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The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe · Audiobooks & Scary Stories

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  Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy this reading, which comes from a
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  Speaker 1: work in the public domain, The Cask of a Montalado,
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  Speaker 1: Edgar Allan Poe. The Thousand Injuries of Fortunado. I had
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  Speaker 1: borne as I best could, But when he ventured upon insult,
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  Speaker 1: I vowed revenge. You, who so well know the nature
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  Speaker 1: of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave
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  Speaker 1: utterance to a threat at length I would be avenged.
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  Speaker 1: This was a point definitively settled. But the very definitiveness
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  Speaker 1: with which it was resolved precluded the idea of risk.
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  Speaker 1: I must not only punish, but punish with impunity. A
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  Speaker 1: wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is
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  Speaker 1: equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt
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  Speaker 1: as such to him who has done the wrong. It
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  Speaker 1: must be understood that neither by word nor deed had
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  Speaker 1: I given Fortunado cause to doubt my good will. I continued,
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  Speaker 1: as was my wont to smile in his face, and
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  Speaker 1: he did not perceive that my smile now was at
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  Speaker 1: the thought of his immolation. He had a weak point,
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  Speaker 1: this Fortunado. Although in other regards he was a man
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  Speaker 1: to be respected and even feared. He prided himself on
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  Speaker 1: his connoisseurship in wine. Few Italians have the true virtuoso spirit.
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  Speaker 1: For the most part, their enthusiasm is adopted to suit
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  Speaker 1: the time and opportunity to practice imposture upon the British
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  Speaker 1: and Austrian millionaires in painting. In jem Mary, Fortunato, like
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  Speaker 1: his countrymen, was a quack, but in the matter of
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  Speaker 1: old wines he was sincere. In this respect, I did
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  Speaker 1: not differ from him materially. I was skillful in the
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  Speaker 1: Italian vintages myself, and bought largely whenever I could. It
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  Speaker 1: was about dusk one evening, during the supreme madness of
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  Speaker 1: the carnival season, that I encountered my friend. He accosted
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  Speaker 1: me with excessive warmth, for he had been drinking much.
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  Speaker 1: The man wore motley, he had on a tight fitting
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  Speaker 1: party striped dress, and his head was surmounted by the
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  Speaker 1: conical cap and bells. I was so pleased to see
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  Speaker 1: him that I thought I should never have done wringing
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  Speaker 1: his hand. I said to him, my dear Fortunado, you
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  Speaker 1: are luckily met, how remarkably well you are looking to day.
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  Speaker 1: But I have received a pipe of what passes for
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  Speaker 1: a Montalado, and I have my doubts, how said he,
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  Speaker 1: A Montelado a pipe impossible, And in the middle of
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  Speaker 1: the carnival, I have my doubts, I replied, And I
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  Speaker 1: was silly enough to pay the full a montalado price
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  Speaker 1: without consulting you in the matter. You were not to
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  Speaker 1: be found, and I was fearful of losing a bargain
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  Speaker 1: a Montalado. I have my doubts a Montalado, and I
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  Speaker 1: must satisfy them a Montalado. As you are engaged, I
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  Speaker 1: am on my way to Luceesi. If any one has
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  Speaker 1: a critical turn, it is he, he will tell MELUCHESI
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  Speaker 1: cannot tell a Montlado from Sherri, And yet some fools
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  Speaker 1: will have it that his taste is a match for
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  Speaker 1: your own. Come, let us go whither to your vaults,
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  Speaker 1: my friend. No, I will not impose upon your good nature.
