Latest / Audiobooks & Scary Stories / The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe

Transcript

The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe · Audiobooks & Scary Stories

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy this reading, which comes from a
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: work in the public domain, The Black Cat that Edgar
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Allan Poe. For the most wild yet most homely narrative
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: solicit belief, mad Indeed would I be to expect it
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: in a case where my very senses reject their own evidence. Yet,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: mad Am, I not, and very surely do I not dream.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: But to morrow I die, and to day I would
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: unburthen my soul. My immediate purpose is to place before
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: the world, plainly, succinctly, and without comment, a series of
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: mere household events. In their consequences. These events have terrified,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: have tortured, have destroyed me. Yet I will not attempt
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: to expound them. To me, they have presented little but
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: horror to many. They will seem less terrible than Baroques. Hereafter,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: perhaps some intellect may be found which will reduce my
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: phantasm to the common place, some intellect more calm, more logical,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: and far less excitable than my own, which will perceive,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: in the circumstances I detail with awe nothing more than
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: an ordinary succession of very natural causes and effects from
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: my infancy I was noted for the docility and humanity
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: of my disposition. My tenderness of heart was even so
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: conspicuous as to make me the jest of my companions.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: I was especially fond of animals, and was indulged by
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: my parents with a great variety of pets. With these
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: I spent most of my time, and never was so
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: happy as when feeding and caressing them. This peculiarity of
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: character grew with my growth, and in my manhood. I
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: derived from it one of my principal sources of pleasure.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: To those who have cherished an affection for a faithful
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: and sagacious dog, I need hardly be at the trouble
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: of explaining the nature or the intensity of the gratification
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: thus derivable. There is something in the unselfish and self
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: sacrificing love of a brute which goes directly to the
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: part of him who has had frequent occasion to test
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: the paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of mere man. I
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: married early, and was happy to find in my wife
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: a disposition not uncongenial with my own. Observing my partiality
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: for domestic pets, she lost no opportunity of procuring those
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: of the most agreeable kind. We had birds, goldfish, a
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: fine dog, rabbits, a small monkey, and a cat. This
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: latter was a remarkably large and beautiful animal, entirely black,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: and sagacious to an astonishing degree. In speaking of his intelligence,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: my wife, who at heart was not a little tinctured
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: with superstition, made frequent allusion to the ancient popular notion
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: which regarded all black cats as witches in disguise. Not
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: that she was ever serious upon this point, And I
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: mentioned the matter at all for no better reason than
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: that it happens just now to be remembered. Pluto, this
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: was the cat's name, was my favorite pet and playmate.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: I alone fed him, and he attended me wherever I
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: went about the house. It was even with difficulty that
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: I could prevent him from following me through the streets.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Our friendship lasted in this manner for several years, during
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: which my general temperament and character, through the instrumentality of
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: the fiend and temperance, had, I blushed to confess, it,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: experienced a radical alteration. For the worse. I grew day
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: by day more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: feelings of others, I suffered myself to use intemperate language
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: to my wife. At length, I even offered her personal violence.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: My pets, of course, were made to feel the change
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: in my disposition. I not only neglected but ill used them.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: For Pluto, however, I still retained sufficient regard to restrain
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: me from maltreating him, as I made no scruple of
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: maltreating the rabbits, the monkey, or even the dog when
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: by accident or through affection, they came in my way.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: But my dear disease grew upon me, for what disease
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: is like alcohol, and at length even Pluto, who was
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: now becoming old and consequently somewhat peevish. Even Pluto began
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: to experience the effects of my ill temper. One night,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: returning home, much intoxicated from one of my haunts about town,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: I fancied that the cat avoided my presence. I seized him, when,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: in his fright at my violence, he inflicted a slight
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: wound upon my hand with his teeth. The fury of
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: My original soul seemed at once to take its flight
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: from my body, and a more than fiendish malevolence, gin nurtured,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: thrilled every fiber of my frame. I took from my
