IRARY *

UTIIVt: --''TV OP

_->

MARY NORTH
CHENOWETH

SILVER CREEK
WASHINGTON

TALES OF MYSTERY

<s. £>.

345

SELECTED

TALES OF MYSTERY

BY

EDGAR ALLAN POE

ILLUSTRATED IN COLOUR
BY

BYAM SHAW

LONDON
SIDGWICK & JACKSON, LTD.

3 ADAM STREET, ADELPHI
1909

CONTENTS V LIST OF
ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

WILLIAM WILSON i

"A MASQUERADE IN THE PALAZZO OF THE NEAPOLITAN DuKE Dl
BROGLIO " Frontispiece

THE GOLD BUG 29

" THE BEETLE, WHICH HE HAD SUFFERED TO DESCEND, WAS NOW
VISIBLE AT THE END OF THE STRING '' To face p. 46

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER 75

" MADMAN ! I TELL YOU THAT SHE NOW STANDS WITHOUT THE
DOOR !" To face p. 98

THE ASSIGNATION 101

"THOU HAST CONQUERED ONE HOUR AFTER SUNRISE — WE SHALL

MEET SO LET IT BE!" To face p. 104

LIGEIA u7

"THE THING THAT WAS ENSHROUDED ADVANCED BOLDLY AND
PALPABLY INTO THE MIDDLE OF THE APARTMENT" To face p. 134

ELEONORA 137

"A MAGIC PRISON-HOUSE OF GRANDEUR AND OF GLORY"

To face p. 140

THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH 145

" DARKNESS AND DECAY AND THE RED DEATH HELD ILLIMITABLE

DOMINION OVER ALL" To face p. 152

THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO 153

" I CEASED MY LABOURS AND SAT DOWN UPON THE BONES "

To face p. 160

METZENGERSTEIN 163

"A CLOUD OF SMOKE SETTLED HEAVILY OVER THE BATTLEMENTS IN
THE DISTINCT COLOSSAL FIGURE OF -•/ HORSE " To face p. 174

THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM 175

" THEY SWARMED UPON ME IN EVER-ACCUMULATING HEAPS"

To face p. 190

V

CONTENTS & ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

A DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTROM 195

" I FASTENED MYSELF TO THE CASK, AND PRECIPITATED MYSELK
WITH IT INTO THE SEA " To face p. 214

MS. FOUND IN A BOTTLE 217

" UPON THE VERY VERGE OF THE PRECIPITOUS DESCENT HOVERED

A GIGANTIC SHIP" To face p. 222

THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR 231

" YES; — NO; — IHAVEBEEN SLEEPING — AND NOW — NOW — IAMDK.ID"

To face p. 240

THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE 245

" THE SAILOR'S FACE FLUSHED up ; HE STARTED TO HIS FEET AND

GRASPED HIS CUDGEL " To face p. 284

THE BLACK CAT 291

" I HAD WALLED THE MONSTER UP WITHIN THE LIVING TOMB ! "

To face p. 302

THE SPECTACLES 305

" I AMUSED MYSELF BY OBSERVING THE AUDIENCE " To face p. 306

VI

WILLIAM WILSON

Erne call myself, for the present, William Wilson,
ic fair page now lying before me need not be
sullied with my real appellation. This has
been already too much an object for the scorn
— for the horror — for the detestation of my race. To
the uttermost regions of the globe have not the indig
nant winds bruited its unparalleled infamy ? Oh, out
cast of all outcasts most abandoned ! — to the earth art
thou not for ever dead ? to its honours, to its flowers,
to its golden aspirations ? — and a cloud, dense, dismal,
and limitless, does it not hang eternally between thy
hopes and heaven ?

I would not, if I could, here or to-day^ embody a
record of my later years of unspeakable misery, and
unpardonable crime. This epoch — these later years —
took unto themselves a sudden elevation in turpitude,
whose origin alone it is my present purpose to assign.
Men usually grow base by degrees. From me, in an
instant, all virtue dropped bodily as a mantle. From
comparatively trivial wickedness I passed, with the
stride of a giant, into more than the enormities of an
Elah-Gabalus. What chance — what one event brought
this evil thing to pass, bear with me while I relate.
Death approaches ; and the shadow which foreruns him
has thrown a softening influence over my spirit. I
long, in passing through the dim valley, for the sym
pathy — I had nearly said for the pity — of my fellow-
men. I would fain have them believe that I have been,
in some measure, the slave of circumstances beyond
human control. I would wish them to seek out for
me, in the details I am about to give, some little oasis
of fatality amid a wilderness of error. I would have
them allow — what they cannot refrain from allowing —

A I

TALES OF MYSTERY

that, although temptation may have ercwhile existed
as great, man was never thus, at least, tempted before —
certainly never thus fell. And is it therefore that he has
never thus suffered ? Have I not indeed been living
in a dream? And am I not now dying a victim to the
horror and the mystery of the wildest of all sublunary
visions ?

I am the descendant of a race whose imaginative
and easily excitable temperament has at all times ren
dered them remarkable ; and, in my earliest infancy,
I gave evidence of having fully inherited the family
character. As I advanced in years it was more strongly
developed ; becoming, for many reasons, a cause of
serious disquietude to my friends, and of positive injury
to myself. I grew self-willed, addicted to the wildest
caprices, and a prey to the most ungovernable passions.
Weak-minded, and beset with constitutional infirmities
akin to my own, my parents could do but little to check
the evil propensities which distinguished me. Some
feeble and ill-directed efforts resulted in complete failure
on their part, and, of course, in total triumph on mine.
Thenceforward my voice was a household law ; and at
an age when few children have abandoned their leading-
strings, I was left to the guidance of my own will,
and became, in all but name, the master of my own
actions.

My earliest recollections of a school life are con
nected with a large, rambling, Elizabethan house, in a
misty-looking village of England, where were a vast
number of gigantic gnarled trees, and where all the
houses were excessively ancient. In truth, it was a
dream-like and spirit-soothing place, that venerable old
town. At this moment, in fancy, I feel the refreshing
chilliness of its deeply-shadowed avenues, inhale the
2

WILLIAM WILSON

fragrance of its thousand shrubberies, and thrill anew
with undefinable delight, at the deep hollow note of
the church-bell, breaking, each hour, with sullen and
sudden roar, upon the stillness of the dusky atmosphere
in which the fretted Gothic steeple lay imbedded and
asleep.

It gives me, perhaps, as much of pleasure as I can now
in any manner experience, to dwell upon minute recol
lections of the school and its concerns. Steeped in
misery as I am — misery, alas ! only too real — I shall be
pardoned for seeking relief, however slight and tem
porary, in the weakness of a few rambling details.
These, moreover, utterly trivial, and even ridiculous in
themselves, assume, to my fancy, adventitious impor
tance, as connected with a period and a locality when
and where I recognise the first ambiguous monitions of
the destiny which afterwards so fully overshadowed
me. Let me then remember.

The house, I have said, was old and irregular. The
grounds were extensive, and a high and solid brick
wall, topped with a bed of mortar and broken glass,
encompassed the whole. This prison-like rampart
formed the limit of our domain ; beyond it we saw
but thrice a week — once every Saturday afternoon,
when, attended by two ushers, we were permitted to
take brief walks in a body through some of the neigh
bouring fields — and twice during Sunday, when we
were paraded in the same formal manner to the morn
ing and evening service in the one church of the village.
Of this church the principal of our school was pastor.
With how deep a spirit of wonder and perplexity was
I wont to regard him from our remote pew in the
gallery, as, with step solemn and slow, he ascended the
pulpit ! This reverend man, with countenance so

3

TALES OF MYSTERY

demurely benign, with robes so glossy and so clerically
flowing, with wig so minutely powdered, so rigid and
so vast, — could this be he who, of late, with sour
visage, and in snuffy habiliments, administered, ferule
in hand, the Draconian laws of the academy ? Oh,
gigantic paradox, too utterly monstrous for solution !

At an angle of the ponderous wall frowned a more
ponderous gate. It was riveted and studded with iron
bolts, and surmounted with jagged iron spikes. What
impressions of deep awe did it inspire ! It was never
opened save for the three periodical egressions and
ingressions already mentioned ; then, in every creak of
its mighty hinges, we found a plenitude of mystery — a
world of matter for solemn remark, or for more solemn
meditation.

The extensive enclosure was irregular in form, having
many capacious recesses. Of these, three or four of
the largest constituted the play-ground. It was level,
and covered with fine hard gravel. I well remember it
had no trees, nor benches, nor anything similar within
it. Of course it was in the rear of the house. In front
lay a small parterre, planted with box and other shrubs ;
but through this sacred division we passed only upon
rare occasions indeed — such as a first advent to school
or final departure thence, or perhaps, when a parent or
friend having called for us, we joyfully took our way
home for the Christmas or Midsummer holidays.

But the house ! — how quaint an old building was
this ! — to me how veritably a palace of enchantment !
There was really no end to its windings — to its incom
prehensible subdivisions. It was difficult, at any given
time, to say with certainty upon which of its two stories
one happened to be. From each room to every other
there were sure to be found three or four steps either

4

WILLIAM WILSON

in ascent or descent. Then the lateral branches were
innumerable — inconceivable — and so returning in upon
themselves, that our most exact ideas in regard to the
whole mansion were not very far different from those
with which we pondered upon infinity. During the
five years of my residence here, I was never able to
ascertain with precision in what remote locality lay
the little sleeping apartment assigned to myself and
some eighteen or twenty other scholars.

The schoolroom was the largest in the house — I
could not help thinking, in the world. It was very
long, narrow, and dismally low, with pointed Gothic
windows and a ceiling of oak. In a remote and terror-
inspiring angle was a square enclosure of eight or ten
feet, comprising the sanctum^ " during hours," of our
principal, the Reverend Dr. Bransby. It was a solid
structure, with massy door, sooner than open which in
the absence of the " Dominie," we would all have
willingly perished by the peine forte et dure. In other
angles were two other similar boxes, far less reverenced,
indeed, but still greatly matters of awe. One of these
was the pulpit of the " classical " usher, one of the
" English and mathematical." Interspersed about the
room, crossing and recrossing in endless irregularity,
were innumerable benches and desks, black, ancient,
and timeworn, piled desperately with much-bethumbed
books, and so beseamed with initial letters, names at
full length, grotesque figures, and other multiplied
efforts of the knife, as to have entirely lost what little
of original form might have been their portion in days
long departed. A huge bucket with water stood at
one extremity of the room, and a clock of stupendous
dimensions at the other.

Encompassed by the massy walls of this venerable

5

TALES OF MYSTERY

academy, I passed, yet not in tedium or disgust, the
years of the third lustrum of my life. The teeming
brain of childhood requires no external world of inci
dent to occupy or amuse it ; and the apparently dismal
monotony of a school was replete with more intense
excitement than my riper youth has derived from
luxury, or my full manhood from crime. Yet I must
believe that my first mental development had in it
much of the uncommon — even much of the outre.
Upon mankind at large the events of very early exist
ence rarely leave in mature age any definite impression.
All is grey shadow — a weak and irregular remembrance
— an indistinct regathering of feeble pleasures and
phantasmagoric pains. With me this is not so. In
childhood I must have felt with the energy of a man
what I now find stamped upon memory in lines as
vivid, as deep, and as durable as the exergues of the
Carthaginian medals.

Yet in fact — in the fact of the world's view — how
little was there to remember ! The morning's awaken
ing, the nightly summons to bed ; the connings, the
recitations ; the periodical half-holidays, and perambu
lations ; the play-ground, with its broils, its pastimes,
its intrigues ; — these, by a mental sorcery long forgotten,
were made to involve a wilderness of sensation, a world
of rich incident, an universe of varied emotion, of ex
citement the most passionate and spirit-stirring. " Oh,
le bon temps, que ce stecle defer / "

In truth, the ardour, the enthusiasm, and the im-
periousness of my disposition, soon rendered me a
marked character among my schoolmates, and by slow
but natural gradations, gave me an ascendency over all
not greatly older than myself ; — over all with a single
exception. This exception was found in the person of
6

WILLIAM WILSON

a scholar, who, although no relation, bore the same
Christian and surname as myself; — a circumstance, in
fact, little remarkable ; for, notwithstanding a noble
descent, mine was one of those everyday appellations
which seem, by prescriptive right, to have been, time
out of mind, the common property of the mob. In this
narrative I have therefore designated myself as William
Wilson, — a fictitious title not very dissimilar to the real.
My namesake alone, of those who in school phraseology
constituted " our set," presumed to compete with me
in the studies of the class — in the sports and broils of
the play-ground — to refuse implicit belief in my asser
tions, and submission to my will — indeed, to interfere
with my arbitrary dictation in any respect whatsoever.
If there is on earth a supreme and unqualified despotism,
it is the despotism of a master mind in boyhood over
the less energetic spirits of its companions.

Wilson's rebellion was to me a source of the greatest
embarrassment ; — the more so as, in spite of the bravado
with which in public I made a point of treating him
and his pretensions, I secretly felt that I feared him, and
could not help thinking the equality which he main
tained so easily with myself, a proof of his true superi
ority ; since not to be overcome cost me a perpetual
struggle. Yet this superiority — even this equality —
was in truth acknowledged by no one but myself; our
associates, by some unaccountable blindness, seemed not
even to suspect it. Indeed, his competition, his resist
ance, and especially his impertinent and dogged inter
ference with my purposes, were not more pointed than
private. He appeared to be destitute alike of the
ambition which urged, and of the passionate energy of
mind which enabled me to excel. In his rivalry he
might have been supposed actuated solely by a whimsi-

7

TALES OF MYSTERY

cal desire to thwart, astonish, or mortify myself;
although there were times when I could not help
observing, with a feeling made up of wonder, abase
ment, and pique, that he mingled with his injuries, his
insults, or his contradictions, a certain most inappro
priate, and assuredly most unwelcome affectionateness of
manner. I could only conceive this singular behaviour
to arise from a consummate self-conceit assuming the
vulgar air of patronage and protection.

Perhaps it was this latter trait in Wilson's conduct,
conjoined with our identity of name, and the mere
accident of our having entered the school upon the
same day, which set afloat the notion that we were
brothers, among the senior classes in the academy.
These do not usually inquire with much strictness into
the affairs of their juniors. I have before said, or should
have said, that Wilson was not, in the most remote
degree, connected with my family. But assuredly if we
had been brothers we must have been twins ; for, after
leaving Dr. Bransby's, I casually learned that my name
sake was born on the nineteenth of January, 1813 — and
this is a somewhat remarkable coincidence ; for the day
is precisely that of my own nativity.

It may seem strange that in spite of the continual
anxiety occasioned me by the rivalry of Wilson, and his
intolerable spirit of contradiction, I could not bring
myself to hate him altogether. We had, to be sure,
nearly every day a quarrel in which, yielding me
publicly the palm of victory, he, in some manner, con
trived to make me feel that it was he who had deserved
it ; yet a sense of pride on my part, and a veritable
dignity on his own, kept us always upon what are
called " speaking terms," while there were many points
of strong congeniality in our tempers, operating to
8

WILLIAM WILSON

awake in me a sentiment which our position alone,
perhaps, prevented from ripening into friendship. It is
difficult, indeed, to define, or even to describe, my real
feelings towards him. They formed a motley and hetero
geneous admixture ; — some petulant animosity, which
was not yet hatred, some esteem, more respect, much
fear, with a world of uneasy curiosity. To the moralist
it will be unnecessary to say, in addition, that Wilson
and myself were the most inseparable of companions.

It was no doubt the anomalous state of affairs
existing between us, which turned all my attacks upon
him (and they were many, either open or covert) into the
channel of banter or practical joke (giving pain while
assuming the aspect of mere fun) rather than into a more
serious and determined hostility. But my endeavours
on this head were by no means uniformly successful,
even when my plans were the most wittily concocted ;
for my namesake had much about him, in character, of
that unassuming and quiet austerity which, while enjoy
ing the poignancy of its own jokes, has no heel of Achilles
in itself, and absolutely refuses to be laughed at. I
could find, indeed, but one vulnerable point, and that,
lying in a personal peculiarity, arising, perhaps, from
constitutional disease, would have been spared by any
antagonist less at his wit's end than myself — my rival
had a weakness in the faucal or guttural organs, which
precluded him from raising his voice at any time above
a very low whisper. Of this defect I did not fail to take
what poor advantage lay in my power.

