of spirit kept me awake for was a sullen plunge into water, succeeded by many long hours; but at length I again slum- loud echoes. At the same moment there came bered. Upon arousing, I found by my side, as a sound resembling the quick opening, and before, a loaf and a pitcher of water. A burning

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Created for Lit2Go on the web at fcit.usf.edu The Pit and the Pendulum By Edgar Allan Poe thirst consumed me, and I emptied the vessel I had been deceived, too, in respect to at a draught. It must have been drugged; for the shape of the enclosure. In feeling my way scarcely had I drunk, before I became irresist- I had found many angles, and thus deduced ibly drowsy. A deep sleep fell upon me—a an idea of great irregularity; so potent is the sleep like that of death. How long it lasted effect of total darkness upon one arousing of course, I know not; but when, once again, from lethargy or sleep! The angles were sim- I unclosed my eyes, the objects around me ply those of a few slight depressions, or nich- were visible. By a wild sulphurous lustre, the es, at odd intervals. The general shape of the origin of which I could not at first determine, prison was square. What I had taken for ma- I was enabled to see the extent and aspect of sonry seemed now to be iron, or some other the prison. metal, in huge plates, whose sutures or joints In its size I had been greatly mistaken. occasioned the depression. The entire surface The whole circuit of its walls did not exceed of this metallic enclosure was rudely daubed twenty-five yards. For some minutes this fact in all the hideous and repulsive devices to occasioned me a world of vain trouble; vain which the charnel superstition of the monks indeed! for what could be of less importance, has given rise. The figures of fiends in aspects under the terrible circumstances which envi- of menace, with skeleton forms, and other roned me, then the mere dimensions of my more really fearful images, overspread and dungeon? But my soul took a wild interest disfigured the walls. I observed that the out- in trifles, and I busied myself in endeavors lines of these monstrosities were sufficiently to account for the error I had committed in distinct, but that the colors seemed faded my measurement. The truth at length flashed and blurred, as if from the effects of a damp upon me. In my first attempt at exploration I atmosphere. I now noticed the floor, too, had counted fifty-two paces, up to the period which was of stone. In the centre yawned the when I fell; I must then have been within a circular pit from whose jaws I had escaped; pace or two of the fragment of serge; in fact, I but it was the only one in the dungeon. All had nearly performed the circuit of the vault. this I saw indistinctly and by much effort: I then slept, and upon awaking, I must have for my personal condition had been greatly returned upon my steps—thus supposing the changed during slumber. I now lay upon my circuit nearly double what it actually was. back, and at full length, on a species of low My confusion of mind prevented me from framework of wood. To this I was securely observing that I began my tour with the wall bound by a long strap resembling a surcingle. to the left, and ended it with the wall to the It passed in many convolutions about my right. limbs and body, leaving at liberty only my head, and my left arm to such extent that I

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Created for Lit2Go on the web at fcit.usf.edu The Pit and the Pendulum By Edgar Allan Poe could, by dint of much exertion, supply my- up in troops, hurriedly, with ravenous eyes, self with food from an earthen dish which lay allured by the scent of the meat. From this it by my side on the floor. I saw, to my horror, required much effort and attention to scare that the pitcher had been removed. I say to them away. my horror; for I was consumed with intoler- It might have been half an hour, perhaps able thirst. This thirst it appeared to be the even an hour, (for I could take but imper- design of my persecutors to stimulate: for fect note of time) before I again cast my eyes the food in the dish was meat pungently sea- upward. What I then saw confounded and soned. amazed me. The sweep of the pendulum had Looking upward, I surveyed the ceil- increased in extent by nearly a yard. As a nat- ing of my prison. It was some thirty or forty ural consequence, its velocity was also much feet overhead, and constructed much as the greater. But what mainly disturbed me was side walls. In one of its panels a very singu- the idea that it had perceptibly descended. I lar figure riveted my whole attention. It was now observed—with what horror it is need- the painted figure of Time as he is commonly less to say—that its nether extremity was represented, save that, in lieu of a scythe, he formed of a crescent of glittering steel, about held what, at a casual glance, I supposed to a foot in length from horn to horn; the horns be the pictured image of a huge pendulum upward, and the under edge evidently as keen such as we see on antique clocks. There was as that of a razor. Like a razor also, it seemed something, however, in the appearance of massy and heavy, tapering from the edge into this machine which caused me to regard it a solid and broad structure above. It was ap- more attentively. While I gazed directly up- pended to a weighty rod of brass, and the ward at it (for its position was immediately whole hissed as it swung through the air. I over my own) I fancied that I saw it in mo- could no longer doubt the doom prepared tion. In an instant afterward the fancy was for me by monkish ingenuity in torture. My confirmed. Its sweep was brief, and of course cognizance of the pit had become known to slow. I watched it for some minutes, some- the inquisitorial agents—the pit whose hor- what in fear, but more in wonder. Wearied rors had been destined for so bold a recus- at length with observing its dull movement, ant as myself—the pit, typical of hell, and I turned my eyes upon the other objects in regarded by rumor as the Ultima Thule of all the cell. A slight noise attracted my notice, their punishments. The plunge into this pit and, looking to the floor, I saw several enor- I had avoided by the merest of accidents, I mous rats traversing it. They had issued from knew that surprise, or entrapment into tor- the well, which lay just within view to my ment, formed an important portion of all the right. Even then, while I gazed, they came grotesquerie of these dungeon deaths. Hav-