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: waistcoat pocket a pen knife. Opened it, grasped a poor
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: eyes from the socket. I blush, I burn, I shudder
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: while I pen the damnable atrocity. When reason returned with
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: the morning, when I had slept off the fumes of
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: the Knight's debauch, I experienced a sentiment half of horror,
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: half of remorse for the crime of which I had
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: been guilty. But it was at best a feeble and
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: equivocal feeling, and the soul remained untouched. I again plunged
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: into excess, and soon drowned in wine all memory of
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: the deed. In the meantime, the cat slowly recovered the
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: socket of the lost I presented, it is true, a
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: frightful appearance, but he no longer appeared to suffer any pain.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: He went about the house as usual, but as might
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: be expected, fled in extreme terror at my approach. I
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: had so much of my old heart left as to
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: be at first grieved by this evident dislike on the
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: part of a creature which had once so loved me.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: But this feeling soon gave place to irritation, and then came,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: as if to my final and irrevocable overthrow. The spirit
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: of perverseness of this spirit, philosophy takes no account. Yet
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: I am not more sure than that my soul lives
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: than I am that perverseness is one of the primitive
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: impulses of the human heart, one of the indivisible primary
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: faculties or sentiments, which give direction to the character of man,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: who has not a hundred times found himself committing a
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: vile or a silly action for no other reason than
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: because he knows he should not. Have We not a
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: perpetual inclination in the teeth of our best judgment to
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: violate that which is law, merely because we understand it
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: to be such, this spirit of perverseness, I say, came
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: to my final overthrow. It was this unfathomable longing of
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: the soul to vex itself, to offer violence to its
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: own nature, to do wrong for the wrong's sake, only
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: that urged me to continue, and finally to consummate the
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: injury I had inflicted upon the unoffending brute. One morning
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: in cool blood. I slipped a noose about its neck
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: and hung it to the limb of a tree. Hung
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: it with the tears streaming from my eyes, and with
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: the bitterest remorse at my heart. Hung it because I
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: knew that it had loved me, and because I felt
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: it had given me no reason of offense. Hung it
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: because I knew that in so doing I was committing
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: a sin, a deadly sin that would so jeopardize my
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: immortal soul as to place it if such a thing
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: were possible, even beyond the reach of the infinite mercy
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: of the most merciful and most terrible God. On the
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: night of the day on which this cruel deed was done,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: I was aroused from sleep by the cry of fire.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: The curtains of my bed were in flames, the whole
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: house was blazing. It was with great difficulty that my wife,
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: a servant, and myself made our escape from the conflagration.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: The destruction was complete. My entire worldly wealth was swallowed up,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: and I resigned myself thenceforward to despair. I am above
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: the weakness of seeking to establish a sequence of cause
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: and effect between the disaster and the atrocity. But I
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: am detailing a chain of facts, and wished not to
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: leave even a possible link imperfect. On the day succeeding
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: the fire, I visited the ruins the walls, with one
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: exception had fallen in. This exception was found in a
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: compartment wall not very thick, which stood about the middle
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: of the house, and against which had rested the head
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: of my bed. The plastering had here, in great measure
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: resisted the action of the fire, a fact which I
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: attributed to its having been recently spread About this wall,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: A dense crowd were collected, and many persons seemed to
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: be examining a particular portion of it with very minute
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: and eager attention. The words strange, singular, and other similar
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: expressions excited my curiosity. I approached and saw, as if
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: graven in bar relief, upon the white surface, the figure
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: of a gigantic cat. The impression was given with an
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: accuracy truly marvelous. There was a rope about the animal's neck.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: When I first beheld this apparition, for I could scarcely
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: regard it as less. My wonder and my terror were extreme,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: But at length reflection came to my aid. The cat,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: I remembered had been hung in a garden adjacent to
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: the house. Upon the alarm of fire, this garden had
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: been immediately filled by the crowd by some one of
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: whom the animal must have been cut from the tree