Wilson's retaliations in kind were many ; and there
was one form of his practical wit that disturbed me
beyond measure. How his sagacity first discovered at
all that so petty a thing would vex me, is a question I
never could solve ; but, having discovered, he habitually

9

TALES OF MYSTERY

practised the annoyance. I had always felt aversion to
my uncourtly patronymic, and its very common, if not
plebeian prasnomen. The words were venom in my
ears ; and when, upon the day of my arrival, a second
William Wilson came also to the academy, I felt angry
with him for bearing the name, and doubly disgusted
with the name because a stranger bore it, who would
be the cause of its two-fold repetition, who would be
constantly in my presence, and whose concerns, in the
ordinary routine of the school business, must inevitably,
on account of the detestable coincidence, be often
confounded with my own.

The feeling of vexation thus engendered grew
stronger with every circumstance tending to show
resemblance, moral or physical, between my rival and
myself. I had not then discovered the remarkable fact
that we were of the same age ; but I saw that we were
of the same height, and I perceived that we were even
singularly alike in general contour of person and out
line of feature. I was galled, too, by the rumour
touching a relationship, which had grown current in
the upper forms. In a word, nothing could more
seriously disturb me (although I scrupulously concealed
such disturbance), than any allusion to a similarity of
mind, person, or condition existing between us. But,
in truth, I had no reason to believe that (with the
exception of the matter of relationship, and in the case
of Wilson himself) this similarity had ever been made a
subject of comment, or even observed at all by our
schoolfellows. That he observed it in all its bearings,
and as fixedly as I, was apparent ; but that he could
discover in such circumstances so fruitful a field of
annoyance, can only be attributed, as I said before, to
his more than ordinary penetration.
10

WILLIAM WILSON

His cue, which was to perfect an imitation of myself,
lay both in words and in actions ; and most admirably
did he play his part. My dress it was an easy matter
to copy ; my gait and general manner were, without
difficulty, appropriated ; in spite of his constitutional
defect, even my voice did not escape him. My louder
tones were, of course, unattempted, but then the key,
it was identical ; and his singular whisper •, it grew the
very echo of my own.

How greatly this most exquisite portraiture harassed
me (for it could not justly be termed a caricature), I
will not now venture to describe. I had but one con
solation — in the fact that the imitation, apparently, was
noticed by myself alone, and that I had to endure only
the knowing and strangely sarcastic smiles of my name
sake himself. Satisfied with having produced in my
bosom the intended effect, he seemed to chuckle in
secret over the sting he had inflicted, and was charac
teristically disregardful of the public applause which the
success of his witty endeavours might have so easily
elicited. That the school, indeed, did not feel his
design, perceive its accomplishment, and participate in
his sneer, was, for many anxious months, a riddle I
could not resolve. Perhaps the gradation of his copy
rendered it not so readily perceptible ; or, more pos
sibly, I owed my security to the masterly air of the
copyist, who, disdaining the letter (which in a painting
is all the obtuse can see), gave but the full spirit of his
original for my individual contemplation and chagrin.

I have already more than once spoken of the dis
gusting air of patronage which he assumed toward me,
and of his frequent officious interference with my will.
This interference often took the ungracious character
of advice ; advice not openly given, but hinted or

ii

TALES OF MYSTERY

insinuated. I received it with a repugnance which
gained strength as I grew in years. Yet, at this
distant day, let me do him the simple justice to
acknowledge that I can recall no occasion when the
suggestions of my rival were on the side of those errors
or follies so usual to his immature age and seeming
inexperience ; that his moral sense, at least, if not his
general talents and worldly wisdom, was far keener
than my own ; and that I might, to-day, have been a
better, and thus a happier man, had I less frequently
rejected the counsels embodied in those meaning
whispers which I then but too cordially hated and too
bitterly despised.

As it was, I at length grew restive in the extreme
under his distasteful supervision, and daily resented
more and more openly what I considered his intolerable
arrogance. I have said that, in the first years of our
connection as schoolmates, my feelings in regard to
him might have been easily ripened into friendship :
but, in the latter months of my residence at the
academy, although the intrusion of his ordinary manner
had, beyond doubt, in some measure, abated, my senti
ments, in nearly similar proportion, partook very much
of positive hatred. Upon one occasion he saw this, I
think, and afterwards avoided, or made a show of
avoiding me.

It was about the same period, if I remember aright,
that, in an altercation of violence with him, in which
he was more than usually thrown off his guard, and
spoke and acted with an openness of demeanour rather
foreign to his nature, I discovered, or fancied I dis
covered, in his accent, his air, and general appearance,
a something which first startled, and then deeply inte
rested me, by bringing to mind dim visions of my earliest
12

WILLIAM WILSON

infancy — wild, confused, and thronging memories of a
time when memory herself was yet unborn. I cannot
better describe the sensation which oppressed me than
by saying that I could with difficulty shake off the
belief of my having been acquainted with the being
who stood before me, at some epoch very long ago —
some point of the past even infinitely remote. The
delusion, however, faded rapidly as it came ; and I
mention it at all but to define the day of the last con
versation I there held with my singular namesake.

The huge old house, with its countless subdivisions,
had several large chambers communicating with each
other, where slept the greater number of the students.
There were, however (as must necessarily happen in a
building so awkwardly planned), many little nooks or
recesses, the odds and ends of the structure ; and these
the economic ingenuity of Dr. Bransby had also fitted
up as dormitories ; although, being the merest closets,
they were capable of accommodating but a single
individual. One of these small apartments was occupied
by Wilson.

One night, about the close of my fifth year at the
school, and immediately after the altercation just men
tioned, finding every one wrapped in sleep, I rose from
bed, and, lamp in hand, stole through a wilderness of
narrow passages from my own bedroom to that of my
rival. I had long been plotting one of those ill-
natured pieces of practical wit at his expense in which
I had hitherto been so uniformly unsuccessful. It
was my intention, now, to put my scheme in opera
tion, and I resolved to make him feel the whole extent
of the malice with which I was imbued. Having
reached his closet, I noiselessly entered, leaving the
lamp, with a shade over it, on the outside. I advanced

'3

TALES OF MYSTERY

a step, and listened to the sound of his tranquil breath
ing. Assured of his being asleep, I returned, took the
light, and with it again approached the bed. Close
curtains were around it, which, in the prosecution of
my plan, I slowly and quietly withdrew, when the
bright rays fell vividly upon the sleeper, and my eyes,
at the same moment, upon his countenance. I looked ;
— and a numbness, an iciness of feeling instantly per
vaded my frame. My breast heaved, my knees
tottered, my whole spirit became possessed with an
objectless yet intolerable horror. Gasping for breath,
I lowered the lamp in still nearer proximity to the
face. Were these — these the lineaments of William
Wilson ? I saw, indeed, that they were his, but I
shook as if with a fit of the ague in fancying they were
not. What was there about them to confound me in
this manner ? I gazed ; — while my brain reeled with
a multitude of incoherent thoughts. Not thus he
appeared — assuredly not thus — in the vivacity of his
waking hours. The same name ! the same contour of
person ! the same day of arrival at the academy 1 And
then his dogged and meaningless imitation of my gait,
my voice, my habits, and my manner ! Was it, in
truth, within the bounds of human possibility, that
'what I now saw was the result merely of the habitual
practice of this sarcastic imitation 1 Awestricken and
with a creeping shudder, I extinguished the lamp,
passed silently from the chamber, and left at once the
halls of that old academy, never to enter them again.

After a lapse of some months spent at home in
mere idleness, I found myself a student at Eton. The
brief interval had been sufficient to enfeeble my remem
brance of the events at Dr. Bransby's, or at least to
effect a material change in the nature of the feelings

'4

WILLIAM WILSON

with which I remembered them. The truth — the
tragedy — of the drama was no more. I could now
find room to doubt the evidence of my senses ; and
seldom called up the subject at all but with wonder at
the extent of human credulity, and a smile at the vivid
force of the imagination which I hereditarily possessed.
Neither was this species of scepticism likely to be
diminished by the character of the life I led at Eton.
The vortex of thoughtless folly into which I there so
immediately and so recklessly plunged, washed away all
but the froth of my past hours, engulfed at once every
solid or serious impression, and left to memory only the
veriest levities of a former existence.

I do not wish, however, to trace the course of my
miserable profligacy here — a profligacy which set at
defiance the laws, while it eluded the vigilance of the
institution. Three years of folly, passed without profit,
had but given me rooted habits of vice, and added, in a
somewhat unusual degree, to my bodily stature, when,
after a week of soulless dissipation, I invited a small
party of the most dissolute students to a secret carousal
in my chambers. We met at a late hour of the night ;
for our debaucheries were to be faithfully protracted
until morning. The wine flowed freely, and there were
not wanting other and perhaps more dangerous seduc
tions ; so that the grey dawn had already faintly
appeared in the east, while our delirious extravagance was
at its height. Madly flushed with cards and intoxica
tion, I was in the act of insisting upon a toast of more
than wonted profanity, when my attention was suddenly
diverted by the violent, although partial unclosing of the
door of the apartment, and by the eager voice of a servant
from without. He said that some person, apparently in
great haste, demanded to speak with me in the hall.

'5

TALES OF MYSTERY

Wildly excited with wine, the unexpected interrup
tion rather delighted than surprised me. I staggered
forward at once, and a few steps brought me to the
vestibule of the building. In this low and small room
there hung no lamp ; and now no light at all was
admitted, save that of the exceedingly feeble dawn
which made its way through the semi-circular window.
As I put my foot over the threshold, I became aware
of the figure of a youth about my own height, and
habited in a white kerseymere morning frock, cut in
the novel fashion of the one I myself wore at the
moment. This the faint light enabled me to perceive ;
but the features of his face I could not distinguish.
Upon my entering he strode hurriedly up to me, and,
seizing me by the arm with a gesture of petulant im
patience, whispered the words " William Wilson ! " in
my ear.

I grew perfectly sober in an instant.

There was that in the manner of the stranger, and
in the tremulous shake of his uplifted finger, as he held
it between my eyes and the light, which filled me with
unqualified amazement ; but it was not this which had
so violently moved me. It was the pregnancy of solemn
admonition in the singular, low, hissing utterance ; and,
above all, it was the character, the tone, the key^ of those
few, simple, and familiar, yet whispered syllables, which
came with a thousand thronging memories of by-gone
days, and struck upon my soul with the shock of a
galvanic battery. Ere I could recover the use of my
senses he was gone.

Although this event failed not of a vivid effect upon
my disordered imagination, yet was it evanescent as
vivid. For some weeks, indeed, I busied myself in
earnest inquiry, or was wrapped in a cloud of morbid
16

WILLIAM WILSON

speculation. I did not pretend to disguise from my per
ception the identity of the singular individual who thus
perseveringly interfered with my affairs, and harassed me
with his insinuated counsel. But who and what was this
Wilson ? — and whence came he ? — and what were his
purposes ? Upon neither of these points could I be
satisfied : merely ascertaining, in regard to him, that a
sudden accident in his family had caused his removal from
Dr. Bransby's academy on the afternoon of the day in
which I myself had eloped. But in a brief period I ceased
to think upon the subject ; my attention being all
absorbed in a contemplated departure for Oxford.
Thither I soon went ; the uncalculating vanity of my
parents furnishing me with an outfit and annual estab
lishment, which would enable me to indulge at will in
the luxury already so dear to my heart, — to vie in pro-
fuseness of expenditure with the haughtiest heirs of the
wealthiest earldoms in Great Britain.

Excited by such appliances to vice, my constitutional
temperament broke forth with redoubled ardour, and I
spurned even the common restraints of decency in the
mad infatuation of my revels. But it were absurd to
pause in the detail of my extravagance. Let it suffice,
that among spendthrifts I out-Heroded Herod, and that,
giving name to a multitude of novel follies, I added no
brief appendix to the long catalogue of vices then usual
in the most dissolute university of Europe.

It could hardly be credited, however, that I had, even
here, so utterly fallen from the gentlemanly estate, as to
seek acquaintance with the vilest arts of the gambler by
profession, and, having become an adept in his despicable
science, to practise it habitually as a means of increasing
my already enormous income at the expense of the
weak-minded among my fellow-collegians. Such, never-

B 17

TALES OF MYSTERY

theless, was the fact. And the very enormity of this
offence against all manly and honourable sentiment
proved, beyond doubt, the main if not the sole reason
of the impunity with which it was committed. Who,
indeed, among my most abandoned associates, would
not rather have disputed the clearest evidence of his
senses, than have suspected of such courses, the gay, the
frank, the generous William Wilson — the noblest and
most liberal commoner at Oxford — him whose follies
(said his parasites) were but the follies of youth and un-
bridledfancy — whose errors but inimitablewhim — whose
darkest vice but a careless and dashing extravagance ?

I had been now two years successfully busied in this
way, when there came to the university a young parvenu
nobleman, Glendinning — rich, said report, as Herodes
Atticus — his riches, too, as easily acquired. I soon
found him of weak intellect, and, of course, marked him
as a fitting subject for my skill. I frequently engaged him
in play, and contrived, with the gambler's usual art, to
let him win considerable sums, the more effectually to
entangle him in my snares. At length, my schemes
being ripe, I met him (with the full intention that this
meeting should be final and decisive) at the chambers of
a fellow-commoner (Mr. Preston), equally intimate with
both, but who, to do him justice, entertained not even
a remote suspicion of my design. To give to this a better
colouring, I had contrived to have assembled a party of
some eight or ten, and was solicitously careful that the
introduction of cards should appear accidental, and
originate in the proposal of my contemplated dupe
himself. To be brief upon a vile topic, none of the low
finesse was omitted, so customary upon similar occasions,
that it is a just matter for wonder how any are still
found so besotted as to fall its victim.
18

WILLIAM WILSON

We had protracted our sitting far into the night,
and I had at length effected the manoeuvre of getting
Glendinning as my sole antagonist. The game, too,
was my favourite ecarte. The rest of the company,
interested in the extent of our play, had abandoned
their own cards, and were standing around us as specta
tors. The parvenu, who had been induced by my
artifices in the early part of the evening, to drink
deeply, now shuffled, dealt, or played, with a wild
nervousness of manner for which his intoxication, I
thought, might partially, but could not altogether
account. In a very short period he had become my
debtor to a large amount, when, having taken a long
draught of port, he did precisely what I had been
coolly anticipating — he proposed to double our already
extravagant stakes. With a well-feigned show of re
luctance, and not until after my repeated refusal had
seduced him into some angry words which gave a
colour of pique to my compliance, did I finally comply.
The result, of course, did but prove how entirely the
prey was in my toils ; in less than an hour he had
quadrupled his debt. For some time his countenance
had been losing the florid tinge lent it by the wine ; but
now, to my astonishment, I perceived that it had grown
to a pallor truly fearful. I say to my astonishment.
Glendinning had been represented to my eager in
quiries as immeasurably wealthy ; and the sums which
he had as yet lost, although in themselves vast, could
not, I supposed, very seriously annoy, much less so
violently affect him. That he was overcome by the
wine just swallowed, was the idea which most readily
presented itself; and, rather with a view to the pre
servation of my own character in the eyes of my
associates, than from any less interested motive, I was

19

TALES OF MYSTERY

about to insist, peremptorily, upon a discontinuance of
the play, when some expressions at my elbow from
among the company, and an ejaculation evincing utter
despair on the part of Glendinning, gave me to under
stand that I had effected his total ruin under circum
stances which, rendering him an object for the pity of
all, should have protected him from the ill offices even
of a fiend.

