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The Pit and the Pendulum 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 Pit and the Pendulum,
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  Speaker 1: Edgar Allan Poe impia tortorum longos hic tubo fuor sanguinis
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  Speaker 1: inoqui non satiata aluit sauspite nunc patria fracto, nunc funerus
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  Speaker 1: antro mors ubi dyra fute vita celeusk patent quatrain composed
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  Speaker 1: for the gates of a market to be erected upon
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  Speaker 1: the side of the Jacobin club house at Paris. I
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  Speaker 1: was sick, sick, unto death with that long agony, And
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  Speaker 1: when they at length unbound me and I was permitted
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  Speaker 1: to sit, I felt that my senses were leaving me.
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  Speaker 1: The sentence, the dread sentence of death, was the last
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  Speaker 1: of distinct accentuation which reached my ears. After that, the
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  Speaker 1: sound of the inquisitorial voices seemed merged in one dreamy,
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  Speaker 1: indeterminate hum. It conveyed to my soul the idea of revolution,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps from its association and fancy with the burr of
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  Speaker 1: a mill wheel. This only for a brief period, for
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  Speaker 1: presently I heard no more. Yet for a while I saw,
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  Speaker 1: but with how terrible an exaggeration. I saw the lips
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  Speaker 1: of the black robe judges. They appeared to me white,
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  Speaker 1: whiter than the sheet upon which I traced these words,
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  Speaker 1: and thin even to grotesqueness, thin with the intensity of
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  Speaker 1: their expression of firmness, of a movable resolution, of stern
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  Speaker 1: contempt of human torture. I saw that the decrees of
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  Speaker 1: what to me was fate were still issuing from those lips.
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  Speaker 1: I saw them writhe with a deadly locution. I saw
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  Speaker 1: them fashion the syllables of my name, and I shuddered,
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  Speaker 1: because no sound succeeded. I saw, too, for a few
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  Speaker 1: moments of delirious horror, the soft and nearly imperceptible waving
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  Speaker 1: of the sable draperies which enwrapped the walls of the apartment.
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  Speaker 1: And then my vision fell upon the seven tall candles
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  Speaker 1: upon the table. At first they wore the aspect of charity,
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  Speaker 1: and seemed white and slender angels who would save me.
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  Speaker 1: But then all at once there came a most deadly
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  Speaker 1: nausea over my spirit, and I felt every fiber in
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  Speaker 1: my frame thrill, as if I had touched the wire
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  Speaker 1: of a galvanic battery. While the angel forms became meaningless
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  Speaker 1: specters with heads of flame, and I saw that from
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  Speaker 1: them there would be no help. And then there stole
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  Speaker 1: into my fancy, like a rich musical note, the thought
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  Speaker 1: of what sweet rest there must be in the grave.
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  Speaker 1: The thought came gently and stealthily, and it seemed long
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  Speaker 1: before it attained full appreciation. But just as my spirit
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  Speaker 1: came at length properly to feel and entertain it, the
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  Speaker 1: figures of the judges vanished, as if magically, from before me.
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  Speaker 1: The tall candles sank into nothingness, their flames went out utterly,
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  Speaker 1: the blackness of darkness supervened. All sensations appeared, swallowed up
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  Speaker 1: in a mad, rushing descent, as of the soul into hades.
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  Speaker 1: Then silence and stillness, night with the universe. I had swooned.
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  Speaker 1: But still will not say that all of consciousness was lost.
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  Speaker 1: What it there remained, I will not attempt to define
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  Speaker 1: or even to describe. Yet all was not lost in
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  Speaker 1: the deepest slumber, No in delirium, no in a swoon,
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  Speaker 1: no in death, No even in the grave. All is
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  Speaker 1: not lost. Else there is no immortality for man. Arousing
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  Speaker 1: from the most profound of slumbers, we break the gossamer
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  Speaker 1: web of some dream. Yet in a second afterward, so
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  Speaker 1: frail may that web have been, we remember not that
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  Speaker 1: we have dreamed. In the return to life from the swoon,
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  Speaker 1: there are two stages, first that of the sense of
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  Speaker 1: mental or spiritual, secondly that of the sense of physical existence.
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  Speaker 1: It seems probable that, if upon reaching the second stage,
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  Speaker 1: we could recall the impressions of the first, we should
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  Speaker 1: find these impressions eloquent in memories of the gulf beyond.
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  Speaker 1: And that gulf is what how at least shall we
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  Speaker 1: distinguish its shadows from those of the tomb. But if
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  Speaker 1: the impressions of what I have termed the first stage
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  Speaker 1: are not at will recalled, yet after long interval, do
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  Speaker 1: they not come unbidden? While we marvel? Whence they come?