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  Speaker 1: I perceive you have an engagement, Luceesi, I have no engagement. Come,
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  Speaker 1: my friend. No, it is not the engagement but the
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  Speaker 1: severe cold with which I perceive you are afflicted. The
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  Speaker 1: vaults are insufferably damp, they are encrusted with Neither let
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  Speaker 1: us go. Nevertheless, the cold is merely nothing a montelado
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  Speaker 1: you have been imposed upon. And as for Luceesi, he
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  Speaker 1: cannot distinguish sherry from a montlado. Thus speaking, Fortunado possessed
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  Speaker 1: himself of my arm, putting on a mask of black silk,
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  Speaker 1: and drawing a rocolaire closely about my person, I suffer
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  Speaker 1: him to hurry me to my palazzo. There were no
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  Speaker 1: attendants at home. They had absconded to make Mary in
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  Speaker 1: honor of the time. I had told them that I
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  Speaker 1: should not return until the morning, and had given them
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  Speaker 1: explicit orders not to stir from the house. These orders
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  Speaker 1: were sufficient, I well knew to insure their immediate disappearance
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  Speaker 1: one and all. As soon as my back was turned,
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  Speaker 1: I took from their sconces two flambows, and, giving one
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  Speaker 1: to Fortunado, bowed him through several suites of rooms to
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  Speaker 1: the archway that led into the vaults. I passed down
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  Speaker 1: a long and winding staircase, requesting him to be cautious
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  Speaker 1: as he followed. We came at length to the foot
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  Speaker 1: of the descent, and stood together on the damp ground
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  Speaker 1: of the catacombs of the Montressors. The gate of my
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  Speaker 1: friend was unsteady, and the bells upon his cap jingled
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  Speaker 1: as he strode the pipe, said he. It is farther on,
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  Speaker 1: said I, but observed the white web work which gleams
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  Speaker 1: from these cavern walls. He turned towards me and looked
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  Speaker 1: into my eyes with two filmy orbs that distilled the
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  Speaker 1: room of intoxication. Neither, he asked at length, Neither, I replied,
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  Speaker 1: how long have you had that cough?
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  Speaker 2: Ag ag ag ag ag ag ag ag ag ag
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  Speaker 2: ag ag ag ag ag.
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  Speaker 1: My poor friend found it impossible to reply for many minutes.
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  Speaker 1: It is nothing, he said. At last, come, I said,
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  Speaker 1: with decision, we will go back. Your health is precious.
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  Speaker 1: You are rich, respected, admired, beloved. You are happy as
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  Speaker 1: once I was. You are a man to be missed
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  Speaker 1: for me. It is no matter. We will go back.
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  Speaker 1: You will be ill, and I cannot be responsible. Besides,
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  Speaker 1: there is lucceesi enough, he said. The cough is a
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  Speaker 1: mere nothing. It will not kill me. I shall not
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  Speaker 1: die of a cough. True, true, I replied, And indeed
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  Speaker 1: I had no intention of alarming you unnecessarily, but you
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  Speaker 1: should use all proper caution. A draft of this madock
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  Speaker 1: will defend us from the damps. Here I knocked off
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  Speaker 1: the neck of a bottle, which I drew from a
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  Speaker 1: long row of its fellows that lay upon the mold. Drink,
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  Speaker 1: I said, presenting him the wine. He raised it to
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  Speaker 1: his lips with a leer. He paused and nodded to
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  Speaker 1: me familiarly, while his bells jingled. I drink, he said,
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  Speaker 1: to the buried that repose around us, and I to
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  Speaker 1: your long life. He again took my arm, and we proceeded.
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  Speaker 1: These vaults, he said, are extensive. The Montressors, I replied,
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  Speaker 1: were a great and numerous family. I forget your arms.
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  Speaker 1: A huge human foot door in a field azure. The
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  Speaker 1: foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are embedded in
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  Speaker 1: the heel, and the motto nemo me impune lass sit good,
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  Speaker 1: he said. The wine sparkled in his eyes, and the
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  Speaker 1: bells jingled. My own fancy grew warm with the maydock.
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  Speaker 1: We had passed through walls of piled bones, with casks
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  Speaker 1: and puncheons, intermingling into the inmost recesses of the catacombs.