What now might have been my conduct it is
difficult to say. The pitiable condition of my dupe
had thrown an air of embarrassed gloom over all ;
and, for some moments, a profound silence was main
tained, during which I could not help feeling my
cheeks tingle with the many burning glances of scorn
or reproach cast upon me by the less abandoned of the
party. I will even own that an intolerable weight of
anxiety was for a brief instant lifted from my bosom
by the sudden and extraordinary interruption which
ensued. The wide, heavy folding-doors of the apart
ment were all at once thrown open to their full extent,
with a vigorous and rushing impetuosity that extin
guished, as if by magic, every candle in the room.
Their light, in dying, enabled us just to perceive that
a stranger had entered, about my own height, and
closely muffled in a cloak. The darkness, however, was
now total ; and we could only feel that he was standing
iri our midst. Before any one of us could recover from
the extreme astonishment into which this rudeness had
thrown all, we heard the voice of the intruder.

" Gentlemen," he said in a low, distinct and never-
to-be-forgotten whisper which thrilled to the very
marrow of my bones, " Gentlemen, I make no apology
for this behaviour, because in thus behaving, I am but
fulfilling a duty. You are, beyond doubt, uninformed
20

WILLIAM WILSON

of the true character of the person who has to-night
won at ecarte a large sum of money from Lord Glen-
dinning. I will therefore put you upon an expeditious
and decisive plan of obtaining this very necessary in
formation. Please to examine, at your leisure, the
inner linings of the cuff of his left sleeve, arid the
several little packages which may be found in the
somewhat capacious pockets of his embroidered morn
ing wrapper."

While he spoke, so profound was the stillness that
one might have heard a pin drop upon the floor. In
ceasing, he departed at once, and as abruptly as he had
entered. Can I — shall I describe my sensations ? — must
I say that I felt all the horrors of the damned ? Most
assuredly I had little time given for reflection. Many
hands roughly seized me upon the spot, and lights were
immediately re-procured. A search ensued. In the
lining of my sleeve were found all the court cards
essential in tcarte, and, in the pockets of my wrapper, a
number of packs, facsimiles of those used at our sittings,
with the single exception that mine were of the species
called, technically, arrondees ; the honours being slightly
convex at the ends, the lower cards slightly convex at
the sides. In this disposition, the dupe who cuts, as
customary, at the length of the pack, will invariably
find that he cuts his antagonist an honour; while the
gambler, cutting at the breadth, will, as certainly, cut
nothing for his victim which may count in the records
of the game.

Any burst of indignation upon this discovery would
have affected me less than the silent contempt, or the
sarcastic composure, with which it was received.

" Mr. Wilson," said our host, stooping to remove
from beneath his feet an exceedingly luxurious cloak of

21

TALES OF MYSTERY

rare furs, " Mr. Wilson, this is your property." (The
weather was cold ; and, upon quitting my own room,
I had thrown a cloak over my dressing-wrapper, putting
it off upon reaching the scene of play.) " I presume it
is supererogatory to seek here " (eyeing the folds of the
garment with a bitter smile) " for any farther evidence
of your skill. Indeed, we have had enough. You
will see the necessity, I hope, of quitting Oxford — at
all events, of quitting instantly my chambers."

Abased, humbled to the dust as I then was, it is
probable that I should have resented this galling language
by immediate personal violence, had not my whole
attention been at the moment arrested by a fact of the
most startling character. The cloak which I had worn
was of a rare description of fur ; how rare, how ex
travagantly costly, I shall not venture to say. Its
fashion, too, was of my own fantastic invention ; for I
was fastidious to an absurd degree of coxcombry, in
matters of this frivolous nature. When, therefore, Mr.
Preston reached me that which he had picked up
upon the floor, and near the folding doors of the apart
ment, it was with an astonishment nearly bordering
upon terror, that I perceived my own already hanging
on my arm (where I had no doubt unwittingly placed
it), and that the one presented me was but its exact
counterpart in every, in even the minutest possible
particular. The singular being who had so disastrously
exposed me, had been muffled, I remembered, in a
cloak ; and none had been worn at all by any of the
members of our party with the exception of myself.
Retaining some presence of mind, I took the one offered
me by Preston ; placed it, unnoticed, over my own ;
left the apartment with a resolute scowl of defiance ;
and, next morning ere dawn of day, commenced a

22

WILLIAM WILSON

hurried journey from Oxford to the continent, in a
perfect agony of horror and of shame.

I fled in vain. My evil destiny pursued me as if in
exultation, and proved, indeed, that the exercise of its
mysterious dominion had as yet only begun. Scarcely
had I set foot in Paris ere I had fresh evidence of the
detestable interest taken by this Wilson in my concerns.
Years flew, while I experienced no relief. Villain ! — at
Rome, with how untimely, yet with how spectral an
officiousness, stepped he in between me and my am
bition ! At Vienna, too — at Berlin — and at Moscow !
Where, in truth, had I not bitter cause to curse him
within my heart ? From his inscrutable tyranny did I
at length flee, panic-stricken, as from a pestilence ; and
to the very ends of the earth Ifled in vain.

And again, and again, in secret communion with my
own spirit, would I demand the questions " Who is he ?
— whence came he ? — and what are his objects ? "
But no answer was there found. And then I scrutinised,
with a minute scrutiny, the forms, and the methods,
and the leading traits of his impertinent supervision.
But even here there was very little upon which to
base a conjecture. It was noticeable, indeed, that, in
no one of the multiplied instances in which he had of
late crossed my path, had he so crossed it except to
frustrate those schemes, or to disturb those actions,
which, if fully carried out, might have resulted in
bitter mischief. Poor justification this, in truth, for an
authority so imperiously assumed ! Poor indemnity for
natural rights of self-agency so pertinaciously, so in
sultingly denied !

I had also been forced to notice that my tormentor,
for a very long period of time (while scrupulously and
with miraculous dexterity maintaining his whim of an

23

TALES OF MYSTERY

identity of apparel with myself) had so contrived it, in
the execution of his varied interference with my will,
that I saw not, at any moment, the features of his face.
Be Wilson what he might, Mw, at least, was but the
veriest of affectation, or of folly. Could he, for an
instant, have supposed that, in my admonisher at Eton
— in the destroyer of my honour at Oxford — in him
who thwarted my ambition at Rome, my revenge at
Paris, my passionate love at Naples, or what he falsely
termed my avarice in Egypt — that in this, my arch
enemy and evil genius, I could fail to recognise the
William Wilson of my school-boy days — the namesake,
the companion, the rival — the hated and dreaded rival
at Dr. Bransby's ? Impossible ! — But let me hasten to
the last eventful scene of the drama.

Thus far I had succumbed supinely to this imperious
domination. The sentiments of deep awe with which I
habitually regarded the elevated character, the majestic
wisdom, the apparent omnipresence and omnipotence of
Wilson, added to a feeling of even terror, with which
certain other traits in his nature and assumptions inspired
me, had operated, hitherto, to impress me with an idea
of my own utter weakness and helplessness, and to
suggest an implicit, although bitterly reluctant submis
sion to his arbitrary will. But of late days I had
given myself up entirely to wine ; and its maddening
influence upon my hereditary temper rendered me more
and more impatient of control. I began to murmur —
to hesitate — to resist. And was it only fancy which
induced me to believe that, with the increase of my
own firmness, that of my tormentor underwent a
proportional diminution ? Be this as it may, I now
began to feel the inspiration of a burning hope, and
at length nurtured in my secret thoughts a stern and

24

WILLIAM WILSON

desperate resolution that I would submit no longer to
be enslaved.

It was at Rome, during the Carnival of 18 — , that I
attended a masquerade in the palazzo of the Neapolitan
Duke Di Broglio. I had indulged more freely than
usual in the excesses of the wine-table ; and now the
suffocating atmosphere of the crowded rooms irritated
me beyond endurance. The difficulty, too, of forcing
my way through the mazes of the company contributed
not a little to the ruffling of my temper ; for I was
anxiously seeking (let me not say with what unworthy
motive) the young, the gay, the beautiful wife of the
aged and doting Di Broglio. With a too unscrupulous
confidence she had previously communicated to me the
secret of the costume in which she would be habited,
and now, having caught a glimpse of her person, I was
hurrying to make my way into her presence. — At this
moment I felt a light hand placed upon my shoulder,
and that ever-remembered, low, damnable whisper within
my ear.

In an absolute frenzy of wrath, I turned at once
upon him who had thus interrupted me, and seized him
violently by the collar. He was attired, as I had
expected, in a costume altogether similar to my own ;
wearing a Spanish cloak of blue velvet, begirt about
the waist with a crimson belt sustaining a rapier. A
mask of black silk entirely covered his face.
,/ " Scoundrel ! " I said, in a voice husky with rage,
while every syllable I uttered seemed as new fuel to my
fury, "scoundrel! impostor! accursed villain! you shall
not — you shall not dog me unto death ! Follow me, or
I stab you where you stand ! " — and I broke my way
from the ballroom into a small ante-chamber adjoining
— dragging him unresistingly with me as I went.

25

TALES OF MYSTERY

Upon entering, I thrust him furiously from me.
He staggered against the wall, while I closed the door
with an oath, and commanded him to draw. He
hesitated but for an instant ; then, with a slight sigh,
drew in silence, and put himself upon his defence.

The contest was brief indeed. I was frantic with
every species of wild excitement, and felt within my
single arm the energy and power of a multitude. In a
few seconds I forced him by sheer strength against the
wainscotting, and thus getting him at mercy, plunged
my sword with brute ferocity, repeatedly through and
through his bosom.

At that instant some person tried the latch of the
door. I hastened to prevent an intrusion, and then
immediately returned to my dying antagonist. But
what human language can adequately portray that
astonishment, that horror which possessed me at the
spectacle then presented to view ? The brief moment
in which I averted my eyes had been sufficient to
produce, apparently, a material change in the arrange
ments at the upper or farther end of the room. A
large mirror — so at first it seemed to me in my con
fusion — now stood where none had been perceptible
before ; and, as I stepped up to it in an extremity of
terror, mine own image, but with features all pale and
dabbled in blood, advanced to meet me with a feeble
and tottering gait.

Thus it appeared, I say, but was not. It was my
antagonist — it was Wilson, who then stood before me
in the agonies of his dissolution. His mask and cloak
lay, where he had thrown them, upon the floor. Not
a thread in all his raiment — not a line in all the marked
and singular lineaments of his face which was not, even
in the most absolute identity, mine own !
26

WILLIAM WILSON

It was Wilson ; but he spoke no longer in a whisper,
and I could have fancied that I myself was speaking
while he said :

"Tou have conquered, and I yield. Yet, henceforward
art thou also dead — dead to the World, to Heaven, and to
hope / In me didst thou exist — and, in my death, see by
this image, which is thine own, how utterly thou hast mur
dered thyself"

27

THE GOLD-BUG

MANY years ago, I contracted an intimacy
with a Mr. William Legrand. He was of
an ancient Huguenot family, and had once
been wealthy ; but a series of misfortunes
had reduced him to want. To avoid the mortification
consequent upon his disasters, he left New Orleans, the
city of his forefathers, and took up his residence at
Sullivan's Island, near Charleston, South Carolina.

This island is a very singular one. It consists of
little else than the sea sand, and is about three miles
long. Its breadth at no point exceeds a quarter of a mile.
It is separated from the mainland by a scarcely percep
tible creek, oozing its way through a wilderness of reeds
and slime, a favourite resort of the marsh-hen. The
vegetation, as might be supposed, is scant, or at least
dwarfish. No trees of any magnitude are to be seen.
Near the western extremity, where Fort Moultrie
stands, and where are some miserable frame buildings,
tenanted, during summer, by the fugitives from Charles
ton dust and fever, may be found, indeed, the bristly
palmetto ; but the whole island, with the exception of
this western point, and a line of hard, white beach on
the sea coast, is covered with a dense undergrowth of
the sweet myrtle so much prized by the horticulturist
of England. The shrub here often attains the height
of fifteen or twenty feet, and forms an almost impene
trable coppice, burthening the air with its fragrance.

In the inmost recesses of this coppice, not far from
the eastern or more remote end of the island, Legrand
had built himself a small hut, which he occupied when
I first, by mere accident, made his acquaintance. This
soon ripened into friendship — for there was much in
the recluse to excite interest and esteem. I found him

29

TALES OF MYSTERY

well educated, with unusual powers of mind, but infected
with misanthropy, and subject to perverse moods of
alternate enthusiasm and melancholy. He had with
him many books, but rarely employed them. His chief
amusements were gunning and fishing, or sauntering
along the beach and through the myrtles, in quest of
shells or entomological specimens — his collection of the
latter might have been envied by a Swammerdamm.
In these excursions he was usually accompanied by an
old negro, called Jupiter, who had been manumitted
before the reverses of the family, but who could be
induced, neither by threats nor by promises, to abandon
what he considered his right of attendance upon the
footsteps of his young " Massa Will." It is not im
probable that the relatives of Legrand, conceiving him
to be somewhat unsettled in intellect, had contrived to
instil this obstinacy into Jupiter, with a view to the
supervision and guardianship of the wanderer.

The winters in the latitude of Sullivan's Island are
seldom very severe, and in the fall of the year it is a
rare event indeed when a fire is considered necessary.
About the middle of October 1 8 — , there occurred, how
ever, a day of remarkable chilliness. Just before sunset
I scrambled my way through the evergreens to the hut
of my friend, whom I had not visited for several weeks
— my residence being, at that time, in Charleston, a
distance of nine miles from the island, while the facili
ties of passage and re-passage were very far behind those
of the present day. Upon reaching the hut I rapped,
as was my custom, and getting no reply, sought for
the key where I knew it was secreted, unlocked the
door, and went in. A fine fire was blazing upon the
hearth. It was a novelty, and by no means an un
grateful one. I threw off an overcoat, took an armchair

30

THE GOLD-BUG

by the crackling logs, and awaited patiently the arrival
of my hosts.

Soon after dark they arrived, and gave me a most
cordial welcome. Jupiter, grinning from ear to ear,
bustled about to prepare some marsh-hen for supper.
Legrand was in one of his fits — how else shall I term
them ? — of enthusiasm. He had found an unknown
bivalve, forming a new genus, and, more than this, he
had hunted down and secured, with Jupiter's assistance,
a scarabceus which he believed to be totally new, but in
respect to which he wished to have my opinion on the
morrow.

"And why not to-night ? " I asked, rubbing my hands
over the blaze, and wishing the whole tribe of scar a beet
at the devil.

" Ah, if I had only known you were here ! " said
Legrand, " but it's so long since I saw you ; and how could
I foresee that you would pay me a visit this very night
of all others ? As I was coming home I met Lieutenant

G , from the fort, and, very foolishly, I lent him

the bug ; so it will be impossible for you to see it until
the morning. Stay here to-night, and I will send Jup
down for it at sunrise. It is the loveliest thing in
creation ! "

" What ? — sunrise ? "

" Nonsense ! no ! — the bug. It is of a brilliant gold
colour — about the size of a large hickory-nut — with
two jet black spots near one extremity of the back, and
another, somewhat longer, at the other. The antenna
are—"

" Dey aint no tin in him, Massa Will, I keep a
tellin' on you," here interrupted Jupiter ; " de bug is
a goole-bug, solid, ebery bit of him, inside and all, sep
him wing — neber feel half so hebby a bug in my life."

31

TALES OF MYSTERY

" Well, suppose it is, Jup," replied Legrand, some
what more earnestly, it seemed to me, than the case
demanded ; " is that any reason for you letting the
birds burn ? The colour" — here he turned to me —
" is really almost enough to warrant Jupiter's idea.
You never saw a more brilliant metallic lustre than the
scales emit — but of this you cannot judge till to-morrow.
In the meantime I can give you some idea of the shape."
Saying this, he seated himself at a small table, on which
were a pen and ink, but no paper. He looked for some
in a drawer, but found none.

" Never mind," he said at length, " this will
answer " ; and he drew from his waistcoat pocket a
scrap of what I took to be very dirty foolscap, and
made upon it a rough drawing with the pen. While
he did this, I retained my seat by the fire, for I was
still chilly. When the design was complete, he handed
it to me without rising. As I received it, a loud growl
was heard, succeeded by scratching at the door. Jupiter
opened it, and a large Newfoundland, belonging to
Legrand, rushed in, leaped upon my shoulders, and
loaded me with caresses ; for I had shown him much
attention during previous visits. When his gambols
were over, I looked at the paper, and, to speak the
truth, found myself not a little puzzled at what my
friend had depicted.