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  Speaker 1: He who has never swooned is not he who finds
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  Speaker 1: strange palaces and wildly familiar faces in coals that glow.
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  Speaker 1: Is not he who beholds, floating in mid air the
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  Speaker 1: sad visions that the many may not view. Is not
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  Speaker 1: he who ponders over the perfume of some novel flower.
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  Speaker 1: Is not he whose brain grows bewildered with the meaning
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  Speaker 1: of some musical cadence which has never before arrested his
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  Speaker 1: attention amid frequent and thoughtful endeavors to remember, amid earnest
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  Speaker 1: struggles to regather some token of the state of seeming
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  Speaker 1: nothingness into which my soul had lapsed. There have been
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  Speaker 1: moments when I have dreamed of success. There have been brief,
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  Speaker 1: very brief periods when I have conjured up remembrances which
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  Speaker 1: the lucid reason of a later epoch assures me could
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  Speaker 1: have had reference only to that condition of seeming unconsciousness.
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  Speaker 1: These shadows of memory tell indistinctly of tall figures that
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  Speaker 1: lifted and bore me in silence, down, down, still down,
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  Speaker 1: till a hideous dizziness oppressed me at the mere idea
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  Speaker 1: of the interminableness of the descent. They tell also of
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  Speaker 1: a vague horror at my heart, on account of that
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  Speaker 1: heart's unnatural stillness. Then comes a sense of sudden motionlessness
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  Speaker 1: throughout all things, as if those who bore me a
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  Speaker 1: ghastly train had outrun in their descent the limits of
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  Speaker 1: the limitless, and paused from the wearisomeness of their toil.
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  Speaker 1: After this I call to mind flatness and dampness, And
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  Speaker 1: then all is madness the madness of a memory which
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  Speaker 1: busies itself among forbidden things. Very suddenly there came back
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  Speaker 1: to my soul. Motion and sound, the tumultuous motion of
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  Speaker 1: the heart, and in my ears the sound of its beating.
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  Speaker 1: Then a pause in which all is blank, Then again
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  Speaker 1: sound and motion, and touch, a tingling sensation pervading my frame.
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  Speaker 1: Then the mere consciousness of existence without thought, a condition
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  Speaker 1: which lasted long. Then very suddenly thought and shuddering terror,
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  Speaker 1: and earnest endeavor to comprehend my true state. Then a
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  Speaker 1: strong desire to lapse into insensibility. Then a rushing revival
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  Speaker 1: of soul, and a successful effort to move, And now
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  Speaker 1: a full memory of the trial of the judges, of
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  Speaker 1: the sable draperies, of the sentence, of the sickness of
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  Speaker 1: the swoon, Then entire forgetfulness of all that followed, of
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  Speaker 1: all that a later day and much earnestness of endeavor
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  Speaker 1: have enabled me vaguely to recall. So far I had
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  Speaker 1: not opened my eyes. I felt that I lay upon
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  Speaker 1: my back unbound. I reached out my hand and it
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  Speaker 1: fell heavily upon something damp and hard. There I suffered
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  Speaker 1: it to remain for many minutes while I strove to
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  Speaker 1: imagine where and what I could be. I longed, yet
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  Speaker 1: dared not to employ my vision. I dreaded the first
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  Speaker 1: glance at objects around me. It was not that I
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  Speaker 1: feared to look upon things horrible, but that I grew
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  Speaker 1: aghast lest there should be nothing to see. At length,
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  Speaker 1: with a wild desperation at heart, I quickly unclosed my eyes.
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  Speaker 1: My worst thoughts then were confirmed. The blackness of eternal
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  Speaker 1: night encompassed me. I struggled for breath. The intensity of
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  Speaker 1: the darkness seemed to oppress and stifle me. The atmosphere
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  Speaker 1: was intolerably close. I still lay quietly and made effort
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  Speaker 1: to exercise my reason. I brought to mind the inquisitorial
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  Speaker 1: proceedings and attempted from that point to deduce my real condition.
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  Speaker 1: The sentence had passed, and it appeared to me that
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  Speaker 1: a very long interval of time had since elapsed. Yet
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  Speaker 1: not for a moment did I suppose myself actually dead.