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Created for Lit2Go on the web at fcit.usf.edu The Pit and the Pendulum By Edgar Allan Poe ing failed to fall, it was no part of the de- spared me by the rats. As I put a portion of mon plan to hurl me into the abyss; and thus it within my lips, there rushed to my mind (there being no alternative) a different and a a half formed thought of joy—of hope. Yet milder destruction awaited me. Milder! I half what business had I with hope? It was, as I smiled in my agony as I thought of such ap- say, a half formed thought—man has many plication of such a term. What boots it to tell such which are never completed. I felt that it of the long, long hours of horror more than was of joy—of hope; but felt also that it had mortal, during which I counted the rushing perished in its formation. In vain I struggled vibrations of the steel! Inch by inch—line to perfect—to regain it. Long suffering had by line—with a descent only appreciable at nearly annihilated all my ordinary powers of intervals that seemed ages—down and still mind. I was an imbecile—an idiot. down it came! Days passed—it might have The vibration of the pendulum was at been that many days passed—ere it swept so right angles to my length. I saw that the closely over me as to fan me with its acrid crescent was designed to cross the region breath. The odor of the sharp steel forced itself of the heart. It would fray the serge of my into my nostrils. I prayed—I wearied heaven robe—it would return and repeat its opera- with my prayer for its more speedy descent. I tions—again—and again. Notwithstanding grew frantically mad, and struggled to force its terrifically wide sweep (some thirty feet or myself upward against the sweep of the fear- more) and the hissing vigor of its descent, suf- ful scimitar. And then I fell suddenly calm, ficient to sunder these very walls of iron, still and lay smiling at the glittering death, as a the fraying of my robe would be all that, for child at some rare bauble. There was another several minutes, it would accomplish. And at interval of utter insensibility; it was brief; for, this thought I paused. I dared not go farther upon again lapsing into life there had been than this reflection. I dwelt upon it with a no perceptible descent in the pendulum. But pertinacity of attention—as if, in so dwelling, it might have been long; for I knew there I could arrest here the descent of the steel. were demons who took note of my swoon, I forced myself to ponder upon the sound and who could have arrested the vibration at of the crescent as it should pass across the pleasure. Upon my recovery, too, I felt very— garment—upon the peculiar thrilling sensa- oh, inexpressibly sick and weak, as if through tion which the friction of cloth produces on long inanition. Even amid the agonies of that the nerves. I pondered upon all this frivolity period, the human nature craved food. With until my teeth were on edge. Down—steadi- painful effort I outstretched my left arm as ly down it crept. I took a frenzied pleasure far as my bonds permitted, and took posses- in contrasting its downward with its lateral sion of the small remnant which had been velocity. To the right—to the left—far and