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  Speaker 1: I paused again, and this time I made bold to
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  Speaker 1: seize Fortunado by an arm above the elbow the nier,
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  Speaker 1: I said, see it increases. It hangs like moss upon
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  Speaker 1: the vaults. We are below the river's bed. The drops
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  Speaker 1: of moisture trickle among the bones. Come, we will go
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  Speaker 1: back ere. It is too late, your cough. It is nothing,
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  Speaker 1: he said. Let us go on, but first another draft
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  Speaker 1: of the maydock. I broke and reached him a flagon
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  Speaker 1: of de gris. He emptied it at a breath. His
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  Speaker 1: eyes flashed with a fierce light. He laughed and threw
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  Speaker 1: the bottle upwards with a gesticulation. I did not understand.
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  Speaker 1: I looked at him in surprise. He repeated the movement,
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  Speaker 1: a grotesque one. You do not comprehend, he said not I,
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  Speaker 1: I replied, Then you are not of the brotherhood. How
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  Speaker 1: you are not of the Masons? Yes, yes, I said, yes, yes,
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  Speaker 1: you impossible a mason. A Mason, I replied. A sign.
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  Speaker 1: He said, it is this, I answered, producing a trowel
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  Speaker 1: from beneath the folds of my roccal air. You jest,
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  Speaker 1: he exclaimed, recoiling a few paces. But let us proceed
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  Speaker 1: to the amontlado. Be it, so, I said, replacing the
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  Speaker 1: tool beneath the cloak, and again offering him my arm,
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  Speaker 1: he leaned upon it heavily. We continued our route in
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  Speaker 1: search of the Amontlado. We passed through a range of
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  Speaker 1: low arches, descended, passed on, and descending again, arrived at
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  Speaker 1: a deep crypt, in which the foulness of the air
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  Speaker 1: caused our flambos rather to glow than flame. At the
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  Speaker 1: most remote end of the crypt there appeared another, less spacious.
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  Speaker 1: Its walls had been lined with human remains piled to
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  Speaker 1: the vault overhead, in the fashion of the Great Catacombs
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  Speaker 1: of Paris. Three sides of this interior crypt were still
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  Speaker 1: ornamented in this manner. From the fourth the bones had
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  Speaker 1: been thrown down and lay promiscuously upon the earth, forming
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  Speaker 1: at one point amount of some size. Within the wall.
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  Speaker 1: Thus exposed by the displacing of the bones, we perceived
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  Speaker 1: a still interior recess in depth about four feet in
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  Speaker 1: width three in height six or seven. It seemed to
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  Speaker 1: have been constructed for no especial use in itself, but
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  Speaker 1: formed merely the interval between two two of the colossal
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  Speaker 1: supports of the roof of the catacombs, and was backed
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  Speaker 1: by one of their circumscribing walls of solid granite. It
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  Speaker 1: was in vain that Fortunado, uplifting his dull torch, endeavored
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  Speaker 1: to pry into the depths of the recess its termination.
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  Speaker 1: The feeble light did not enable us to see proceed.
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  Speaker 1: I said, herein is the Amontalado. As for Luceesi, he
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  Speaker 1: is an Ignoramus, interrupted my friend, as he stepped unsteadily forward,
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  Speaker 1: while I followed immediately at his heels. In an instant
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  Speaker 1: he had reached the extremity of the niche, and, finding
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  Speaker 1: his progress arrested by the rock, stood stupidly bewildered. A
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  Speaker 1: moment more, and I had fettered him to the granite.
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  Speaker 1: In its surface were two iron staples, distant from each other,
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  Speaker 1: about two feet horizontally. From one of these depended a
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  Speaker 1: short chain, from the other a padlock, throwing the lynx
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  Speaker 1: about his waist. It was but the work of a
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  Speaker 1: few seconds to secure it. He was too much astounded
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  Speaker 1: to reach resist. Withdrawing the key, I stepped back from
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  Speaker 1: the recess. Pass your hand, I said over the wall.
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  Speaker 1: You cannot help feeling the nier. Indeed, it is very damp.