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  Speaker 1: Such a supposition, notwithstanding what we read in fiction, is
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  Speaker 1: altogether inconsistent with real existence. But where and in what
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  Speaker 1: state was I the condemned to death? I knew perished
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  Speaker 1: usually at the auto to Faye and one of these
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  Speaker 1: had been held on the very night of the day
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  Speaker 1: of my trial. Had I been remanded to my dungeon
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  Speaker 1: to await the next sacrifice, which would not take place
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  Speaker 1: for many months, this I at once saw could not
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  Speaker 1: be victims had been in immediate demand. Moreover, my dungeon,
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  Speaker 1: as well as all the condemned cells at Toledo, had
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  Speaker 1: stone floors, and light was not altogether excluded. A fearful
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  Speaker 1: idea now suddenly drove the blood in torrents upon my heart,
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  Speaker 1: and for a brief period I once more relapsed into insensibility.
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  Speaker 1: Upon recovering, I at once started to my feet, trembling
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  Speaker 1: convulsively in every fiber. I thrust my arms wildly above
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  Speaker 1: and around me in all directions. I felt nothing, yet
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  Speaker 1: dreaded to move a step lest I should be impeded
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  Speaker 1: by the walls of a tomb. Perspiration burst from every
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  Speaker 1: pore and stood in cold, big beads upon my forehead.
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  Speaker 1: The agony of suspense grew at length intolerable, and I
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  Speaker 1: cautiously moved forward, with my arms extended and my eyes
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  Speaker 1: straining from their sockets, in the hope of catching some
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  Speaker 1: faint ray of light. I proceeded for many paces, but
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  Speaker 1: still all was blackness and vacancy. I breathed more freely.
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  Speaker 1: It seemed evident that mine was not at least the
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  Speaker 1: most hideous of fates. And now as I still continued
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  Speaker 1: to step cautiously onward, there came thronging upon my recollection
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  Speaker 1: a thousand vague rumors of the horrors of Toledo, of
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  Speaker 1: the dungeons. There had been strange things, narrated fables I
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  Speaker 1: had always deemed them, but yet strange and too ghastly
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  Speaker 1: to repeat save in a whisper? Was I left to
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  Speaker 1: perish of starvation in this subterranean world of darkness? Or
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  Speaker 1: what fate, perhaps even more fearful awaited me? That the
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  Speaker 1: result would be death, and a death of more than
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  Speaker 1: customary bitterness. I knew too well the character of my
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  Speaker 1: judges to doubt. The mode and the hour were all
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  Speaker 1: that occupied or distracted me. My outstretched hands at length
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  Speaker 1: encountered some solid obstruction. It was a wall, seemingly of
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  Speaker 1: stone masonry, very smooth, slimy, and cold. I followed it up,
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  Speaker 1: stepping with all the careful distrust with which certain antique
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  Speaker 1: narratives had inspired me. This process however, afforded me no
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  Speaker 1: means of ascertaining the dimensions of my dungeon, as I
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  Speaker 1: might make its circuit and return to the point whence
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  Speaker 1: I set out, without being aware of the fact, so
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  Speaker 1: perfectly uniform seemed the wall. I therefore sought the knife,
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  Speaker 1: which had been in my pocket when led into the
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  Speaker 1: inquisitorial chamber, But it was gone. My clothes had been
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  Speaker 1: exchanged for a wrapper of coarse surge. I had thought
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  Speaker 1: of forcing the blade in some minute crevice of the masonry,
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  Speaker 1: so as to identify my point of departure. The difficulty, nevertheless,
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  Speaker 1: was but trivial, although in the disorder of my fancy
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  Speaker 1: it seemed at first insuperable. I tore a part of
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  Speaker 1: the hem from the robe and placed the fragment at
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  Speaker 1: full length and at right angles to the wall. In
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  Speaker 1: groping my way around the prison, I could not fail
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  Speaker 1: to encounter this rag upon completing the circuit, so at least,
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  Speaker 1: I thought. But I had not counted upon the extent
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  Speaker 1: of the dungeon, or upon my own weakness. The ground
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  Speaker 1: was moist and slippery. I staggered onward for some time.
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  Speaker 1: When I stumbled and fell. My excessive fatigue induced me
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  Speaker 1: to remain prostrate, and sleep soon overtook me. As I lay,
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  Speaker 1: Upon awaking and stretching forth an arm I found beside
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  Speaker 1: me a loaf and a pitcher with water. I was
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  Speaker 1: too much exhausted to reflect upon this circumstance, but ate
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  Speaker 1: and drank with avidity. Shortly afterward, I resumed my tour
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  Speaker 1: around the prison, and with much toil, came at last
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  Speaker 1: upon the fragment of the search. Up to the period
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  Speaker 1: when I fell, I had counted fifty two paces, and
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  Speaker 1: upon resuming my walk I had counted forty eight more.