" Well ! " I said, after contemplating it for some
minutes, " this is a strange scarabaus, I must confess ;
new to me ; never saw anything like it before — unless
it was a skull, or a death's-head, which it more nearly
resembles than anything else that has come under my
observation."

" A death's-head ! " echoed Legrand. " Oh — yes —
well, it has something of that appearance upon paper,

32

THE GOLD-BUG

no doubt. The two upper black spots look like eyes,
eh ? and the longer one at the bottom like a mouth —
and then the shape of the whole is oval."

" Perhaps so," said I ; " but, Legrand, I fear you are
no artist. I must wait until I see the beetle itself, if I
am to form any idea of its personal appearance."

" Well, I don't know," said he, a little nettled, " I
draw tolerably — should do it at least — have had good
masters, and flatter myself that I am not quite a
blockhead."

" But, my dear fellow, you are joking then," said I,
" this is a very passable skull — indeed, I may say that
it is a very excellent skull, according to the vulgar
notions about such specimens of physiology — and your
scarabaus must be the queerest scarabaus in the world
if it resembles it. Why, we may get up a very
thrilling bit of superstition upon this hint. I presume
you will call the bug scarabaus caput hominis^ or some
thing of that kind — there are many similar titles in the
Natural Histories. But where are the antenna you
spoke of ? "

" The antenna I " said Legrand, who seemed to be
getting unaccountably warm upon the subject ; " I am
sure you must see the antennae. I made them as distinct
as they are in the original insect, and I presume that is
sufficient."

" Well, well," I said, " perhaps you have — still I
don't see them ; " and I handed him the paper without
additional remark, not wishing to ruffle his temper ;
but I was much surprised at the turn affairs had taken ;
his ill humour puzzled me — and, as for the drawing of
the beetle, there were positively no antenna visible, and
the whole did bear a very close resemblance to the
ordinary cuts of a death's-head.

c 33

TALES OF MYSTERY

He received the paper very peevishly, and was about
to crumple it, apparently to throw it in the fire, when
a casual glance at the design seemed suddenly to rivet
his attention. In an instant his face grew violently red
— in another as excessively pale. For some minutes he
continued to scrutinise the drawing minutely where he
sat. At length he arose, took a candle from the table,
and proceeded to seat himself upon a sea-chest in the
furthest corner of the room. Here again he made an
anxious examination of the paper ; turning it in all
directions. He said nothing, however, and his conduct
greatly astonished me ; yet I thought it prudent not to
exacerbate the growing moodiness of his temper by any
comment. Presently he took from his coat-pocket a
wallet, placed the paper carefully in it, and deposited
both in a writing desk, which he locked. He now
grew more composed in his demeanour ; but his original
air of enthusiasm had quite disappeared. Yet he seemed
not so much sulky as abstracted. As the evening wore
away he became more and more absorbed in reverie,
from which no sallies of mine could arouse him. It
had been my intention to pass the night at the hut, as I
had frequently done before, but, seeing my host in this
mood, I deemed it proper to take leave. He did not
press me to remain, but, as I departed, he shook my
hand with even more than his usual cordiality.

It was about a month after this (and during the
interval I had seen nothing of Legrand) when I received
a visit at Charleston from his man, Jupiter. I had
never seen the good old negro look so dispirited, and
I feared that some serious disaster had befallen my
friend.

" Well, Jup," said I, " what is the matter now ? —
how is your master ? "

34

THE GOLD-BUG

" Why, to speak de troof, massa, him not so berry
well as mought be."

" Not well ; I am truly sorry to hear it. What
does he complain off "

" Dar ! dat's it ! — he neber 'plain of notin' — but
him berry sick for all dat."

" Very sick, Jupiter ! — why didn't you say so at
once ? Is he confined to bed ? "

" No, dat he aint ! — he aint 'fin'd nowhar — dat's just
whar de shoe pinch — my mind is got to be berry hebby
'bout poor Massa Will."

"Jupiter, I should like to understand what it is you
are talking about. You say your master is sick. Hasn't
he told you what ails him ? "

" Why, massa, 'taint worf while for to git mad
about de matter — Massa Will say noffin at all aint de
matter wid him — but den what make him go about look
ing dis here way, wid he head down and he soldiers up,
and as white as a gose ? And den he keep a syphon
all de time — "

" Keeps a what, Jupiter ? "

" Keeps a syphon wid de figgurs on de slate — de
queerest figgurs I ebber did see. Ise gettin' to be
skeered, I tell you. Hab for to keep mighty tight eye
'pon him 'noovers. Todder day he gib me slip 'fore
de sun up and was gone de whole ob de blessed day.
I had a big stick ready cut for to gib him deuced
good beating when he did come — but Ise sich a fool
dat I hadn't de heart arter all — he looked so berry
poorly."

" Eh ? — what ? — ah yes ! — upon the whole I think
you had better not be too severe with the poor fellow —
don't flog him, Jupiter — he can't very well stand it —
but can you form no idea of what has occasioned this

35

TALES OF MYSTERY

illness, or rather this change of conduct ? Has anything
unpleasant happened since I saw you ? "

" No, massa, dey aint bin noffin onpleasant since den
— *t was 'fore den I'm feared — 't was de berry day
you was dare."

" How ? what do you mean ? "

" Why, massa, I mean de bug — dare now."

" The what ? "

" De bug — I'm berry sartain dat Massa Will bin bit
somewhere 'bout de head by dat goole-bug."

" And what cause have you, Jupiter, for such a
supposition ? "

" Claws enuff, massa, and mouff too. I nebber did
see sich a deuced bug — he kick and he bite ebery ting
what cum near him. Massa Will cotch him fuss, but
had for to let him go 'gin mighty quick, I tell you —
den was de time he must ha' got de bite. I didn't like
de look ob de bug mouff, myself, nohow, so I wouldn't
take hold ob him wid my finger, but I cotch him wid
a piece ob paper dat I found. I rap him up in de
paper and stuff a piece of it in he mouff — dat was de
way."

" And you think, then, that your master was really
bitten by the beetle, and that the bite made him sick f "

" I don't think noffin' about it — I nose it. What
make him dream 'bout de goole so much, if 'taint 'cause
he bit by the goole-bug ? Ise heerd 'bout dem goole-
bugs 'fore dis."

" But how do you know he dreams about gold ? "

" How I know ? why, 'cause he talk about it in he
sleep — dat's how I nose."

" Well, Jup, perhaps you are right ; but to what
fortunate circumstances am I to attribute the honour of
a visit from you to-day ? "

36

THE GOLD-BUG

" What de matter, massa ? "

" Did you bring any message from Mr. Legrand ? "
" No, massa, I bring dis here pissel ; " and here
Tupiter handed me a note which ran thus :

" MY DEAR

" Why have I not seen you for so long a time ? I hope you
have not been so foolish as to take offence at any little brusquerie of
mine ; but no, that is improbable.

"Since I saw you I have had great cause for anxiety. I have some
thing to tell you, yet scarcely know how to tell it, or whether I should
tell it at all.

" I have not been quite well for some days past, and poor old Jup
annoys me, almost beyond endurance, by his well-meant attentions.
Would you believe it ? — he had prepared a huge stick, the other day,
with which to chastise me for giving him the slip, and spending the day,
solusj among the hills on the mainland. I verily believe that my ill looks
alone saved me a flogging.

" I have made no addition to my cabinet since we met.

" If you can, in any way, make it convenient, come over with Jupiter.
Do come. I wish to see you to-night, upon business of importance. I
assure you that it is of the highest importance. — Ever yours,

" WILLIAM LEGRAND."

There was something in the tone of this note which
gave me great uneasiness. Its whole style differed
materially from that of Legrand. What could he be
dreaming of ? What new crotchet possessed his excit
able brain ? What " business of the highest import
ance " could he possibly have to transact ? Jupiter's
account of him boded no good. I dreaded lest the
continued pressure of misfortune had, at length, fairly un
settled the reason of my friend. Without a moment's
hesitation, therefore, I prepared to accompany the negro.

Upon reaching the wharf, I noticed a scythe and
three spades, all apparently new, lying in the bottom
of the boat in which we were to embark.

" What is the meaning of all this, Jup ? " I
inquired.

37

TALES OF MYSTERY

" Him syfe, massa, and spade."

" Very true ; but what are they doing here ? "

" Him de syfe and de spade what Massa Will sis
'pon my buying for him in de town, and de debbil's
own lot of money I had to gib for 'em."

" But what, in the name of all that is mysterious, is
your ' Massa Will' going to do with scythes and spades?"

" Dat's more dan / know, and debbil take me if I
don't b'lieve 'tis more dan he know too. But it's all
cum ob de bug."

Finding that no satisfaction was to be obtained ot
Jupiter, whose whole intellect seemed to be absorbed by
" de bug," I now stepped into the boat, and made sail.
With a fair and strong breeze we soon ran into the
little cove to the northward of Fort Moultrie, and a
walk of some two miles brought us to the hut. It
was about three in the afternoon when we arrived.
Legrand had been awaiting us in eager expectation.
He grasped my hand with a nervous empressement which
alarmed me and strengthened the suspicions already
entertained. His countenance was pale even to ghast-
liness, and his deep-set eyes glared with unnatural
lustre. After some inquiries respecting his health, I
asked him, not knowing what better to say, if he had
yet obtained the scarabaus from Lieutenant G .

" Oh, yes," he replied, colouring violently, " I got
it from him the next morning. Nothing should tempt
me to part with that scarabaus. Do you know that
Jupiter is quite right about it ? "

" In what way," I asked, with a sad foreboding at
heart.

" In supposing it to be a bug of real gold" He
said this with an air of profound seriousness, and I felt
inexpressibly shocked.

38

THE GOLD-BUG

" This bug is to make my fortune," he continued,
with a triumphant smile ; " to reinstate me in my
family possessions. Is it any wonder, then, that I
prize it ? Since Fortune has thought fit to bestow it
upon me, I have only to use it properly, and I shall
arrive at the gold of which it is the index. Jupiter,
bring me that sc a rabceus ! "

" What ! de bug, massa ? I'd rudder not go fer
trubble dat bug ; you mus' git him for your own self."
Hereupon Legrand arose, with a grave and stately air,
and brought me the beetle from a glass case in which
it was enclosed. It was a beautiful scarabceus^ and, at
that time, unknown to naturalists — of course a great
prize in a scientific point of view. There were two
round black spots near one extremity of the back, and
a long one near the other. The scales were exceedingly
hard and glossy, with all the appearance of burnished
gold. The weight of the insect was very remarkable,
and, taking all things into consideration, I could hardly
blame Jupiter for his opinion respecting it ; but what
to make of Legrand's concordance with that opinion, I
could not, for the life of me, tell.

" I sent for you," said he, in a grandiloquent tone,
when I had completed my examination of the beetle, "I
sent for you that I might have your counsel and assist
ance in furthering the views of Fate and of the bug — "

" My dear Legrand," I cried, interrupting him,
" you are certainly unwell, and had better use some
little precautions. You shall go to bed, and I will
remain with you a few days, until you get over this.
You are feverish and — "

" Feel my pulse," said he.

I felt it, and to say the truth, found not the slightest
indication of fever.

39

TALES OF MYSTERY

" But you may be ill and yet have no fever. Allow
me this once to prescribe for you. In the first place
go to bed. In the next — "

" You are mistaken," he interposed, " I am as well
as I can expect to be under the excitement which I
suffer. If you really wish me well, you will relieve
this excitement."

" And how is this to be done ? "

" Very easily. Jupiter and myself are going upon
an expedition into the hills, upon the mainland, and, in
this expedition, we shall need the aid of some person
in whom we can confide. You are the only one we can
trust. Whether we succeed or fail, the excitement which
you now perceive in me will be equally allayed."

" I am anxious to oblige you in any way," I re
plied ; " but do you mean to say that this infernal
beetle has any connection with your expedition into
the hills ? "

" It has."

" Then, Legrand, I can become a party to no such
absurd proceeding."

" I am sorry — very sorry — for we shall have to try
it by ourselves."

" Try it by yourselves ! The man is surely mad !
— but stay ! — how long do you propose to be absent ? "

" Probably all night. We shall start immediately,
and be back, at all events, by sunrise."

" And you will promise me, upon your honour,
that when this freak of yours is over, and the bug
business (good God !) settled to your satisfaction, you
will then return home and follow my advice implicitly,
as that of your physician."

" Yes, I promise ; and now let us be off, for we have
no time to lose."
40

THE GOLD-BUG

With a heavy heart I accompanied my friend. We
started about four o'clock — Legrand, Jupiter, the dog,
and myself. Jupiter had with him the scythe and
spades — the whole of which he insisted upon carrying
— more through fear, it seemed to me, of trusting
either of the implements within reach of his master,
than from any excess of industry or complaisance. His
demeanour was dogged in the extreme, and " dat deuced
bug" were the sole words which escaped his lips during
the journey. For my own part, I had charge of a
couple of dark lanterns, while Legrand contented him
self with the scarabezus^ which he carried attached to
the end of a bit of whip-cord ; twirling it to and fro,
with the air of a conjuror, as he went. When I
observed this last, plain evidence of my friend's aberra
tion of mind, I could scarcely refrain from tears. I
thought it best, however, to humour his fancy,
at least for the present, or until I could adopt some
more energetic measures with a chance of success. In
the meantime I endeavoured, but all in vain, to sound
him in regard to the object of the expedition. Having
succeeded in inducing me to accompany him, he seemed
unwilling to hold conversation upon any topic of minor
importance, and to all my questions vouchsafed no other
reply than " we shall see ! "

We crossed the creek at the head of the island by
means of a skiff, and, ascending the high grounds on
the shore of the mainland, proceeded in a north-westerly
direction, through a tract of country excessively wild and
desolate, where no trace of a human footstep was to be
seen. Legrand led the way with decision, pausing only
for an instant, here and there, to consult what appeared
to be certain landmarks of his own contrivance upon a
former occasion.

TALES OF MYSTERY

In this manner we journeyed for about two hours,
and the sun was just setting when we entered a region in
finitely more dreary than any yet seen. It was a species of
tableland, near the summit of an almost inaccessible hill,
densely wooded from base to pinnacle, and interspersed
with huge crags that appeared to lie loosely upon the
soil, and in many cases were prevented from precipitating
themselves into the valleys below, merely by the support
of the trees against which they reclined. Deep ravines,
in various directions, gave an air of still sterner solemnity
to the scene.

The natural platform to which we had clambered was
thickly overgrown with brambles, through which we
soon discovered that it would have been impossible to
force our way but for the scythe ; and Jupiter, by direc
tion of his master, proceeded to clear for us a path to the
foot of an enormously tall tulip-tree, which stood, with
some eight or ten oaks, upon the level, and far surpassed
them all, and all other trees which I had then ever seen,
in the beauty of its foliage and form, in the wide spread
of its branches, and in the general majesty of its appear
ance. When we reached this tree, Legrand turned
to Jupiter and asked him if he thought he could climb
it. The old man seemed a little staggered by the ques
tion, and for some moments made no reply. At' length
he approached the huge trunk, walked slowly around it,
and examined it with minute attention. When he had
completed his scrutiny, he merely said :

" Yes, massa, Jup climb any tree he ebber see in he
life."

" Then up with you as soon as possible, for it will
soon be too dark to see what we are about."

" How far mus go up, massa ? " inquired Jupiter.

" Get up the main trunk first, and then I will tell
42

THE GOLD-BUG

you which way to go — and here — stop ! take this
beetle with you."

" De bug, Massa Will ! — de goole-bug ! " cried the
negro, drawing back in dismay — " what for mus tote de
bug way up de tree ? — d — n if I do ! "

" If you are afraid, Jup, a great big negro like you,
to take hold of a harmless little dead beetle, why you
can carry it up by this string — but, if you do not take
it up with you in some way, I shall be under the
necessity of breaking your head with this shovel."