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  Speaker 1: Once more, let me implore you to return. No, then
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  Speaker 1: I must positively leave you, but I must first render
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  Speaker 1: you all the little attentions in my power. The Amontalado ejaculated,
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  Speaker 1: my friend, not yet recovered from his astonishment. True, I
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  Speaker 1: replied the Amontalado. As I said these words, I busied
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  Speaker 1: myself among the pile of bones of which I have
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  Speaker 1: before spoken, throwing them aside. I soon uncovered a quantity
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  Speaker 1: of building stone and mortar. With these materials, and with
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  Speaker 1: the aid of my trowel, I began vigorously to wall
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  Speaker 1: up the entrance of the niche. I had scarcely laid
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  Speaker 1: the first tear of my masonry when I discovered that
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  Speaker 1: the intoxication of Fortunado had in a great measure worn off.
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  Speaker 1: The earliest indication I had of this was a low,
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  Speaker 1: moaning cry from the depth of the recess. It was
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  Speaker 1: not the cry of a drunken man. There was then
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  Speaker 1: a long and obstinate silence. I laid the second tier,
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  Speaker 1: and the third, and the fourth, and then I heard
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  Speaker 1: the furious vibrations of the chain. The noise lasted for
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  Speaker 1: several minutes, during which that I might hearken to it
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  Speaker 1: with the more satisfaction. I seized my labors and sat
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  Speaker 1: down upon the bones. When at last the clanking subsided,
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  Speaker 1: I resumed the trowel and finished without interruption the fifth,
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  Speaker 1: the sixth, and the seventh tier. The wall was now
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  Speaker 1: nearly upon a level with my breast. I again paused, and,
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  Speaker 1: holding the flambows over the mason work, threw a few
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  Speaker 1: feeble rays upon the figure. Within a succession of loud
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  Speaker 1: and shrill screams, bursting suddenly from the throat of the
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  Speaker 1: chained form, seemed to thrust me violently back. For a
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  Speaker 1: brief moment, I hesitated. I trembled, unsheathing my rapier. I
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  Speaker 1: began to grow with it about the recess, but the
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  Speaker 1: thought of an instant reassured me. I placed my hand
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  Speaker 1: upon the solid fabric of the catacombs, and felt satisfied.
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  Speaker 1: I reapproached the wall. I replied to the yells of
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  Speaker 1: him who clamored. I re echoed. I ate it. I
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  Speaker 1: surpassed them in volume and in strength. I did this,
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  Speaker 1: and the clamorer grew still. It was now midnight, and
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  Speaker 1: my task was drawing to a close. I had completed
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  Speaker 1: the eighth, the ninth, and the tenth tier. I had
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  Speaker 1: finished a portion of the last, and the eleventh, there
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  Speaker 1: remained but a single stone to be fitted and plastered in.
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  Speaker 1: I struggled with its weight. I placed it partially in
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  Speaker 1: its destined position. But now there came from out the
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  Speaker 1: niche a low laugh that erected the hairs upon my head.
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  Speaker 1: It was succeeded by a sad voice, which I had
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  Speaker 1: difficulty in recognizing as that of the noble Fortunado. The
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  Speaker 1: voice said, ha ha ha he he a very good joke,
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  Speaker 1: indeed an excellent jest. We will have many a rich
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  Speaker 1: laugh about it at the palazzo. He he he over
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  Speaker 1: our wine, he he he the Amontalado, I said, he
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  Speaker 1: he he he he he, Yes, the Amontalado. But is
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: it not getting late? Will not they be awaiting us
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  Speaker 1: at the palazzo, the lady Fortunado and the rest. Let
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  Speaker 1: us be gone, yes, I said, Let us be gone
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  Speaker 1: for the love of God montresor yes, I said, for
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  Speaker 1: the love of God. But to these words I hearkened
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: in vain for a reply, I grew impatient. I called
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  Speaker 1: aloud Fortunado. No answer. I called again, Fortunato. No answer.
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  Speaker 1: Still I thrust a torch through the remaining aperture, and
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  Speaker 1: let it fall within. There came forth in return only
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  Speaker 1: a jingling of the bells. My heart grew sick on
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: account of the dampness of the catacombs. I hastened to
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  Speaker 1: make an end of my labor. I forced the last
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: stone into its position. I plastered it up against the
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: new masonry. I re erected the old rampart of bones.
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  Speaker 1: For the half of a century, no mortal has disturbed them.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: In pace requiescat