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  Speaker 1: When I arrived at the rag, there were in all
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  Speaker 1: then a hundred paces, and admitting two paces to the yard,
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  Speaker 1: I presumed the dungeon to be fifty yards in circuit.
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  Speaker 1: I had met, however, with many angles in the wall,
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  Speaker 1: and thus I could form no guess at the shape
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  Speaker 1: of the vault. For vault, I could not help supposing
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  Speaker 1: it to be. I had little object, certainly no hope
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  Speaker 1: in these researches, but a vague curiosity prompted me to
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  Speaker 1: continue them. Quitting the wall, I resolved to cross the
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  Speaker 1: area of the enclosure. At first I proceeded with extreme caution,
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  Speaker 1: for the floor, although seemingly of solid material, was treacherous
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  Speaker 1: with slime at length. However, I took courage and did
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  Speaker 1: not hesitate to step firmly, endeavoring to cross in as
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  Speaker 1: direct a line as possible. I had advanced some ten
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  Speaker 1: or twelve paces in this manner when the remnant of
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  Speaker 1: the torn hem of my robe became entangled between my legs.
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  Speaker 1: I stepped on it and fell violently on my face.
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  Speaker 1: In the confusion attending my fall, I did not immediately
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  Speaker 1: apprehend a somewhat staring circumstance, which, yet, in a few
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  Speaker 1: seconds afterward, and while I still lay prostrate, arrested my attention.
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  Speaker 1: It was this. My chin rested upon the floor of
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  Speaker 1: the prison, but my lips and the upper portion of
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  Speaker 1: my head, although seemingly at a less elevation than the chin,
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  Speaker 1: touched nothing. At the same time, my forehead seemed bathed
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  Speaker 1: in a clammy vapor, and the peculiar smell of decayed
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  Speaker 1: fungus arose to my nostrils. I put forward my arm
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  Speaker 1: and shuddered to find that I had fallen at the
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  Speaker 1: very brink of a circular pit, whose extent, of course,
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  Speaker 1: I had no means of ascertaining. At the moment, groping
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  Speaker 1: about the masonry just below the margin, I succeeded in
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  Speaker 1: dislodging a small fragment and let it fall into the abyss.
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  Speaker 1: For many seconds, I hearkened to its reverberations as it
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  Speaker 1: dashed against the sides of the chasm in its descent.
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  Speaker 1: At length there was a sullen plunge into water, succeeded
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  Speaker 1: by loud echoes. At the same moment there came a
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  Speaker 1: sound resembling the quick opening and as rapid closing of
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  Speaker 1: a door overhead, while a faint gleam of light flashed
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  Speaker 1: suddenly through the gloom, and as suddenly faded away, I
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  Speaker 1: saw clearly the doom which had been prepared for me,
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  Speaker 1: and congratulated myself upon the timely accident by which I
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  Speaker 1: had escaped another step before my fall, and the world
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  Speaker 1: had seen me no more. And the death just avoided
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  Speaker 1: was of that very character which I had regarded as
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  Speaker 1: fabulous and frivolous in the tales respecting the Inquisition. To
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  Speaker 1: the victims of its tyranny, there was the choice of
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  Speaker 1: death with its direst physical agonies, or death with its
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  Speaker 1: most hideous moral horrors I had been reserved for the
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: latter by long suffering. My nerves had been unstrung until
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: I trembled at the sound of my own voice, and
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  Speaker 1: had become in every respect a fitting subject for the
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  Speaker 1: species of torture which awaited me. Shaking in every limb,
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  Speaker 1: I groped my way back to the wall, resolving there
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  Speaker 1: to perish rather than risk the terrors of the wells
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: of which my imagination now pictured many in various positions
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  Speaker 1: about the dungeon. In other conditions of mind, I might
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  Speaker 1: have had courage to end my misery at once by
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: a plunge into one of these abysses. But now I
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  Speaker 1: was the veriest of cowards. Neither could I forget what
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  Speaker 1: I had read of these pits, that the sudden extinction
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  Speaker 1: of life formed no part of their most horrible plan.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: Agitation of spirit kept me awake for many long hours,
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  Speaker 1: but at length I again slumbered. Upon arousing, I found
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  Speaker 1: by my side, as before, a loaf and a pitcher
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  Speaker 1: of water. A burning thirst consumed me, and I emptied
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  Speaker 1: the vessel at a draft. It must have been drugged,
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: for scarcely had I drunk before I became irresistibly drowsy,
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  Speaker 1: A deep sleep fell upon me, a sleep like that
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  Speaker 1: of death. How long it lasted, of course, I know not.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: But when once again I unclosed my eyes, the objects
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: around me were visible by a wild, sulfurious luster, the
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  Speaker 1: origin of which I could not at first determine. I
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  Speaker 1: was enabled to see the extent and aspect of the prison.