" What de matter now, massa ! " said Jup, evidently
shamed into compliance ; " always want for to raise
fuss wid old nigger. Was only funnin anyhow. Me
feered de bug ! what I keer for de bug ? " Here he
took cautiously hold of the extreme end of the string,
and, maintaining the insect as far from his person as
circumstances would permit, prepared to ascend the
tree.

In youth, the tulip-tree or Liriodendron Tulipiferum,
the most magnificent of American foresters, has a trunk
peculiarly smooth, and often rises to a great height
without lateral branches ; but, in its riper age, the bark
becomes gnarled and uneven, while many short limbs
make their appearance on the stem. Thus the difficulty
of ascension, in the present case, lay more in semblance
than in reality. Embracing the huge cylinder, as
closely as possible, with his arms and knees, seizing with
his hands some projections, and resting his naked toes
upon others, Jupiter, after one or two narrow escapes
from falling, at length wriggled himself into the first
great fork, and seemed to consider the whole business
as virtually accomplished. The risk of the achieve
ment was, in fact, now over, although the climber was
some sixty or seventy feet from the ground.

43

TALES OF MYSTERY

" Which way mus go now, Massa Will ? " he
asked.

" Keep up the largest branch — the one on this side,"
said Legrand. The negro obeyed him promptly, and
apparently with but little trouble ; ascending higher
and higher, until no glimpse of his squat figure could
be obtained through the dense foliage which enveloped
it. Presently his voice was heard in a sort of halloo.

" How much fudder is got for go ? "

" How high up are you ? " asked Legrand.

" Ebber so fur," replied the negro ; " can see de
sky fru de top ob de tree."

" Never mind the sky, but attend to what I say.
Look down the trunk and count the limbs below you
on this side. How many limbs have you passed ? "

" One, two, three, four, fibe — I done pass fibe big
limb, massa, pon dis side."

" Then go one limb higher."

In a few minutes the voice was heard again, an
nouncing that the seventh limb was attained.

" Now, Jup," cried Legrand, evidently much ex
cited, " I want you to work your way out upon that
limb as far as you can. If you see anything strange
let me know."

By this time what little doubt I might have enter
tained of my poor friend's insanity was put finally at
rest. I had no alternative but to conclude him stricken
with lunacy, and I became seriously anxious about
getting him home. While I was pondering upon what
was best to be done, Jupiter's voice was again heard.

" Mos feered for to venture pon dis limb berry far
— 'tis dead limb putty much all de way."

" Did you say it was a dead limb, Jupiter ? " cried
Legrand in a quavering voice.

44

THE GOLD-BUG

" Yes, massa, him dead as de door-nail — done
up for sartain — done departed dis here life."

" What in the name of heaven shall I do ? " asked
Legrand, seemingly in the greatest distress.

" Do ! " said I, glad of an opportunity to interpose
a word, " why come home and go to bed. Come now !
— that's a fine fellow. It's getting late, and, besides,
you remember your promise."

"Jupiter," cried he, without heeding me in the
least, " do you hear me ? "

" Yes, Massa Will, hear you ebber so plain."

"Try the wood well, then, with your knife, and
see if you think it very rotten."

" Him rotten, massa, sure nuff," replied the negro
in a few moments, "but not so berry rotten as mought
be. Mought venture out leetle way pon de limb by
myself, dat's true."

" By yourself ! — what do you mean ? "

" Why, I mean de bug. 'Tis berry hebby bug.
S'pose I drop him down fuss, and den de limb won't
break wid just de weight ob one nigger."

" You infernal scoundrel 1 " cried Legrand, appa
rently much relieved, " what do you mean by telling
me such nonsense as that ? As sure as you drop that
beetle I'll break your neck. Look here, Jupiter, do you
hear me ? "

" Yes, massa, needn't hollo at poor nigger dat
style."

" Well I now listen ! — if you will venture out on the
limb as far as you think safe, and not let go the beetle,
I'll make you a present of a silver dollar as soon as you
get down."

" I'm gwine, Massa Will — deed I is," replied the
negro very promptly — " mos out to the eend now."

45

TALES OF MYSTERY

" Out to the end I " -here fairly screamed Legrand ;
" do you say you are out to the end of that limb ? "

" Soon be to de eend massa — o-o-o-o-oh ! Lor-gol-
a-marcy ! what is dis here pon de tree ? "

" Well ! " cried Legrand, highly delighted, " what
is it ? "

" Why taint noffin but a skull — somebody bin lef
him head up de tree, and de crows done gobble ebery
bit of de meat off."

" A skull, you say ! — very well, — how is it fastened
to the limb ? — what holds it on ? "

" Sure nuff, massa ; must look. Why dis berry
curous sarcumstance, pon my word — dare's a great big
nail in de skull, what fastens ob it on to de tree."

" Well now, Jupiter, do exactly as I tell you — do
you hear ? "

" Yes massa."

" Pay attention, then — find the left eye of the
skull."

" Hum ! hoo ! dat's good ! why dey ain't no eye
lef at all."

" Curse your stupidity ! Do you know your right
hand from your left."

" Yes, I knows dat — knows all bout dat — 'tis my
lef hand what I chops de wood wid."

" To be sure ! you are left-handed ; and your left
eye is on the same side as your left hand. Now, I
suppose, you can find the left eye of the skull, or the
place where the left eye has been. Have you found
it?"

Here was a long pause. At length the negro
asked :

" Is de lef eye of de skull pon de same side as de
lef hand side of de skull too ? — cause de skull ain't

THE GOLD-BUG

got not a bit ob a hand at all — nebber mind ! I got
de lef eye now — here de lef eye ! what mus do wid it ? "

" Let the beetle drop through it, as far as the string
will reach — but be careful and not let go your hold of
the string."

" All dat done, Massa Will ; mighty easy ting for to
put de bug fru de hole — look out for him dare below ! "

During this colloquy no portion of Jupiter's person
could be seen ; but the beetle, which he had suffered
to descend, was now visible at the end of the string,
and glistened, like a globe of burnished gold, in the last
rays of the setting sun, some of which still faintly illu
mined the eminence upon which we stood. The
scarab&us hung quite clear of any branches, and, if
allowed to fall, would have fallen at our feet. Legrand
immediately took the scythe, and cleared with it a cir
cular space, three or four yards in diameter, just beneath
the insect, and, having accomplished this, ordered Jupiter
to let go the string and come down from the tree.

Driving a peg, with great nicety, into the ground,
at the precise spot where the beetle fell, my friend now
produced from his pocket a tape-measure. Fastening
one end of this at that point of the trunk of the tree
which was nearest the peg, he unrolled it till it reached
the peg and thence further unrolled it, in the direction
already established by the two points of the tree and
the peg, for the distance of fifty feet — Jupiter clearing
away the brambles with the scythe. At the spot thus
attained a second peg was driven, and about this, as a
centre, a rude circle, about four feet in diameter,
described. Taking now a spade himself, and giving
one to Jupiter and one to me, Legrand begged us to
set about digging as quickly as possible.

To speak the truth, I had no especial relish for such

47

TALES OF MYSTERY

amusement at any time, and, at that particular moment,
would most willingly have declined it ; for the night
was coming on, and I felt much fatigued with the
exercise already taken ; but I saw no mode of escape,
and was fearful of disturbing my poor friend's equani
mity by a refusal. Could I have depended, indeed,
upon Jupiter's aid, I would have had no hesitation in
attempting to get the lunatic home by force ; but I
was too well assured of the old negro's disposition, to
hope that he would assist me, under any circumstances,
in a personal contest with his master. I made no doubt
that the latter had been infected with some of the
innumerable Southern superstitions about money buried,
and that his phantasy had received confirmation by the
finding of the scarab aus, or, perhaps, by Jupiter's
obstinacy in maintaining it to be " a bug of real gold."
A mind disposed to lunacy would readily be led away
by such suggestions — especially if chiming in with
favourite preconceived ideas — and then I called to mind
the poor fellow's speech about the beetle's being " the
index of his fortune." Upon the whole, I was sadly
vexed and puzzled, but, at length, I concluded to make
a virtue of necessity — to dig with a good will, and
thus the sooner to convince the visionary, by ocular
demonstration, of the fallacy of the opinions he enter
tained.

The lanterns having been lit, we all fell to work with
a zeal worthy a more rational cause ; and, as the glare
fell upon our persons and implements, I could not help
thinking how picturesque a group we composed, and
how strange and suspicious our labours must have ap
peared to any interloper who, by chance, might have
stumbled upon our whereabouts.

We dug very steadily for two hours. Little was

THE GOLD-BUG

said ; and our chief embarrassment lay in the yelpings of
the dog, who took exceeding interest in our proceedings.
He at length became so obstreperous that we grew
fearful of his giving the alarm to some stragglers in
the vicinity — or, rather, this was the apprehension of
Legrand ; for myself, I should have rejoiced at any
interruption which might have enabled me to get the
wanderer home. The noise was at length very effectually
silenced by Jupiter, who, getting out of the hole with
a dogged air of deliberation, tied the brute's mouth up
with one of his suspenders, and then returned, with a
grave chuckle, to his task.

When the time mentioned had expired, we had
reached a depth of five feet, and yet no signs of any
treasure became manifest. A general pause ensued, and
I began to hope that the farce was at an end. Legrand,
however, although evidently much disconcerted, wiped
his brow thoughtfully and recommenced. We had
excavated the entire circle of four feet diameter, and
now we slightly enlarged the limit, and went to the
farther depth of two feet. Still nothing appeared. The
gold-seeker, whom I sincerely pitied, at length clam
bered from the pit, with the bitterest disappointment
imprinted upon every feature, and proceeded, slowly
and reluctantly, to put on his coat, which he had thrown
off at the beginning of his labour. In the meantime I
made no remark. Jupiter, at a signal from his master,
began to gather up his tools. This done, and the dog
having been unmuzzled, we turned in profound silence
toward home.

We had taken, perhaps, a dozen steps in this
direction, when, with a loud oath, Legrand strode
up to Jupiter and seized him by the collar. The
astonished negro opened his eyes and mouth to

D 49

TALES OF MYSTERY

the fullest extent, let fall the spades, and fell upon
his knees.

" You scoundrel ! " said Legrand, hissing out the
syllables from between his clenched teeth — " you infernal
black villain ! — speak, I tell you ! — answer me this
instant, without prevarication ! — which — which is your
left eye ? "

" Oh, my golly, Massa Will ! aint dis here my lef
eye for sartain ? " roared the terrified Jupiter, placing his
hand upon his right organ of vision, and holding it there
with a desperate pertinacity, as if in immediate dread of
his master's attempt at a gouge.

" I thought so ! — I knew it ! hurrah ! " vociferated
Legrand, letting the negro go, and executing a series of
curvets and caracols, much to the astonishment of his
valet, who, arising from his knees, looked mutely from
his master to myself, and then from myself to his
master.

" Come ! we must go back," said the latter, " the
game's not up yet ; " and he again led the way to the
tulip-tree.

" Jupiter," said he, when we reached its foot, " come
here ! Was the skull nailed to the limb with the face
outward, or with the face to the limb ? "

" De face was out, massa, so dat de crows could get
at de eyes good, widout any trouble."

" Well, then, was it this eye or that through which
you dropped the beetle ? " — here Legrand touched each
of Jupiter's eyes.

" 'Twas dis eye, massa — de lef eye — -jis as you tell
me," — and here it was his right eye that the negro
indicated.

"That will do — we must try it again."

Here my friend, about whose madness I now saw,

5°

THE GOLD-BUG

or fancied that I saw, certain indications of method,
removed the peg which marked the spot where the
beetle fell, to a spot about three inches to the westward
of its former position. Taking, now, the tape-measure
from the nearest point of the trunk to the peg as before,
and continuing the extension in a straight line to the
distance of fifty feet, a spot was indicated removed by
several yards from the point at which we had been
digging.

Around the new position a circle, somewhat larger
than in the former instance, was now described, and we
again set to work with the spade. I was dreadfully
weary, but, scarcely understanding what had occasioned
the change in my thoughts, I felt no longer any great
aversion from the labour imposed. I had become most
unaccountably interested — nay, even excited. Perhaps
there was something, amid all the extravagant de
meanour of Legrand — some air of forethought, or of
deliberation, which impressed me. I dug eagerly, and
now and then caught myself actually looking, with
something that very much resembled expectation, for
the fancied treasure, the vision of which had demented
my unfortunate companion. At a period when such
vagaries of thought most fully possessed me, and when
we had been at work perhaps an hour and a half, we
were again interrupted by the violent bowlings of the
dog. His uneasiness, in the first instance, had been
evidently but the result of playfulness or caprice, but he
now assumed a bitter and serious tone. Upon Jupiter's
again attempting to muzzle him, he made furious re
sistance, and, leaping into the hole, tore up the mould
frantically with his claws. In a few seconds he had
uncovered a mass of human bones, forming two com
plete skeletons, intermingled with several buttons of

5'

TALES OF MYSTERY

metal, and what appeared to be the dust of decayed
woollen. One or two strokes of a spade upturned the
blade of a large Spanish knife, and, as we dug farther,
three or four loose pieces of gold and silver coin came
to light.

At sight of these the joy of Jupiter could scarcely
be restrained, but the countenance of his master wore
an air of extreme disappointment. He urged us, how
ever to continue our exertions, and the words were
hardly uttered when I stumbled and fell forward, having
caught the toe of my boot in a large ring of iron that
lay half buried in the loose earth.

We now worked in earnest, and never did I pass
ten minutes of more intense excitement. During this
interval we had fairly unearthed an oblong chest of
wood, which, from its perfect preservation and wonder
ful hardness, had plainly been subjected to some
mineralising process — perhaps that of the bi-chloride
of mercury. This box was three feet and a half long,
three feet broad, and two and a half feet deep. It was
firmly secured by bands of wrought iron, riveted, and
forming a kind of open trellis-work over the whole.
On each side of the chest, near the top, were three rings
of iron — six in all — by means of which a firm hold
could be obtained by six persons. Our utmost united
endeavours served only to disturb the coffer very slightly
in its bed. We at once saw the impossibility of removing
so great a weight. Luckily, the sole fastenings of the
lid consisted of two sliding bolts. These we drew back
— trembling and panting with anxiety. In an instant,
a treasure of incalculable value lay gleaming before us.
As the rays of the lanterns fell within the pit, there
flashed upward a glow and a glare from a confused heap
of gold and of jewels, that absolutely dazzled our eyes.

52

THE GOLD-BUG

I shall not pretend to describe the feelings with
which I gazed. Amazement was, of course, predomi
nant. Legrand appeared exhausted with excitement,
and spoke very few words. Jupiter's countenance wore,
for some minutes, as deadly a pallor as it is possible, in
the nature of things, for any negro's visage to assume.
He seemed stupefied — thunderstricken. Presently he
fell upon his knees in the pit, and burying his naked
arms up to the elbows in gold, let them there remain,
as if enjoying the luxury of a bath. At length, with a
deep sigh, he exclaimed, as if in a soliloquy :

"And dis all cum ob de goole-bug ! de putty goole-
bug ! de poor little goole-bug, what I boosed in dat
sabage kind ob style ! Aint you shamed ob yourself,
nigger ? — answer me dat ! "

It became necessary, at last, that I should arouse
both master and valet to the expediency of removing
the treasure. It was growing late, and it behoved us
to make exertion, that we might get everything housed
before daylight. It was difficult to say what should be
done, and much time was spent in deliberation — so
confused were the ideas of all. We, finally, lightened
the box by removing two-thirds of its contents, when
we were enabled, with some trouble, to raise it from
the hole. The articles taken out were deposited among
the brambles, and the dog left to guard them, with
strict orders from Jupiter, neither, upon any pretence,
to stir from the spot nor to open his mouth until our
return. We then hurriedly made for home with the
chest ; reaching the hut in safety, but after excessive
toil, at one o'clock in the morning. Worn out as we
were, it wasi not in human nature to do more imme
diately. We rested until two, and had supper: starting
for the hills immediately afterwards, armed with three

53

TALES OF MYSTERY

stout sacks, which, by good luck, were upon the pre
mises. A little before four we arrived at the pit, divided
the remainder of the booty, as equally as might be,
among us, and, leaving the holes unfilled, again set out
for the hut, at which, for the second time, we deposited
our golden burthens, just as the first faint streaks of
the dawn gleamed from over the tree-tops in the East.