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Created for Lit2Go on the web at fcit.usf.edu The Pit and the Pendulum By Edgar Allan Poe wide—with the shriek of a damned spirit; to during many hours—or perhaps days—I my heart with the stealthy pace of the tiger! I thought. It now occurred to me that the ban- alternately laughed and howled as the one or dage, or surcingle, which enveloped me, was the other idea grew predominant. Down— unique. I was tied by no separate cord. The certainly, relentlessly down! It vibrated with- first stroke of the razorlike crescent athwart in three inches of my bosom! I struggled vio- any portion of the band, would so detach it lently, furiously, to free my left arm. This was that it might be unwound from my person free only from the elbow to the hand. I could by means of my left hand. But how fearful, reach the latter, from the platter beside me, to in that case, the proximity of the steel! The my mouth, with great effort, but no farther. result of the slightest struggle how deadly! Could I have broken the fastenings above the Was it likely, moreover, that the minions of elbow, I would have seized and attempted to the torturer had not foreseen and provided arrest the pendulum. I might as well have at- for this possibility! Was it probable that the tempted to arrest an avalanche! Down—still bandage crossed my bosom in the track of unceasingly—still inevitably down! I gasped the pendulum? Dreading to find my faint, and struggled at each vibration. I shrunk and, as it seemed, in last hope frustrated, I so convulsively at its every sweep. My eyes fol- far elevated my head as to obtain a distinct lowed its outward or upward whirls with the view of my breast. The surcingle enveloped eagerness of the most unmeaning despair; my limbs and body close in all directions— they closed themselves spasmodically at the save in the path of the destroying crescent. descent, although death would have been a Scarcely had I dropped my head back relief, oh! how unspeakable! Still I quivered into its original position, when there flashed in every nerve to think how slight a sink- upon my mind what I cannot better describe ing of the machinery would precipitate that than as the unformed half of that idea of de- keen, glistening axe upon my bosom. It was liverance to which I have previously alluded, hope that prompted the nerve to quiver—the and of which a moiety only floated indetermi- frame to shrink. It was hope—the hope that nately through my brain when I raised food triumphs on the rack—that whispers to the to my burning lips. The whole thought was death-condemned even in the dungeons of now present—feeble, scarcely sane, scarcely the Inquisition. definite,—but still entire. I proceeded at I saw that some ten or twelve vibrations once, with the nervous energy of despair, to would bring the steel in actual contact with attempt its execution. my robe, and with this observation there sud- For many hours the immediate vicinity denly came over my spirit all the keen, col- of the low framework upon which I lay, had lected calmness of despair. For the first time been literally swarming with rats. They were

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Created for Lit2Go on the web at fcit.usf.edu The Pit and the Pendulum By Edgar Allan Poe wild, bold, ravenous; their red eyes glaring throat; their cold lips sought my own; I upon me as if they waited but for motion- was half stifled by their thronging pressure; lessness on my part to make me their prey. disgust, for which the world has no name, “To what food,” I thought, “have they been swelled my bosom, and chilled, with a heavy accustomed in the well?” They had devoured, clamminess, my heart. Yet one minute, and in spite of all my efforts to prevent them, all I felt that the struggle would be over. Plainly but a small remnant of the contents of the I perceived the loosening of the bandage. I dish. I had fallen into an habitual see-saw, knew that in more than one place it must or wave of the hand about the platter: and, be already severed. With a more than human at length, the unconscious uniformity of the resolution I lay still. movement deprived it of effect. In their vorac- Nor had I erred in my calculations— ity the vermin frequently fastened their sharp nor had I endured in vain. I at length felt fangs in my fingers. With the particles of the that I was free. The surcingle hung in rib- oily and spicy viand which now remained, I ands from my body. But the stroke of the thoroughly rubbed the bandage wherever I pendulum already pressed upon my bosom. could reach it; then, raising my hand from It had divided the serge of the robe. It had the floor, I lay breathlessly still. cut through the linen beneath. Twice again At first the ravenous animals were star- it swung, and a sharp sense of pain shot tled and terrified at the change—at the ces- through every nerve. But the moment of es- sation of movement. They shrank alarmedly cape had arrived. At a wave of my hand my back; many sought the well. But this was deliverers hurried tumultuously away. With only for a moment. I had not counted in a steady movement—cautious, sidelong, vain upon their voracity. Observing that I re- shrinking, and slow—I slid from the em- mained without motion, one or two of the brace of the bandage and beyond the reach boldest leaped upon the frame-work, and of the scimitar. For the moment, at least, I smelt at the surcingle. This seemed the sig- was free. nal for a general rush. Forth from the well Free!—and in the grasp of the Inquisi- they hurried in fresh troops. They clung to tion! I had scarcely stepped from my wooden the wood—they overran it, and leaped in bed of horror upon the stone floor of the hundreds upon my person. The measured prison, when the motion of the hellish ma- movement of the pendulum disturbed them chine ceased and I beheld it drawn up, by not at all. Avoiding its strokes they busied some invisible force, through the ceiling. themselves with the anointed bandage. They This was a lesson which I took desperately pressed—they swarmed upon me in ever ac- to heart. My every motion was undoubted- cumulating heaps. They writhed upon my ly watched. Free!—I had but escaped death