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  Speaker 1: In its size, I had been greatly mistaken. The whole
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: circuit of its walls did not exceed twenty five yards.
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  Speaker 1: For some minutes, this fact occasioned me a world of
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  Speaker 1: vain trouble. Vain indeed, for what could be of less
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  Speaker 1: importance under the terrible circumstances which environed me than the
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  Speaker 1: mere dimensions of my dungeon. But my soul took a
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  Speaker 1: wild interest in trifles, and I busied myself in endeavors
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  Speaker 1: to account for the error I had committed in my measurement.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: The truth at length flashed upon me. In my first
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: attempt at exploration, I had counted fifty two paces up
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  Speaker 1: to the period when I fell. I must then have
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: been within a pace or two of the fragment of search.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: In fact, I had nearly performed the circuit of the vault.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: I then slept, and upon awaking I must have returned
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: upon my steps, thus supposing the circuit nearly double what
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: it actually was. My confusion of mind prevented me from
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: observing that I began my tour with the wall to
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  Speaker 1: the left and ended it with the wall to the right.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: I had been deceived too in respect to the shape
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: of the enclosure. In feeling my way, I had found
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: many angles, and thus deduced an idea of great irregularity.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: So potent is the effect of total darkness upon one
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: arousing from lethargy or sleep. The angles were simply those
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: of a few slight depressions or niches at odd intervals.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: The general shape of the prison was square. What I
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: had taken for masonry seemed now to be iron or
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  Speaker 1: some other metal, in huge plates whose sutures or joints
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  Speaker 1: occasioned the depression. The entire surface of this metallic enclosure
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: was rudely daubed in all the hideous and repulsive devices
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  Speaker 1: to which the Charnel superstition of the monks has given
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: rise the figures of fiends in aspects of menace, with
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  Speaker 1: skeleton forms and other more really fearful images overspread and
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  Speaker 1: disfigured the walls. I observed that the outlines of these
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: monstrosities were sufficiently distinct, but that the color seemed faded
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  Speaker 1: and blurred, as from the effects of a damp atmosphere.
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  Speaker 1: I now noticed the floor, too, which was of stone,
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  Speaker 1: in the center, yond the circular pit from whose jaws
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: I had escaped, But it was the only one in
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: the dungeon. All this I saw indistinctly, and by much effort,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: for my personal condition had been greatly changed during slumber.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: I now lay upon my back and at full length
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  Speaker 1: on a species of low framework of wood. To this
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: I was securely bound by a long strap resembling as
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  Speaker 1: a single It passed in many convolutions about my limbs
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  Speaker 1: and body, leaving at liberty only my head and my
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: left arm, to such extent that I could, by dint
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: of much exertion, supply myself with food from an earthen dish,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: which lay by my side on the floor. I saw
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: to my horror that the pitcher had been removed. I
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: say to my horror, for I was consumed with intolerable thirst.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: This thurst, it appeared to be the design of my
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: persecutors to stimulate, for The food in the dish was
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: meat by gently seasoned. Looking upward, I surveyed the ceiling
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: of my prison. It was some thirty or forty feet overhead,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: and constructed much as the side walls. In one of
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: its panels, a very singular figure riveted my whole attention.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: It was the painted figure of Time, as he is
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: commonly represented, save that in lieu of a side he
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: held what, at a casual glance I supposed to be
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: the pictured image of a huge pendulum, such as we
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: see on antique clocks. There was something, however, in the
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: appearance of this machine, which caused me to regard it
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: more attentively. While I gazed directly upward at it, for
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: its position was immediately over my own, I fancied that
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: I saw it in motion. In an instant afterward, the
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: fancy was confirmed. Its sweep was brief and of course slow.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: I watched it for some minutes, somewhat in fear, but
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: more in wonder. Wearied at length with observing its dull movement,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: I turned my eyes upon the other objects in the cell.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: A slight noise attracted my notice, and looking to the floor,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: I saw several enormous rats traversing it. They had issued
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: from the well, which lay just within view to my right.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Even then, while I gazed, they came up in troops, hurriedly,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: with ravenous eyes, allured by the scent of the meat.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: From this it required much effort and attention to scare
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: them away. It might have been half an hour, perhaps
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: even an hour, for I could take but imperfect note
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: of time before I again cast my eyes upward. What
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: I then saw confounded and amazed me. The sweep of
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: the pendulum had increased in extent by nearly a yard