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: and thrown through an open window into my chamber. This
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: had probably been done with the view of arousing me
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: from sleep. The falling of other walls had compressed the
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: victim of my cruelty into the substance of the freshly
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: spread plaster, the lime of which, with the flames and
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: the ammonia from the carcass, had then accomplished the portraiture
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: as I saw it. Although I thus readily accounted to
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: my reason, if not altogether to my conscience, for the
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: startling fact just detailed, it did not the less fail
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: to make a deep impression upon my fancy. For months
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: I could not rid myself of the phanfasm of the cat,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: And during this period there came back into my spirit
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: a half sentiment that seemed but was not remorse. I
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: went so far as to regret the loss of the animal,
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: and to look about me among the vile haunts which
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: I now habitually frequented for another pet of the same species,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: and of somewhat similar appearance with which to supply its place.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: One night, as I sat half stupefied in a den
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: of more than infamy, my attention was suddenly drawn to
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: some black object reposing upon the head of one of
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: the immense hogsheads of gin or of Rum, which constituted
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: the chief furniture of the apartment. I had been looking
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: steadily at the top of this hogshead for some minutes,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: and what now caused me surprise was the fact that
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: I had not sooner perceived the object. Thereupon I approached
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: it and touched it with my hand. It was a
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: black cat, a very large one, fully as large as Pluto,
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: and closely resembling him in every respect but one. Pluto
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: had not a white hair upon any portion of his body,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: but this cat had a large, although in definite, splotch
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: of white covering nearly the whole region of the breast.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Upon my touching him, he immediately arose, purred, loudly, rubbed
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: against my hand, and appeared delighted with my notice. This, then,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: was the very creature of which I was in search.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: I at once offered to purchase it of the landlord,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: but this person made no claim to it, knew nothing
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: of it, had never seen it before. I continued my caresses,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: and when I prepared to go home, the animal evinced
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: a disposition to accompany me. I permitted it to do so,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: occasionally stooping and patting it as I proceeded. When it
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: reached the house, it domesticated itself at once and became
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: immediately a great favorite with my wife. For my own part,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: I soon found a dislike to it arising within me.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: This was just the reverse of what I had anticipated,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: But I know not how or why. It was its
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: evident fondness for myself rather disgusted and annoyed. By slow degrees,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: these feelings of disgust and annoyance rose into the bitterness
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: of hatred. I avoided the creature, a certain sense of shame,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: and the remembrance of my former deed of cruelty preventing
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: me from physically abusing it. I did not for some
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: weeks strike or otherwise violently ill use it. But gradually,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: very gradually, I came to look upon it with unutterable loathing,
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: and to flee silently from its odious presence, as from
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: the breath of a pestilence. What added no doubt to
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: my hatred of the beast was the discovery, on the
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: morning after I brought it home, that, like Pluto, it
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: also had been deprived of one of its eyes. This circumstance, however,
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: only endeared it to my wife, who, as I have
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: already said, possessed in a high degree that humanity of feeling,
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: which had once been my distinguishing trait and the source
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: of many of my simplest and purest pleasures. With my
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: aversion to this cat, however, its partiality for myself seemed
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: to increase. It followed my footsteps with a prugnacity which
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: it would be difficult to make the reader comprehend. Whenever
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: I sat, it would crouch beneath my chair, or spring
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: upon my knees, covering me with its loathsome caresses. If
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: I arose to walk, it would get between my feet
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: and thus nearly throw me down, or, fastening its long
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: and sharp claws in my dress, clamber in this manner
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: to my breast. At such times, although I longed to
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: destroy it with a blow, I was yet withheld from
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: so doing, partly by a memory of my former crime.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: But chiefly let me confess it at once by absolute
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: dread of the beast. This dread was not exactly a
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: dread of physical evil, and yet I should be at
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: a loss how otherwise to define it. I am almost
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: ashamed to own. Yes, even in this Felon's cell, I
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: am almost ashamed to own that the terror and horror