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Created for Lit2Go on the web at fcit.usf.edu The Pit and the Pendulum By Edgar Allan Poe in one form of agony, to be delivered unto Unreal!—Even while I breathed there worse than death in some other. With that came to my nostrils the breath of the vapour thought I rolled my eves nervously around of heated iron! A suffocating odour pervaded on the barriers of iron that hemmed me in. the prison! A deeper glow settled each mo- Something unusual—some change which, at ment in the eyes that glared at my agonies! first, I could not appreciate distinctly—it was A richer tint of crimson diffused itself over obvious, had taken place in the apartment. the pictured horrors of blood. I panted! I For many minutes of a dreamy and trembling gasped for breath! There could be no doubt abstraction, I busied myself in vain, uncon- of the design of my tormentors—oh! most nected conjecture. During this period, I be- unrelenting! oh! most demoniac of men! I came aware, for the first time, of the origin shrank from the glowing metal to the cen- of the sulphurous light which illumined the tre of the cell. Amid the thought of the fiery cell. It proceeded from a fissure, about half an destruction that impended, the idea of the inch in width, extending entirely around the coolness of the well came over my soul like prison at the base of the walls, which thus ap- balm. I rushed to its deadly brink. I threw peared, and were, completely separated from my straining vision below. The glare from the the floor. I endeavored, but of course in vain, enkindled roof illumined its inmost recesses. to look through the aperture. Yet, for a wild moment, did my spirit refuse As I arose from the attempt, the mys- to comprehend the meaning of what I saw. tery of the alteration in the chamber broke At length it forced—it wrestled its way into at once upon my understanding. I have my soul—it burned itself in upon my shud- observed that, although the outlines of the dering reason.—Oh! for a voice to speak!— figures upon the walls were sufficiently dis- oh! horror!—oh! any horror but this! With a tinct, yet the colors seemed blurred and in- shriek, I rushed from the margin, and buried definite. These colors had now assumed, and my face in my hands—weeping bitterly. were momentarily assuming, a startling and The heat rapidly increased, and once most intense brilliancy, that gave to the spec- again I looked up, shuddering as with a fit tral and fiendish portraitures an aspect that of the ague. There had been a second change might have thrilled even firmer nerves than in the cell—and now the change was obvi- my own. Demon eyes, of a wild and ghastly ously in the form. As before, it was in vain vivacity, glared upon me in a thousand di- that I, at first, endeavoured to appreciate or rections, where none had been visible before, understand what was taking place. But not and gleamed with the lurid lustre of a fire long was I left in doubt. The Inquisitorial that I could not force my imagination to re- vengeance had been hurried by my two-fold gard as unreal. escape, and there was to be no more dallying

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Created for Lit2Go on the web at fcit.usf.edu The Pit and the Pendulum By Edgar Allan Poe with the King of Terrors. The room had been square. I saw that two of its iron angles were now acute—two, consequently, obtuse. The fearful difference quickly increased with a low rumbling or moaning sound. In an instant the apartment had shifted its form into that of a lozenge. But the alteration stopped not here—I neither hoped nor desired it to stop. I could have clasped the red walls to my bosom as a garment of eternal peace. “Death,” I said, “any death but that of the pit!” Fool! might I have not known that into the pit it was the object of the burning iron to urge me? Could I resist its glow? or, if even that, could I with- stand its pressure And now, flatter and flatter grew the lozenge, with a rapidity that left me no time for contemplation. Its centre, and of course, its greatest width, came just over the yawning gulf. I shrank back—but the closing walls pressed me resistlessly onward. At length for my seared and writhing body there was no longer an inch of foothold on the firm floor of the prison. I struggled no more, but the agony of my soul found vent in one loud, long, and final scream of despair. I felt that I tottered upon the brink—I averted my eyes— There was a discordant hum of human voices! There was a loud blast as of many trumpets! There was a harsh grating as of a thousand thunders! The fiery walls rushed back! An outstretched arm caught my own as I fell, fainting, into the abyss. It was that of General Lasalle. The French army had entered Toledo. The Inquisition was in the hands of its enemies.

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Created for Lit2Go on the web at fcit.usf.edu