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: as a natural consequence. Its velocity was also much greater.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: But what mainly disturbed me was the idea that had
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: perceptibly descended. I now observed with what horror. It is
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: needless to say that its nether extremity was formed of
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: a crescent of glittering steel, about a foot and length
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: from horn to horn, the horns upward, and the under
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: edge evidently as keen as that of a razor. Like
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: a razor, also, it seemed massy and heavy, tapering from
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: the edge into a solid and broad structure. Above it
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: was appended to a weighty rod of brass, and the
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: whole hist as it swung through the air, I could
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: no longer doubt the doom prepared for me by Monkish
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: ingenuity in torture. My cognizance of the pit had become
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: known to the inquisitorial agents, the pit whose horrors had
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: been destined for so bold a requisant as myself, the
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: pit typical of hell, and regarded by rumor as the
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: ultimate thulie of all their punishments. The plunge into this
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: pit I had avoided by the merest of accidents. I
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: knew that surprise or entrapment into torment formed an important
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: portion of all the grotesquerie of these dungeon deaths. Having
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: failed to fall, it was no part of the damon
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: plan to hurl me into the abyss, and thus there
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: being no alternative, a different and a milder destruction awaited me. Milder,
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: I half smile held in my agony as I thought
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: of such application of such a term. What boots it
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: to tell of the long, long hours of hort or
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: more than mortal, during which I counted the rushing vibrations
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: of the steel inch by inch, line by line, with
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: a descent only appreciable at intervals that seemed ages down,
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: and still down. It came days pasted. It might have
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: been that many days past ere It swept so closely
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: over me as to fan me with its acrid breath.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: The odor of the sharp steel forced itself into my nostrils.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: I prayed, I wearied Heaven with my prayer for its
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: more speedy descent. I grew frantically mad and struggled to
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: force myself upward against the sweep of the fearful scimeter.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: And then I fell suddenly calm, and lay smiling at
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: the glittering death as a child at some rare bauble.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: There was another interval of utter insensibility. It was brief,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: for upon again lapsing into life, there had been no
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: perceptible descent in the pendulum. But it might have been long,
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: for I knew there were demons who took note of
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: my swoon, and who could have arrested the vibration at pleasure.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: Upon my recovery, too, I felt very, oh inexpressibly sick
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: and weak, as if through long inanition. Even amid the
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: agonies of that period, the human nature craved food with
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: painful effort. I outstretched my left arm as far as
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: my bonds permitted, and took possession of the small remnant
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: which had been spared me by the rats. As I
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: put a portion of it within my lips, there rushed
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: to my mind a half formed thought of joy of hope.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: Yet what business had I with hope? It was, as
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: I say, a half formed thought. Man has many such
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: which are never completed. I felt that it was of
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: joy of hope, but felt also that it had perished
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: in its formation in vain. I struggled to perfect to
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: regain it. Long suffering had nearly annihilated all my ordinary
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: powers of mind. I was an imbecile, an idiot. The
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: vibration of the pendulum was at right angles to my length.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: I saw that the crescent was designed to cross the
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: region of the heart. It would free the surge of
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: my robe. It would return and repeat its operations again
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: and again. Notwithstanding its terrifically wide sweep some thirty feet
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: or more, and the hissing vigor of its descent sufficient
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: to sunder these very walls of iron. Still, the fraying
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: of my robe would be all that for several minutes
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: it would accomplish. And at this thought I paused. I
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: dared not go farther than this reflection, I dwelt upon
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: it with a prudenacity of attention, as if in so
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: dwelling I could arrest here the descent of the steel.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: I forced myself to ponder upon the sound of the
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: crescent as it should pass across the garment, Upon the
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: peculiar thrilling sensation which the friction of cloth produces on
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: the nerves. I pondered upon all this frivolity until my
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: teeth were on edge. Down steadily, down it crept. I
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: took a frenzied pleasure in contrasting its downward with its
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: lateral velocity to the right, to the left, far and wide,
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: with the shriek of a damned spirit to my heart,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: with the stealthy pace of the tiger. I alternately laughed
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: and howled as the one or the other idea grew predominant, down, certainly,
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: relentlessly down, it vibrated within three inches of my bosom.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: I struggled violently furiously to free my left arm. This
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: was free only from the elbow to the hand. I