We were now thoroughly broken down ; but the
intense excitement of the time denied us repose. After
an unquiet slumber of some three or four hours' dura
tion, we arose, as if by preconcert, to make examination
of our treasure.

The chest had been full to the brim, and we spent
the whole day, and the greater part of the next night,
in a scrutiny of its contents. There had been nothing
like order or arrangement. Everything had been
heaped in promiscuously. Having assorted all with
care, we found ourselves possessed of even vaster wealth
than we had at first supposed. In coin there was
rather more than four hundred and fifty thousand
dollars — estimating the value of the pieces, as accu
rately as we could, by the tables of the period. There
was not a particle of silver. All was gold of antique
date and of great variety — French, Spanish, and German
money, with a few English guineas, and some counters,
of which we had never seen specimens before. There
were several very large and heavy coins, so worn that we
could make nothing of their inscriptions. There was
no American money. The value of the jewels we
found more difficult in estimating. There were dia
monds — some of them exceedingly large and fine — a
hundred and ten in all, and not one of them small ;
eighteen rubies of remarkable brilliancy ; three hun
dred and ten emeralds, all very beautiful ; and twenty-

54

THE GOLD-BUG

one sapphires, with an opal. These stones had all been
broken from their settings and thrown loose in the
chest. The settings themselves, which we picked out
from among the other gold, appeared to have been
beaten up with hammers, as if to prevent identification.
Besides all this, there was a vast quantity of solid gold
ornaments : nearly two hundred massive finger and ear
rings ; rich chains — thirty of these, if I remember ;
eighty-three very large and heavy crucifixes ; five gold
censers of great value ; a prodigious golden punch
bowl, ornamented with richly chased vine-leaves and
Bacchanalian figures ; with two sword-handles, exqui
sitely embossed, and many other smaller articles which
I cannot recollect. The weight of these valuables
exceeded three hundred and fifty pounds avoirdupois ;
and in this estimate I have not included one hundred
and ninety-seven superb gold watches ; three of the
number being worth each five hundred dollars, if one.
Many of them were very old, and as timekeepers value
less ; the works having suffered more or less from
corrosion — but all were richly jewelled and in cases of
great worth. We estimated the entire contents of the
chest, that night, at a million and a half of dollars ; and
upon the subsequent disposal of the trinkets and jewels
(a few being retained for our own use), it was found
that we had greatly under-valued the treasure.

When, at length, we had concluded our examination,
and the intense excitement of the time had, in some
measure, subsided, Legrand, who saw that I was dying
with impatience for a solution of this most extraordinary
riddle, entered into a full detail of all the circum
stances connected with it.

" You remember," said he, " the night when I
handed you the rough sketch I had made of the scara-

55

TALES OF MYSTERY

baus. You recollect also, that I became quite vexed
at you for insisting that my drawing resembled a^death's-
head. When you first made this assertion, I thought
you were jesting ; but afterwards I called to mind the
peculiar spots on the back of the insect, and admitted
to myself that your remark had some little foundation
in fact. Still, the sneer at my graphic powers irritated
me — for I am considered a good artist — and, therefore,
when you handed me the scrap of parchment, I was
about to crumple it up and throw it angrily into the
fire."

" The scrap of paper, you mean," said I.

" No ; it had much of the appearance of paper, and
at first I supposed it to be such, but when I came to
draw upon it, I discovered it at once to be a piece of
very thin parchment. It was quite dirty you remember.
Well, as I was in the very act of crumpling it up, my
glance fell upon the sketch at which you had been
looking, and you may imagine my astonishment when
I perceived, in fact, the figure of a death's-head just
where it seemed to me I had made the drawing of the
beetle. For a moment I was too much amazed to
think with accuracy. I knew that my design was very
different in detail from this — although there was a
certain similarity in general outline. Presently I took a
candle, and seating myself at the other end of the room,
proceeded to scrutinise the parchment more closely.
Upon turning it over, I saw my own sketch upon the
reverse, just as I had made it. My first idea, now, was
mere surprise at the really remarkable similarity of
outline — at the singular coincidence involved in the
fact that, unknown to me, there should have been a
skull upon the other side of the parchment, immediately
beneath my figure of the scarabceus^ and that this

56

THE GOLD-BUG

skull, not only in outline, but in size, should so closely
resemble my drawing. I say the singularity of this
coincidence absolutely stupefied me for a time. This
is the usual effect of such coincidences. The mind
struggles to establish a connection — a sequence of
cause and effect — and, being unable to do so, suffers a
species of temporary paralysis. But when I recovered
from this stupor, there dawned upon me gradually a
conviction which startled me even far more than the
coincidence. I began distinctly, positively, to remember
that there had been no drawing upon the parchment
when I made my sketch of the scarabaus. I became
perfectly certain ol this ; for I recollected turning up
first one side and then the other, in search of the
cleanest spot. Had the skull been then there, of course
I could not have failed to notice it. Here was indeed
a mystery which I felt it impossible to explain ; but,
even at that early moment, there seemed to glimmer,
faintly, within the most remote and secret chambers of
my intellect, a glow-worm-like conception of that truth
which last night's adventure brought to so magnificent
a demonstration. I arose at once, and putting the parch
ment securely away, dismissed all further reflection until
I should be alone.

" When you had gone, and when Jupiter was fast
asleep, I betook myself to a more methodical investiga
tion of the affair. In the first place I considered the
manner in which the parchment had come into my pos
session. The spot where we discovered the sc&rabaus
was on the coast of the mainland, about a mile eastward
of the island, and but a short distance above high-water
mark. Upon my taking hold of it, it gave me a sharp
bite, which caused me to let it drop. Jupiter, with his
accustomed caution, before seizing the insect, which

57

TALES OF MYSTERY

had flown toward him, looked about him for a leaf, or
something of that nature, by which to take hold of it.
It was at this moment that his eyes, and mine also, fell
upon the scrap of parchment, which I then supposed to
be paper. It was lying half buried in the sand, a corner
sticking up. Near the spot where we found it, I
observed the remnants of the hull of what appeared to
have been a ship's long-boat. The wreck seemed to
have been there for a very great while ; for the resem
blance to boat timbers could scarcely be traced.

" Well, Jupiter picked up the parchment, wrapped
the beetle in it, and gave it to me. Soon afterwards we
turned to go home, and on the way met Lieutenant

G . I showed him the insect, and he begged me to

let him take it to the fort. Upon my consenting, he
thrust it forthwith into his waistcoat pocket, without the
parchment in which it had been wrapped, and which I
had continued to hold in my hand during his inspection.
Perhaps he dreaded my changing my mind, and thought
it best to make sure of the prize at once — you know how
enthusiastic he is on all subjects connected with Natural
History. At the same time, without being conscious of
it, I must have deposited the parchment in my own
pocket.

" You remember that when I went to the table, for
the purpose of making a sketch of the beetle, I found no
paper where it was usually kept. I looked in the drawer,
and found none there. I searched my pockets, hoping
to find an old letter, when my hand fell upon the parch
ment. I thus detail the precise mode in which it came
into my possession ; for the circumstances impressed me
with peculiar force.

" No doubt you will think me fanciful — but I had
already established a kind of connection. I had put together

58

THE GOLD-BUG

two links of a great chain. There was a boat lying upon
a sea-coast, and not far from the boat was a parchment
— not a paper — with a skull depicted upon it. You will,
of course, ask * where is the connection ? ' I reply that
the skull, or death's-head, is the well-known emblem of
the pirate. The flag of the death's-head is hoisted in
all engagements.

" I have said that the scrap was parchment, and not
paper. Parchment is durable — almost imperishable.
Matters of little moment are rarely consigned to parch
ment ; since for the mere ordinary purposes of drawing
or writing, it is not nearly so well adapted as paper.
This reflection suggested some meaning — some relevancy
— in the death's-head. I did not fail to observe, also,
iheform of the parchment. Although one of its corners
had been, by some accident, destroyed, it could be seen
that the original form was oblong. It was just such a
slip, indeed, as might have been chosen for a memo
randum — fora record of something to be long remem
bered and carefully preserved."

" But," I interposed, " you say that the skull was not
upon the parchment when you made the drawing of the
beetle. How then do you trace any connection between
the boat and the skull — since this latter, according to
your own admission, must have been designed (God only
knows how or by whom) at some period subsequent to
your sketching the scarabaus ? "

" Ah, hereupon turns the whole mystery ; although
the secret, at this point, I had comparatively little diffi
culty in solving. My steps were sure, and could afford
but a single result. I reasoned, for example, thus : When
I drew the scarabaus, there was no skull apparent upon
the parchment. When I had completed the drawing I
gave it to you, and observed you narrowly until you

59

TALES OF MYSTERY

returned it. Tou, therefore, did not design the skull, and
no one else was present to do it. Then it was not done
by human agency. And nevertheless it was done.

" At this stage of my reflections I endeavoured to
remember, and did remember, with entire distinctness,
every incident which occurred about the period in ques
tion. The weather was chilly (oh, rare and happy acci
dent !), and a fire was blazing upon the hearth. I was
heated with exercise and sat near the table. You, how
ever, had drawn a chair close to the chimney. Just as I
had placed the parchment in your hand, and as you were
in the act of inspecting it, Wolf, the Newfoundland,
entered, and leaped upon your shoulders. With your left
hand you caressed him, and kept him off, while your
right, holding the parchment, was permitted to fall list
lessly between your knees, and in close proximity to the
fire. At one moment I thought the blaze had caught it,
and was about to caution you, but, before I could speak,
you had withdrawn it, and were engaged in its examina
tion. When I considered all these particulars, I doubted
not for a moment that heat had been the agent in bringing
to light, upon the parchment, the skull which I saw
designed upon it. You are well aware that chemical
preparations exist, and have existed time out of mind,
by means of which it is possible to write upon either
paper or vellum, so that the characters shall become
visible only when subjected to the action of fire. Zaffire,
digested in aqua regia, and diluted with four times its
weight of water, is sometimes employed ; a green tint
results. The regulus of cobalt, dissolved in spirit of nitre,
gives a red. These colours disappear at longer or shorter
intervals after the material written upon cools, but again
become apparent upon the re-application of heat.
- " I now scrutinised the death's-head with care. Its
60

THE GOLD-BUG

outer edges — the edges of the drawing nearest the edge
of the vellum — were far more distinct than the others.
It was clear that the action of the caloric had been
imperfect or unequal. I immediately kindled a fire,
and subjected every portion of the parchment to a
glowing heat. At first, the only effect was the
strengthening of the faint lines in the skull ; but, upon
persevering in the experiment, there became visible, at
the corner of the slip, diagonally opposite to the spot
in which the death's-head was delineated, the figure of
what I at first supposed to be a goat. A closer scrutiny,
however, satisfied me that it was intended for a kid."

" Ha ! ha ! " said I, "to be sure I have no right to
laugh at you — a million and a half of money is too
serious a matter for mirth — but you are not about to
establish a third link in your chain — you will not find
any especial connection between your pirates and a
goat — pirates, you know, have nothing to do with
goats ; they appertain to the farming interest."

" But I have just said that the figure was not that
of a goat."

" Well, a kid then — pretty much the same thing."

" Pretty much, but not altogether," said Legrand.
" You may have heard of one Captain Kidd. I at once
looked upon the figure of the animal as a kind of pun
ning or hieroglyphical signature. I say signature ;
because its position upon the vellum suggested this
idea. The death's-head at the corner diagonally opposite
had, in the same manner, the air of a stamp, or seal.
But I was sorely put out by the absence of all else — of
the body to my imagined instrument — of the text for
my context."

" I presume you expected to find a letter between
the stamp and the signature."

6l

TALES OF MYSTERY

" Something of that kind. The fact is, I felt
irresistibly impressed with a presentiment of some vast
good fortune impending. I can scarcely say why.
Perhaps, after all, it was rather a desire than an actual
belief ; but do you know that Jupiter's silly words,
about the bug being of solid gold, had a remarkable
effect upon my fancy ? And then the series of accidents
and coincidences — these were so very extraordinary.
Do you observe how mere an accident it was that
these events should have occurred upon the sole day of
all the year in which it has been, or may be, sufficiently
cool for fire, and that without the fire, or without the
intervention of the dog at the precise moment in
which he appeared, I should never have become aware
of the death's-head, and so never the possessor of the
treasure.'*

" But proceed — I am all impatience."
" Well ; you have heard, of course, the many stories
current — the thousand vague rumours afloat about
money buried, somewhere upon the Atlantic coast, by
Kidd and his associates. These rumours must have
had some foundation in fact. And that the rumours
have existed so long and so continuous, could have
resulted, it appeared to me, only from the circumstance
of the buried treasure still remaining entombed. Had
Kidd concealed his plunder for a time, and afterward
reclaimed it, the rumours would scarcely have reached
us in their present unvarying form. You will observe
that the stories told are all about money-seekers, not
about money-finders. Had the pirate recovered his
money, there the affair would have dropped. It
seemed to me that some accident — say the loss of a
memorandum indicating its locality — had deprived him
of the means of recovering it, and that this accident
62

THE GOLD-BUG

had become known to his followers, who otherwise
might never have heard that treasure had been con
cealed at all, and who, busying themselves in vain,
because unguided, attempts to regain it, had first given
birth, and then universal currency, to the reports which
are now so common. Have you ever heard of any
important treasure being unearthed along the coast ? "

" Never."

" But that Kidd's accumulations were immense, is
well known. I took it for granted, therefore, that the
earth still held them ; and you will scarcely be surprised
when I tell you that I felt a hope, nearly amounting
to certainty, that the parchment so strangely found
involved a lost record of the place of deposit."

" But how did you proceed ? "

" I held the vellum again to the fire, after increasing
the heat, but nothing appeared. I now thought it
possible that the coating of dirt might have something
to do with the failure : so I carefully rinsed the parch
ment by pouring warm water over it, and, having done
this, I placed it in a tin pan, with the skull downward,
and put the pan upon a furnace of lighted charcoal.
In a few minutes, the pan having become thoroughly
heated, I removed the slip, and, to my inexpressible joy,
found it spotted, in several places, with what appeared
to be figures arranged in lines. Again I placed it in the
pan, and suffered it to remain another minute. Upon
taking it off, the whole was just as you see it now."

Here Legrand, having re-heated the parchment, sub
mitted it to my inspection. The following characters
were rudely traced, in a red tint, between the death's-
head and the goat :

63

TALES OF MYSTERY
I(;49S6»2(S«—

;48)4j;i6i;:i88jt?;

" But," said I, returning him the slip, " I am as much
in the dark as ever. Were all the jewels of Golconda
awaiting me upon my solution of this enigma, I am
quite sure that I should be unable to earn them."

" And yet," said Legrand, " the solution is by no
means so difficult as you might be led to imagine from
the first hasty inspection of the characters. These
characters, as any one might readily guess, form a cipher
— that is to say, they convey a meaning ; but then
from what is known of Kidd, I could not suppose him
capable of constructing any of the more abstruse crypto
graphs. I made up my mind, at once, that this was of
a simple species — such, however, as would appear, to
the crude intellect of the sailor, absolutely insoluble
without the key."

" And you really solved it ? "

" Readily ; I have solved others of an abstruseness
ten thousand times greater. Circumstances, and a
certain bias of mind, have led me to take interest in
such riddles, and it may well be doubted whether human
ingenuity can construct an enigma of the kind which
human ingenuity may not, by proper application, resolve.
In fact, having once established connected and legible
characters, I scarcely gave a thought to the mere diffi
culty of developing their import.