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: with which the animal inspired me had been heightened by
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: one of the merest cameras it would be possible to conceive.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: My wife had called my attention more than once to
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: the character of the mark of white hair, of which
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: I have spoken, and which constituted the sole visible difference
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: between the strange beast and the one I had destroyed.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: The reader will remember that this mark, although large, had
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: been originally very indefinite, but by slow degrees degrees nearly imperceptible,
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: and which for a long time my reason struggled to
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: reject as fanciful, it had at length assumed a rigorous
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: distinctness of outline. It was now the representation of an
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: object that I shuddered to name, And for this above
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: all I loathed and dreaded, and would have rid myself
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: of the monster had I dared. It was now, I say,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: the image of a hideous of a ghastly thing of
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: the gallows, oh mournful and terrible engine of horror and
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: of crime, of agony and of death. And now was
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: I indeed wretched beyond the wretchedness of mere humanity, and
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: a brute beast whose fellow I had contemptuously destroyed, A
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: brute beast to work out for me, for me, a
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: man fashioned in the image of the High God, so
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: much of insufferable woe, alas neither by day nor by
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: night knew I the blessing of rest any more. During
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: the former, the creature left me no moment alone, and
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: in the latter I started hourly from dreams of unutterable
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: fear to find the hot breath of the thing upon
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: my face, and its vast weight, an incarnate nightmare that
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: I had no power to shake off in coment eternally
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: upon my heart. Beneath the pressure of torments such as these,
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: the feeble remnant of the good within me succumbed. Evil
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: thoughts became my sole intimates, the darkest and most evil
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: of thoughts. The moodiness of my usual temper increased to
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: hatred of all things and of all mankind, while from
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: the sudden, frequent and ungovernable outbursts of a fury to
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: which I now blindly abandoned myself. My uncomplaining wife, Alas
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: was the most usual and the most patient of sufferers.
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: One day she accompanied me upon some household errand into
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: the cellar of the old building which our poverty compelled
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: us to inhabit. The cat followed me down the steep stairs,
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: and nearly throwing me headlong, exasperated me to madness. Uplifting
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: an axe and forgetting in my wrath the childish dread
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: which had hitherto stayed my hand. I inmed a blow
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: at the animal, which of course would have proved instantly
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: fatal had it descended as I wished. But this blow
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: was arrested by the hand of my wife. Goaded by
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: the interference into a rage more than demoniacal, I withdrew
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: her brain. She fell dead upon the spot without a groan.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: This hideous murder accomplished, I set myself forthwith and with
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: entire deliberation, to the task of concealing the body. I
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: knew that I could not remove it from the house,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: either by day or by night without the risk of
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: being observed by the neighbors. Many projects entered my mind.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: At one period I thought of cutting the corpse into
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: minute fragments and destroying them by fire. At another I
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: resolved to dig a grave for it in the floor
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: of cellar. Again, I deliberated about casting it in the
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: well in the yard, about packing it in a box
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: as if merchandise, with the usual arrangements, and so getting
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: a porter to take it from the house. Finally, I
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: hit upon what I considered a far better expedient than
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: either of these. I determined to wall it up in
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: the cellar, as the monks of the Middle Ages are
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: recorded to have walled up their victims for a purpose
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: such as this. The cellar was well adapted. Its walls
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: were loosely constructed, and had lately been plastered throughout with
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: a rough plaster, which the dampness of the atmosphere had
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: prevented from hardening. Moreover, in one of the walls was
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: a projection caused by a false chimney or fireplace that
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: had been filled up and made to resemble the red
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: of the cellar. I made no doubt that I could
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: readily displace the bricks. At this point insert the corpse,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: and wall the whole up as before, so that no
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: I could detect anything suspicious. And in this calculation I
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: was not deceived by means of a crow bar. I
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: easily dislodged the bricks, and having carefully deposited the body
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: against the inner wall, I propped it in that position,
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: while with little trouble I relaid the whole structure as
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: it originally stood, Having procured mortar, sand and hair with