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: could reach the ladder from the platter beside me to
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: my mouth with great effort, But no farther could I
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: have broken the fastenings above the elbow, I would have
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: seized and attempted to arrest the pendulum. I might as
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: well have attempted to arrest an avalanche. Down, Still, unceasingly, still,
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: inevitably down, I gasped and struggled at each vibration. I
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: shrunk convulsively at its every sweep. My eyes followed its
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: outward or upward whorlds with the eagerness of the most
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: unmeaning despair. They closed themselves spasmodically at the descent. Although
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: death would have been a relief, Oh how unspeakable, Still
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: I quivered in every nerve to think how slight a
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: sinking of the machinery would precipitate that keen glistening axe
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: upon my bosom. It was hope that prompted the nerve
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: to quiver, the frame to shrink. It was hope, the
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: hope that triumphs on the rack that whispers to the
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: death condemned. Even in the dungeons of the inquisition, I
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: saw that some ten or twelve vibrations would bring the
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: steel in actual contact with my robe. And with this
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: observation there suddenly came over my spirit. All the keen
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: collected calmness of despair. For the first time during many
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: hours or perhaps days, I thought it now occurred to
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: me that the bandage or sysingle which enveloped me was unique.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: I was tied by no separate corps. The first stroke
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: of the razorlike crescent athwart any portion of the band
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: would so detach it that it might be unwound from
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: my person by means of my left hand. But how
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: fearful in that case the proximity of the steel the
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: result of the slightest struggle, How deadly was it likely? Moreover,
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: that the minions of the torture had not foreseen and
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: provided for this possibility? Was it probable that the bandage
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: crossed my bosom in the track of the pendulum. Dreading
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: to find my faint and, as it seemed my last hope, frustrated,
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: I so far elevated my head as to obtain a
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: distinct view of my breast. This a single enveloped my
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: limbs and body close in all directions save in the
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: path of the destroying crescent. Scarcely had I dropped my
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: head back into its original position, when there flashed upon
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: my mind what I cannot better describe than as the
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: unformed half of that idea of deliverance to which I
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: have previously alluded, and of which a moiety only floated
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: indeterminately through my brain. When I raised food to my
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: burning lips. The whole thought was now present, feeble, scarcely sane,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: scarcely definite, but still entire. I proceeded at once, with
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: the nervous energy of despair, to attempt its execution. For
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: many hours, the immediate vicinity of the low framework upon
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: which I lay had been literally swarming with rats. They
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: were wild, bold, ravenous, their red eyes glaring upon me
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: as if they waited but for motionlessness on my part,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: to make me their prey to what food I thought
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: have they been accustomed? In the well they had devoured
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: in spite of all my efforts to prevent them, all
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: but a small remnant of the contents of the dish
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: I had fallen into an habitual seesaw or wave of
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: the hand about the platter, and at length the unconscious
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: uniformity of the movement deprived it of effect. In their voracity,
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: the vermin frequently fastened their sharp fangs in my fingers.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: With the particles of the oily and spicy viand which
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: now remained. I thoroughly rubbed the bandage wherever I could
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: reach it. Then, raising my hand from the floor, I
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: lay breathlessly still. At first the ravenous animals were startled
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: and terrified at the change. At the cessation of movement,
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: they shrank alarmedly back. Many sought the well, But this
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: was only for a moment. I had not counted in
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: vain upon their voracity. Observing that I remained without motion,
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: one or two of the boldest leaped upon the framework
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: and smelt at this asingle. This seemed the signal for
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: a general rush forth from the well. They hurried in
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: fresh troops. They clung to the wood, They overran it,
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: and leaped in hundreds upon my person. The measured movement
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: of the pendulum disturbed them, not at all, avoiding its strokes,
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: they busied themselves with the anointed bandage. They pressed. They
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: swarmed upon me in ever accumulating heaps. They writhed upon
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: my throat, their cold lips sought my own. I was
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: half stifled by their thronging pressure. Disgust for which the
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: world has no name, swelled my bosom and chilled with
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: a heavy clamminess. My heart yet one minute, and I
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: felt that the struggle would be over. Plainly I perceived
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: the loosening of the bandage. I knew that in more
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: than one place it must be already severed. With a
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: more than human resolution, I lay still. Nor had I
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: erred in my calculations, nor had I endured in vain.