" In the present case — indeed in all cases of secret
writing — the first question regards the language of the
cipher ; for the principles of solution, so far, especially,
as the more simple ciphers are concerned, depend upon,
and are varied by, the genius of the particular idiom.
In general, there is no alternative but experiment

THE GOLD-BUG

(directed by probabilities) of every tongue known to
him who attempts the solution, until the true one be
attained. But, with the cipher now before us all diffi
culty was removed by the signature. The pun upon the
word ' Kidd ' is appreciable in no other language than
the English. But for this consideration I should have
begun my attempts with the Spanish and French, as the
tongues in which a secret of this kind would most natu
rally have been written by a pirate of the Spanish main.
As it was, I assumed the cryptograph to be English.

" You observe there are no divisions between the
words. Had there been divisions the task would have
been comparatively easy. In such cases I should have
commenced with a collation and analysis of the shorter
words, and, had a word of a single letter occurred, as is
most likely (a or /, for example), I should have con
sidered the solution as assured. But, there being no
division, my first step was to ascertain the predominant
letters, as well as the least frequent. Counting all, I
constructed a table thus :

Of the character 8 there are 33.
; 55 26.

4 » 19-
-T-) „ 1 6.

* T -7

55 l .}•

5 » 12.

6 „ ii.
ti „ 8.

o „ 6.

92 „ 5.

: 3 » 4-

•? 5, 3'

f » 2.

— . ,, i .

E 65

TALES OF MYSTERY

" Now, in English, the letter which most frequently
occurs is e. Afterward, the succession runs thus : a o i
d hn r s tuy c f g Imwbkpqxz. E predominates so
remarkably, that an individual sentence of any length is
rarely seen, in which it is not the prevailing character.

" Here, then, we have, in the very beginning, the
groundwork for something more than a mere guess.
The general use which may be made of the table is
obvious — but, in this particular cipher, we shall only
very partially require its aid. As our predominant
character is 8, we will commence by assuming it as the
e of the natural alphabet. To verify the supposition,
let us observe if the 8 be seen often in couples — for e is
doubled with great frequency in English — in such words,
for example, as ' meet,' ' fleet/ c speed,' c seen,' ' been,'
'agree/ &c. In the present instance we see it doubled no
less than five times, although the cryptograph is brief.

" Let us assume 8, then, as e. Now, of all words in
the language, ' the ' is most usual ; let us see, therefore,
whether there are not repetitions of any three characters,
in the same order of collocation, the last of them being
8. If we discover repetitions of such letters, so arranged,
they will most probably represent the word ' the.' Upon
inspection, we find no less than seven such arrange
ments, the characters being 548. We may therefore
assume that ; represents /, 4 represents /$, and 8 repre
sents e — the last being now well confirmed. Thus a
great step has been taken.

" But, having established a single word, we are
enabled to establish a vastly important point ; that is
to say, several commencements and terminations of other
words. Let us refer, for example, to the last instance
but one, in which the combination 548 occurs — not far
from the end of the cipher. We know that the ;
66

THE GOLD-BUG

immediately ensuing is the commencement of a word,
and, of the six characters succeeding this ' the,' we are
cognisant of no less than five. Let us set these cha
racters down, thus, by the letters we know them to
represent, leaving a space for the unknown :

t eeth.

" Here we are enabled, at once, to discard the c M,
as forming no portion of the word commencing with
the first /; since, by experiment of the entire alphabet
for a letter adapted to the vacancy, we perceive that no
word can be formed of which this th can be a part.
We are thus narrowed into

t ee,

and, going through the alphabet, if necessary, as before,
we arrive at the word ' tree ' as the sole possible read
ing. We thus gain another letter, r, represented by (,
with the words ' the tree ' in juxtaposition.

" Looking beyond these words, for a short distance,
we again see the combination 548, and employ it by
way of termination to what immediately precedes. We
have thus this arrangement :

the tree ;4(J?34 the,

or, substituting the natural letters, where known, it
reads thus :

the tree thrj.^h the.

" Now, if, in place of the unknown characters,
we leave blank spaces, or substitute dots, we read thus :

the tree thr...h the,

when the word c through ' makes itself evident at once.
But this discovery gives us three new letters,!?, #, andg,
represented by J, ?, and 3.

" Looking now, narrowly, through the cipher for

TALES OF MYSTERY

combinations of known characters, we find, not very far
from the beginning, this arrangement,

83(88, or egree,

which, plainly is the conclusion of the word ' degree,'
and gives us another letter, </, represented by -|".

" Four letters beyond the word ' degree,' we perceive
the combination

" Translating the known characters, and represent
ing the unknown by dots, as before, we read thus :

th.rtee,

an arrangement immediately suggestive of the word
4 thirteen,' and again furnishing us with two new
characters, / and n represented by 6 and *.

" Referring, now, to the beginning of the crypto
graph, we find the combination,

ssttt-

" Translating as before, we obtain

.good,

which assures us that the first letter is A^ and that the
first two words are ' A good.'

" It is now time that we arrange our key, as far as
discovered, in a tabular form, to avoid confusion. It
will stand thus : 5 represents a

t „ d

8 „ e

3 » g

4 » h
6 i

n
o

; „ t
? „ u
68

THE GOLD-BUG

" We have, therefore, no less than eleven of the
most important letters represented, and it will be
unnecessary to proceed with the details of the solution.
I have said enough to convince you that ciphers of this
nature are readily soluble, and to give you some insight
into the rationale of their development. But be assured
the specimen before us appertains to the very simplest
species of cryptograph. It now only remains to give
you the full translation of the characters upon the
parchment, as unriddled. Here it is :

" ' A good glass In the bishop's hostel in the devil's seat
forty-one degrees and thirteen minutes northeast and by north
main branch seventh limb east side shoot from the left eye of
the deaths-head a bee-line from the tree through the shot
fifty feet out: '

" But," said I, " the enigma seems still in as bad a
condition as ever. How is it possible to extort a mean
ing from all this jargon about ' devil's seats,' ' death's-
heads,' and ' bishop's hotels ' ? "

" I confess," replied Legrand, " that the matter still
wears a serious aspect, when regarded with a casual
glance. My first endeavour was to divide the sen
tence into the natural division intended by the
cryptographist."

" You mean, to punctuate it ? "

" Something of that kind."

" But how was it possible to effect this ? "

" I reflected that it had been a point with the writer
to run his words together without division, so as to
increase the difficulty of solution. Now, a not over-
acute man, in pursuing such an object, would be nearly
certain to overdo the matter. When, in the course of
his composition, he arrived at a break in his subject
which would naturally require a pause, or a point, he

TALES OF MYSTERY

would be exceedingly apt to run his characters, at this
place, more than usually close together. If you will
observe the MS., in the present instance, you will easily
detect five such cases of unusual crowding. Acting
upon this hint, I made the division thus :

" 6 A good glass in the bishop ' s hostel in the devil's seat
— -forty-one degrees and thirteen minutes — northeast and by
north — main branch seventh limb east side — shoot from the
left eye of the death's-head — a bee-line from the tree through
the shot fifty feet out' "

" Even this division," said I, " leaves me still in the
dark."

" It left me also in the dark," replied Legrand,
" for a few days, during which I made diligent inquiry,
in the neighbourhood of Sullivan's Island, for any build
ing which went by the name of the ' Bishop's Hotel; '
for, of course, I dropped the obsolete word ' hostel.'
Gaining no information on the subject, I was on the
point of extending my sphere of search, and proceeding
in a more systematic manner, when, one morning, it
entered into my head, quite suddenly, that this £ Bishop's
Hostel ' might have some reference to an old family ot
the name of Bessop, which, time out of mind, had held
possession of an ancient manor-house, about four miles
to the northward of the island. I accordingly went
over to the plantation, and re-instituted my inquiries
among the older negroes of the place. At length, one
of the most aged of the women said that she had heard
of such a place as Bessop's Castle, and thought that she
could guide me to it, but that it was not a castle, nor
a tavern, but a high rock.

" I offered to pay her well for her trouble, and,
after some demur, she consented to accompany me to
70

THE GOLD-BUG

the spot. We found it without much difficulty, when,
dismissing her, I proceeded to examine the place. The
' castle ' consisted of an irregular assemblage of cliffs
and rocks — one of the latter being quite remarkable for
its height as well as for its insulated and artificial
appearance. I clambered to its apex, and then felt
much at a loss as to what should be next done.

" While I was busied in reflection, my eyes fell
upon a narrow ledge in the eastern face of the rock,
perhaps a yard below the summit upon which I stood.
This ledge projected about eighteen inches, and was not
more than a foot wide, while a niche in the cliff just
above it gave it a rude resemblance to one of the hollow-
backed chairs used by our ancestors. I made no doubt
that here was the 'devil's seat' alluded to in the MS.,
and now I seemed to grasp the full secret of the
riddle.

" The ' good glass,' I knew, could have reference to
nothing but a telescope ; for the word ' glass ' is rarely
employed in any other sense by seamen. Now here, I
at once saw, was a telescope to be used, and a definite
point of view, admitting no variation, from which to use
it. Nor did I hesitate to believe that the phrases, c forty-
one degrees and thirteen minutes,' and ' northeast and
by north,' were intended as directions for the levelling ot
the glass. Greatly excited by these discoveries, I hur
ried home, procured a telescope, and returned to the
rock.

" I let myself down to the ledge, and found that it
was impossible to retain a seat upon it except in one
particular position. This fact confirmed my precon
ceived idea. I proceeded to use the glass. Of course,
the ' forty-one degrees and thirteen minutes ' could
allude to nothing but elevation above the visible horizon,

71

TALES OF MYSTERY

since the horizontal direction was clearly indicated by
the words, 'northeast and by north.' This latter
direction I at once established by means of a pocket-
compass ; then, pointing the glass as nearly at an angle
of forty-one degrees of elevation as I could do it by
guess, I moved it cautiously up or down, until my
attention was arrested by a circular rift or opening in
the foliage of a large tree that overtopped its fellows in
the distance. In the centre of this rift I perceived a
white spot, but could not at first distinguish what it
was. Adjusting the focus of the telescope, I again
looked, and now made it out to be a human skull.

" Upon this discovery I was so sanguine as to con
sider the enigma solved ; for the phrase ' main branch,
seventh limb, east side,' could refer only to the position
of the skull upon the tree, while ' shoot from the left
eye of the death's-head ' admitted, also, of but one
interpretation, in regard to a search for buried treasure.
I perceived that the design was to drop a bullet from
the left eye of the skull, and that a bee-line, or, in other
words, a straight line, drawn from the nearest point of
the trunk through * the shot ' (or the spot where the
bullet fell), and thence extended to a distance of fifty
feet, would indicate a definite point — and beneath this
point I thought it at least possible that a deposit of value
lay concealed."

"All this," I said, "is exceedingly clear, and, although
ingenious, still simple and explicit. When you left the
Bishop's Hotel, what then ? "

" Why, having carefully taken the bearings of the
tree, I turned homeward. The instant that I left ' the
devil's seat,' however, the circular rift vanished ; nor
could I get a glimpse of it afterward, turn as I would.
What seems to me the chief ingenuity in this whole
72

THE GOLD-BUG

business, is the fact (for repeated experiment has con
vinced me it is a fact) that the circular opening in
question is visible from no other attainable point of view
than that afforded by the narrow ledge upon the face of
the rock.

" In this expedition to the c Bishop's Hotel ' I had
been attended by Jupiter, who had, no doubt, observed
for some weeks past the abstraction of my demeanour,
and took especial care not so leave me alone. But, on
the next day, getting up very early, I contrived to give
him the slip, and went into the hills in search of the
tree. After much toil I found it. When I came home
at night my valet proposed to give me a flogging. With
the rest of the adventure I believe you are as well
acquainted as myself."

" I suppose," said I, " you missed the spot, in the
first attempt at digging, through Jupiter's stupidity in
letting the bug fall through the right instead of through
the left eye of the skull."

" Precisely. This mistake made a difference of
about two inches and a half in the ' shot ' — that is to
say, in the position of the peg nearest the tree ; and had
the treasure been beneath the ' shot ' the error would have
been of little moment ; but the ' shot,' together with
the nearest point of the tree, were merely two points
for the establishment of a line of direction ; of course
the error, however trivial in the beginning, increased as
we proceeded with the line, and by the time we had
gone fifty feet threw us quite off the scent. But for my
deep-seated impressions that treasure was here somewhere
actually buried, we might have had all our labour in
vain."

" But your grandiloquence, and your conduct in
swinging the beetle — how excessively odd ! I was sure

73

TALES OF MYSTERY

you were mad. And why did you insist upon letting
fall the bug, instead of a bullet, from the skull ? "

" Why, to be frank, I felt somewhat annoyed by
your evident suspicions touching my sanity, and so
resolved to punish you quietly, in my own way, by a
little bit of sober mystification. For this reason I
swung the beetle, and for this reason I let it fall from
the tree. An observation of yours about its great weight
suggested the latter idea."

" Yes, I perceive ; and now there is only one point
which puzzles me. What are we to make of the
skeletons found in the hole ? "

" That is a question I am no more able to answer
than yourself. There seems, however, only one plausible
way of accounting for them — and yet it is dreadful to
believe in such atrocity as my suggestion would imply.
It is clear that Kidd — if Kidd, indeed, secreted this
treasure, which I doubt not — it is clear that he must
have had assistance in the labour. But this labour
concluded, he may have thought it expedient to remove
all participants in his secret. Perhaps a couple of blows
with a mattock were sufficient, while his coadjutors were
busy in the pit ; perhaps it required a dozen — who shall
tell ? "

74

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE
OF USHER

DURING the whole of a dull, dark, and sound
less day in the autumn of the year, when
the clouds hung oppressively low in the
heavens, I had been passing alone, on horse
back, .through a singularly dreary tract of country ; and at
length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on,
within view of the melancholy House of Usher. I know
not how it was — but, with the first glimpse of the build
ing, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I
say insufferable ; for the feeling was unrelieved by any
of that half-pleasurable, because poetic, sentiment, with
which the mind usually receives even the sternest natural
images of the desolate or terrible. I looked upon the
scene before me — upon the mere house, and the simple
landscape features of the domain — upon the bleak walls
— upon the vacant eye-like windows — upon a few rank
sedges — and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees —
with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to
no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-
dream of the reveller upon opium — the bitter lapse into
everyday life — the hideous dropping off of the veil. There
was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart — an
unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of
the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime.
What was it — I paused to think — what was it that so
unnerved me in the contemplation of the House of
Usher ? It was a mystery all insoluble ; nor could I
grapple with the shadowy fancies that crowded upon me
as I pondered. I was forced to fall back upon the un
satisfactory conclusion, that while, beyond doubt, there
are combinations of very simple natural objects which

75

TALES OF MYSTERY

have the power of thus affecting us, still the analysis ot
this power lies among considerations beyond our depth.
It was possible, I reflected, that a mere different arrange
ment of the particulars of the scene, of the details of the
picture, would be sufficient to modify, or perhaps to
annihilate its capacity for sorrowful impression ; and,
acting upon this idea, I reined my horse to the precipitous
brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in unruffled lustre
by the dwelling, and gazed down — but with a shudder
even more thrilling than before — upon the remodelled
and inverted images of the grey sedge, and the ghastly
tree-stems, and the vacant and eye-like windows.

Nevertheless, in this mansion of gloom I now pro
posed to myself a sojourn of some weeks. Its proprietor,
Roderick Usher, had been one of my boon companions
in boyhood ; but many years had elapsed since our last
meeting. A letter, however, had lately reached me in a
distant part of the country — a letter from him — which,
in its wildly importunate nature, had admitted of no
other than a personal reply. The MS. gave evidence
of nervous agitation. The writer spoke of acute bodily
illness — of a mental disorder which oppressed him — and
of an earnest desire to see me, as his best, and indeed his
only personal friend, with a view of attempting, by the
cheerfulness of my society, some alleviation of his malady.
It was the manner in which all this, and much more,
was said — it was the apparent heart that went with his
request — which allowed me no room for hesitation ; and
I accordingly obeyed forthwith what I still considered
a very singular summons.