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: every possible precaution, I prepared a plaster which could not
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: be distinguished from the old, and with this I very
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: carefully went over the new brickwork. When I had finished,
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: I felt satisfied that all was right. The wall did
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: not present the slightest appearance of having been disturbed. The
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: rubbish on the floor was picked up with the minutest care.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: I looked around triumphantly and said to myself, here, at least,
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: then my labor has not been in vain. My next
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: step was to look for the beast which had been
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: the cause of so much wretchedness, for I had at
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: length firmly resolved to put it to death. Had I
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: been able to meet with it at the moment, there
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: could have been no doubt of its fate. But it
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: appeared that the crafty animal had been alarmed that the
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: violence of my previous anger, and forebore to present itself
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: in my present mood. It is impossible to describe or
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: to imagine the deep, the blissful sense of relief which
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: the absence of the detested creature occasioned in my bosom.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: It did not make its appearance during the night, and
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: thus for one night at least since its introduction into
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: the house, I soundly and tranquility slept, slept, even with
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: the burden of murder upon my soul. The second and
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: the third day passed, and still my tormentor came. Not
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: once again, I breathed as a freeman. The monster in
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: terror had fled the premises, forever I should behold it
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: no more. My happiness was supreme. The guilt of my
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: dark deed disturbed me but little. Some few inquiries had
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: been made, but these had been readily answered. Even a
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: search had been instituted, but of course nothing was to
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: be discovered. I looked upon my future felicity as secured.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: Upon the fourth day of the assassination, a party of
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: the police came very unexpectedly into the house, and proceeded
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: again to make rigorous investigation of the premises secure. However,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: in the inscrutability of my place of concealment, I felt
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: no embarrassment whatever. The officers bade me accompany them in
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: their search. They left no nook or corner unexplored. At length.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: For the third or fourth time they descended into the cellar,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: I quivered not in a muscle. My heart beat calmly
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: as that of one who slumbers in innocence. I walked
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: the cellar from end to end. I folded my arms
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: upon my bosom, and roamed easily to and fro. The
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: police were thoroughly satisfied and prepared to depart. The glee
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: at my heart was too strong to be restrained. I
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: burned to say if but one word by way of triumph,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: and to render doubly sure their assurance of my guiltlessness. Gentlemen,
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: I said, at last, asked, as the party ascended the steps,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: I delight to have allay your suspicions. I wish you
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: all health and a little more courtesy. By the bye, gentlemen,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: this this is a very well constructed house in the
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: rabid desire to say something easily. I scarcely knew what
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: I uttered at all. I may say, an excellently well
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: constructed house. These walls are you going, gentlemen, These walls
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: are solidly put together. And here, through the mere frenzy
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: of Bravado, I rapped heavily with a cane, which I
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: held in my hand, upon that very portion of the brickwork,
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: behind which stood the corpse of the wife of my bosom.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: But may God shield and deliver me from the fangs
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: of the arch fiend. No sooner had the reverberation of
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: my blows sunk into silence than I was answered by
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: a voice from within the tomb, by a cry, at
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: first muffled and broken, like the sobbing of a child,
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: and then quickly swelling into one long, loud, and continuously scream,
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: utterly anomalous and inhuman, a howl, a wailing shriek, half
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: of horror and half of triumph, such as might have
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: arisen only out of hell, conjointly from the throats of
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: the damned in their agony, and of the demons that
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: exult in the damnation of my own thoughts. It is
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: folly to speak swooning. I staggered to the opposite wall.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: For one instant, the party upon the stairs remained motionless
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: through extremity of terror, and of all in the next
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: a dozen stout arms were toiling at the wall. It
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: fell bodily. The corpse, already greatly decayed and clotted with gore,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: stood erect before the eyes of the spectators. Upon its head,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: with red extended mouth and solitary eye of fire, sat
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: the hideous beast whose craft had seduced me into murder,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: and whose informing voice had consigned me to the hangman.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: I had walled the monster up within the tomb,