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: I at length felt that I was free. This a
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: single hung in ribbons from my body. But the stroke
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: of the pendulum already pressed upon my bosom. It had
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: divided the surge of the robe. It had cut through
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: the linen beneath twice again it swung, and a sharp
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: sense of pain shot through every nerve. But the moment
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: of escape had arrived. At a wave of my hand.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: My deliverers hurried tumultuously away with a steady movement, cautious,
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: side long, shrinking and slight. I slid from the embrace
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: of the bandage and beyond the reach of the scimeter.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: For the moment at least I was free. Free, and
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: in the grasp of the inquisition, I had scarcely stepped
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: from my wooden bed of horror upon the stone floor
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: of the prison. When the motion of the hellish machine
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: ceased and I beheld it drawn up by some invisible
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: force through the ceiling. This was a lesson which I
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: took desperately to heart. My every motion was undoubtedly watched free.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: I had but escaped death in one form of agony,
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: to be delivered unto worse than death in some other.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: With that thought, I rolled my eaves nervously around on
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: the barriers of iron that hemmed me in something unusual,
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: some change which at first I could not appreciate. Distinctly,
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: it was obvious had taken place in the apartment. For
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: many minutes of a dreamy and trembling abstraction, I busied
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: myself in vain unconnected conjecture. During this period I became
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: aware for the first time of the origin of the
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: sulfurious light which illumined the cell. It proceeded from a
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: fissure about half an inch in width, extending entirely around
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: the prison at the base of the walls, which thus
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: appeared and were completely separated from the floor. I endeavored,
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: but of course, in vain, to look through the aperture.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: As I arose from the attempt, the mystery of the
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: alteration in the chamber broke at once upon my understanding
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: I have observed that although the outlines of the figures
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: upon the walls were sufficiently distinct, yet the color seemed
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: blurred and indefinite. These colors had now assumed and were
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: momentarily assuming, a startling and most intense brilliancy that gave
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: to the spectral and fiendish portraitures, an aspect that might
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: have thrilled even firmer nerves than my own. Demon eyes
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: of a wild and ghastly vivacity glared upon me in
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: a thousand directions where none had been visible before, and
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: gleamed with the lurid luster of a fire that I
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: could not force my imagination to regard as unreal, unreal.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: Even while I breathed, there came to my nostrils the
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: breath of the vapor of heated iron. A suffocating odor
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: pervaded the prison. A deeper glow settled each moment in
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: the eyes that glared at my agonies. A richer tint
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: of crimson diffused itself over the pictured horrors of blood.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: I panted, I gasped for breath. There could be no
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: doubt of the design of my tormentors, Oh most unrelenting,
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: oh most demoniac of men. I shrank from the glowing
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: metal to the center of the cell. Amid the thought
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: of the fiery destruction that impended the idea of the
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: coolness of the well came over my soul like balm.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: I rushed to its deadly brink. I threw my straining
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: vision below. The glare from the enkindled roof illumined its
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: inmost recesses. Yet for a wild moment did my spirit
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: refuse to comprehend the meaning of what I saw. At length,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: it forced, it wrestled its way into my soul. It
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: burned itself in upon my shuddering reason. Oh for a
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: voice to speak, Oh horror, Oh any horror. But this
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: with a shriek, I rushed from the margin and buried
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: my face in my hands, weeping bitterly. The heat rapidly increased,
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: and once again I looked up, shuddering, as with a
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: fit of the ague. There had been a second change
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: in the cell, and now the change was obviously in
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: the form as before. It was in vain that I
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: at first endeavored to appreciate or understand what was taking place.
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: But not long was I left in doubt. The inquisitorial
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: vengeance had been hurried by my twofold escape, and there
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: was to be no more dallying with the King of terrors.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: The room had been square. I saw that two of
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: its iron angles were now acute, two consequently obtuse. The
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: fearful difference quickly increased with a low rumbling or moaning sound.
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: In an instant the apartment had shifted its form into
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: that of a lozenge. But the alteration stopped not here.
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: I neither hoped nor desired it to stop. I could
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: have clasped the red walls to my bosom as a
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: garment of eternal peace. Death, I said, any death, but
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: that of the pit. Fool might I have not known
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: that into the pit it was the object of the
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: burning iron to urge me. Could I resist its glow?
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: Or if even that, could I withstand its pressure? And
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: now flatter and flatter grew the lozenge with a rapidity
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: that left me no time for contemplation. Its center, and
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: of course, its greatest width, came just over the yawning gulf.
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: I shrank back, but the closing walls pressed me resistlessly
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: onward at length. For my seared and writhing body, there
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: was no longer an inch of foothold on the firm
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: floor of the prison. I struggled no more, but the
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: agony of my soul found vent in one loud, long
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: and final scream of despair. I felt that I tottered
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: upon the brink. I averted my eyes. There was a
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: discordant hum of human voices. There was a loud blast
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: as of many trumpets. There was a harsh grating, as
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: of a thousand thunders. The fiery walls rushed back. An
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: outstretched arm caught my own as I fell, fainting into
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: the abyss. It was that of General Lassalle. The French
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: army had entered Toledo. The Inquisition was in the hands
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: of its enemies.