Although, as boys, we had been even intimate asso
ciates, yet I really knew little of my friend. His reserve
had been always excessive and habitual. I was aware,
however, that his very ancient family had been noted,

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER

time out of mind, for a peculiar sensibility of tempera
ment, displaying itself, through long ages, in many works
of exalted art, and manifested, of late, in repeated deeds
of munificent yet unobtrusive charity, as well as in a
passionate devotion to the intricacies, perhaps even more
than to the orthodox and easily recognisable beauties, of
musical science. I had learned, too, the very remarkable
fact, that the stem of the Usher race, all time-honoured
as it was, had put forth, at no period, any enduring
branch ; in other words, that the entire family lay in the
direct line of descent, and had always, with very trifling
and very temporary variation, so lain. It was this defi
ciency, I considered, while running over in thought the
perfect keeping of the character of the premises with the
accredited character of the people, and while speculating
upon the possible influence which the one, in the long
lapse of centuries, might have exercised upon the other
— it was this deficiency, perhaps, of collateral issue, and
the consequent undeviating transmission, from sire to
son, of the patrimony with the name, which had, at
length, so identified the two as to merge the original
title of the estate in the quaint and equivocal appellation
of the " House of Usher " — an appellation which seemed
to include, in the minds of the peasantry who used it,
both the family and the family mansion.

I have said that the sole effect of my somewhat
childish experiment — that of looking down within the
tarn — had been to deepen the first singular impression.
There can be no doubt that the consciousness of the
rapid increase of my superstition — for why should I not
so term it ? — served mainly to accelerate the increase
itself. Such, I have long known, is the paradoxical
law of all sentiments having terror as a basis. And it
might have been for this reason only, that, when I again

77

TALES OF MYSTERY

uplifted my eyes to the house itself, from its image in
the pool, there grew in my mind a strange fancy — a
fancy so ridiculous, indeed, that I but mention it to show
the vivid force of the sensations which oppressed me. I
had so worked upon my imagination as really to believe
that about the whole mansion and domain there hung
an atmosphere peculiar to themselves and their imme
diate vicinity — an atmosphere which had no affinity
with the air of heaven, but which had reeked up from
the decayed trees, and the grey wall, and the silent tarn
— a pestilent and mystic vapour, dull, sluggish, faintly
discernible, and leaden-hued.

Shaking off from my spirit what must have been a
dream, I scanned more narrowly the real aspect of the
building. Its principal feature seemed to be that of an
excessive antiquity. The discolouration of ages had been
great. Minute fungi overspread the whole exterior,
hanging in a fine tangled web-work from the eaves. Yet
all this was apart from any extraordinary dilapidation.
No portion of the masonry had fallen ; and there
appeared to be a wild inconsistency between its still
perfect adaptation of parts, and the crumbling condition
of the individual stones. In this there was much that
reminded me of the specious totality of old woodwork
which has rotted for long years in some neglected vault,
with no disturbance from the breath of the external air.
Beyond this indication of extensive decay, however, the
fabric gave little token of instability. Perhaps the eye of
a scrutinising observer might have discovered a barely
perceptible fissure, which, extending from the roof of
the building in front, made its way down the wall in a
zigzag direction, until it became lost in the sullen waters
of the tarn.

Noticing these things, I rode over a short causeway

78

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER

to the house. A servant in waiting took my horse, and
I entered the Gothic archway of the hall. A valet, of
stealthy step, thence conducted me, in silence, through
many dark and intricate passages in my progress to the
studio of his master. Much that I encountered on the
way contributed, I know not how, to heighten the
vague sentiments of which I have already spoken.
While the objects around me — while the carvings of
the ceilings, the sombre tapestries of the walls, the ebon
blackness of the floors, and the phantasmagoric armorial
trophies which rattled as I strode, were but matters to
which, or to such as which, I had been accustomed
from my infancy — while I hesitated not to acknow
ledge how familiar was all this — I still wondered to
find how unfamiliar were the fancies which ordinary
images were stirring up. On one of the staircases, I
met the physician of the family. His countenance, I
thought, wore a mingled expression of low cunning and
perplexity. He accosted me with trepidation and passed
on. The valet now threw open a door and ushered me
into the presence of his master.

The room in which I found myself was very large
and lofty. The windows were long, narrow, and
pointed, and at so vast a distance from the black oaken
floor as to be altogether inaccessible from within.
Feeble gleams of encrimsoned light made their way
through the trellised panes, and served to render suffi
ciently distinct the more prominent objects around ;
the eye, however, struggled in vain to reach the remoter
angles of the chamber, or the recesses of the vaulted
and fretted ceiling. Dark draperies hung upon the
walls. The general furniture was profuse, comfortless,
antique, and tattered. Many books and musical instru
ments lay scattered about, but failed to give any vitality

79

TALES OF MYSTERY

to the scene. I felt that I breathed an atmosphere
of sorrow. An air of stern, deep, and irredeemable
gloom hung over and pervaded all.

Upon my entrance, Usher arose from a sofa on
which he had been lying at full length, and greeted me
with a vivacious warmth which had much in it, I at
first thought, of an overdone cordiality — of the con
strained effort of the ennuye man of the world. A
glance, however, at his countenance, convinced me of his
perfect sincerity. We sat down ; and for some moments,
while he spoke not, I gazed upon him with a feeling
half of pity, half of awe. Surely, man had never
before so terribly altered, in so brief a period, as had
Roderick Usher ! It was with difficulty that I could
bring myself to admit the identity of the wan being
before me with the companion of my early boyhood.
Yet the character of his face had been at all times
remarkable. A cadaverousness of complexion ; an eye
large, liquid, and luminous beyond comparison ; lips
somewhat thin and very pallid, but of a surpassingly
beautiful curve ; a nose of a delicate Hebrew model,
but with a breadth of nostril unusual in similar forma
tions ; a finely-moulded chin, speaking, in its want of
prominence, of a want of moral energy ; hair of a more
than web-like softness and tenuity ; these features, with
an inordinate expansion above the regions of the temple,
made up altogether a countenance not easily to be for
gotten. And now in the mere exaggeration of the
prevailing character of these features, and of the expres
sion they were wont to convey, lay so much of change
that I doubted to whom I spoke. The now ghastly
pallor of the skin, and the now miraculous lustre of the
eye, above all things startled and even awed me. The
silken hair, too, had been suffered to grow all unheeded,
80

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER

and as, in its wild gossamer texture, it floated rather
than fell about the face, I could not, even with effort,
connect its arabesque expression with any idea of
simple humanity.

In the manner of my friend I was at once struck
with an incoherence — an inconsistency ; and I soon
found this to arise from a series of feeble and futile
struggles to overcome an habitual trepidancy — an
excessive nervous agitation. For something of this
nature I had indeed been prepared, no less by his
letter, than by reminiscences of certain boyish traits,
and by conclusions deduced from his peculiar physical
conformation and temperament. His action was alter
nately vivacious and sullen. His voice varied rapidly
from a tremulous indecision (when the animal spirits
seemed utterly in abeyance) to that species of energetic
concision — that abrupt, weighty, unhurried, and hollow-
sounding enunciation — that leaden, self-balanced and
perfectly modulated guttural utterance, which may be
observed in the lost drunkard, or the irreclaimable
eater of opium, during the periods of his most intense
excitement.

It was thus that he spoke of the object of my visit,
of his earnest desire to see me, and of the solace he
expected me to afford him. He entered, at some
length, into what he conceived to be the nature of his
malady. It was, he said, a constitutional and a family
evil, and one for which he despaired to find a remedy
— a mere nervous affection, he immediately added, which
would undoubtedly soon pass off. It displayed itself in
a host of unnatural sensations. Some of these, as he
detailed them, interested and bewildered me ; although,
perhaps, the terms, and the general manner of the
narration had their weight. He suffered much from a

F 81

TALES OF MYSTERY

morbid acuteness of the senses ; the most insipid food
was alone endurable ; he could wear only garments ot
certain texture ; the odours of all flowers were oppres
sive ; his eyes were tortured by even a faint light ; and
there were but peculiar sounds, and these from stringed
instruments, which did not inspire him with horror.

To an anomalous species of terror I found him a
bounden slave. " I shall perish," said he, " I must
perish in this deplorable folly. Thus, thus, and not
otherwise, shall I be lost. I dread the events of the
future, not in themselves, but in their results. I shudder
at the thought of any, even the most trivial, incident,
which may operate upon this intolerable agitation of
soul. I have, indeed, no abhorrence of danger, except
in its absolute effect — in terror. In this unnerved — in
this pitiable condition — I feel that the period will sooner
or later arrive when I must abandon life and reason
together, in some struggle with the grim phantasm,
FEAR.''

I learned, moreover, at intervals, and through broken
and equivocal hints, another singular feature of his
mental condition. He was enchained by certain super
stitious impressions in regard to the dwelling which he
tenanted, and whence, for many years, he had never
ventured forth — in regard to an influence whose sup
posititious force was conveyed in terms too shadowy
here to be re-stated — an influence which some peculiari
ties in the mere form and substance of his family man
sion, had, by dint of long sufferance, he said, obtained
over his spirit — an effect which ti\t physique of the grey
walls and turrets, and of the dim tarn into which they
all looked down, had, at length, brought about upon
the morale of his existence.

He admitted, however, although with hesitation,
82

that much of the peculiar gloom which thus afflicted
him could be traced to a more natural and far more
palpable origin — to the severe and long-continued illness
— indeed to the evidently approaching dissolution — of a
tenderly beloved sister — his sole companion for long
years — his last and only relative on earth. " Her
decease," he said, with a bitterness which I can never
forget, " would leave him (him the hopeless and the
frail) the last of the ancient race of the Ushers." While
he spoke, the Lady Madeline (for so was she called)
passed slowly through a remote portion of the apartment
and, without having noticed my presence, disappeared.
I regarded her with an utter astonishment not unmin-
gled with dread — and yet I found it impossible to
account for such feelings. A sensation of stupor
oppressed me, as my eyes followed her retreating steps.
When a door, at length, closed upon her, my glance
sought instinctively and eagerly the countenance of the
brother — but he had buried his face in his hands, and I
could only perceive that a far more than ordinary wan
ness had overspread the emaciated fingers through which
trickled many passionate tears.

The disease of the Lady Madeline had long baffled
the skill of her physicians. A settled apathy, a gradual
wasting away of the person, and frequent although
transient affections of a partially cataleptical character,
were the unusual diagnosis. Hitherto she had steadily
borne up against the pressure of her malady, and had
not betaken herself finally to bed ; but, on the closing
in of the evening of my arrival at the house, she suc
cumbed (as her brother told me at night with inexpres
sible agitation) to the prostrating power of the destroyer;
and I learned that the glimpse I had obtained of her
person would thus probably be the last I should obtain

83

TALES OF MYSTERY

— that the lady, at least while living, would be seen by
me no more.

For several days ensuing, her name was unmentioned
by either Usher or myself : and during this period I
was busied in earnest endeavours to alleviate the melan
choly of my friend. We painted and read together ;
or I listened, as if in a dream, to the wild improvisations
of his speaking guitar. And thus, as a closer and still
closer intimacy admitted me more unreservedly into the
recesses of his spirit, the more bitterly did I perceive
the futility of all attempt at cheering a mind from
which darkness, as if an inherent positive quality, poured
forth upon all objects of the moral and physical universe
in one unceasing radiation of gloom.

I shall ever bear about me a memory of the many
solemn hours I thus spent alone with the master of the
House of Usher. Yet I should fail in any attempt to
convey an idea of the exact character of the studies, or
of the occupations, in which he involved me, or led me
the way. An excited and highly distempered ideality
threw a sulphurous lustre over all. His long impro
vised dirges will ring for ever in my ears. Among
other things, I hold painfully in mind a certain singular
perversion and amplification of the wild air of the last
waltz of Von Weber. From the paintings over which
his elaborate fancy brooded, and which grew, touch by
touch, into vagueness at which I shuddered the more
thrillingly, because I shuddered knowing not why ; —
from these paintings (vivid as their images now are
before me) I would in vain endeavour to educe more
than a small portion which should lie within the compass
of merely written words. By the utter simplicity, by
the nakedness of his designs, he arrested and overawed
attention. If ever mortal painted an idea, that mortal

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER

was Roderick Usher. For me at least — in the circum
stances then surrounding me — there arose out of the
pure abstractions which the hypochondriac contrived to
throw upon his canvas, an intensity of intolerable awe, no
shadow of which felt I ever yet in the contemplation of
the certainly glowing yet too concrete reveries of
Fuseli.

One of the phantasmagoric conceptions of my
friend, partaking not so rigidly of the spirit of abstrac
tion, may be shadowed forth, although feebly, in words.
A small picture presented the interior of an immensely
long and rectangular vault or tunnel, with low walls,
smooth, white, and without interruption or device.
Certain accessory points of the design served well to
convey the idea that this excavation lay at an exceeding
depth below the surface of the earth. No outlet was
observed in any portion of its vast extent, and no
torch, or other artificial source of light was discern
ible ; yet a flood of intense rays rolled throughout,
and bathed the whole in a ghastly and inappropriate
splendour.

I have just spoken of that morbid condition of the
auditory nerve which rendered all music intolerable to
the sufferer, with the exception of certain effects 01
stringed instruments. It was, perhaps, the narrow limits
to which he thus confined himself upon the guitar,
which gave birth, in great measure, to the fantastic
character of his performances. But the fervid facility
of his impromptus could not be so accounted for. They
must have been, and were, in the notes, as well as in
the words of his wild fantasias (for he not unfrequently
accompanied himself with rhymed verbal improvisa
tions), the result of that intense mental collectedness and
concentration to which I have previously alluded as

8s

TALES OF MYSTERY

observable only in particular moments of the highest
artificial excitement. The words of one of these rhap
sodies I have easily remembered. I was, perhaps, the
more forcibly impressed with it, as he gave it, because,
in the under or mystic current of its meaning, I fancied
that I perceived, and for the first time, a full conscious
ness on the part of Usher, of the tottering of his lofty
reason upon her throne. The verses, which were
entitled " The Haunted Palace," ran very nearly, if
not accurately, thus :

In the greenest of our valleys,

By good angels tenanted,
Once a fair and stately palace —

Radiant palace — reared its head.
In the monarch Thought's dominion —

It stood there !
Never seraph spread a pinion

Over fabric half so fair.

ii

Banners yellow, glorious, golden,

On its roof did float and flow ;
(This — all this — was in the olden

Time long ago)
And every gentle air that dallied,

In that sweet day,
Along the ramparts plumed and pallid,

A winged odour went away.

in

Wanderers in that happy valley

Through two luminous windows saw
Spirits moving musically

To a lute's well tuned law,
Round about a throne, where sitting

(Porphyrogene !)
In state his glory well befitting,

The ruler of the realm was seen.

86

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER

IV

And all with pearl and ruby glowing

Was the fair palace door,
Through which came flowing, flowing, flowing,

And sparkling evermore,
A troop of Echoes whose sweet duty

Was but to sing,
In voices of surpassing beauty,

The wit and wisdom of their king.

But evil things in robes of sorrow,

Assailed the monarch's high estate ;
(Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow

Shall dawn upon him, desolate !)
And, round about his home, the glory

That blushed and bloomed
Is but a dim-remembered story

Of the old time entombed.

VI

And travellers now within that valley,

Through the red-litten windows, see
Vast forms that move fantastically

To a discordant melody ;
While, like a rapid ghastly river,

Through the pale door,
A hideous throng rush out forever,

And laugh — but smile no more.

I well remember that suggestions arising from this
ballad, led us into a train of thought wherein there be
came manifest an opinion of Usher's which I mention
not so much on account of its novelty (for other men*
have thought thus), as on account of the pertinacity
with which he maintained it. This opinion, in its
general form, was that of the sentience of all vegetable
things. But in his disordered fancy, the idea had

* Watson, Dr. Percival, Spallanzani, and especially the Bishop of LandafF.

87

TALES OF MYSTERY

assumed a more daring character, and trespassed, under
certain conditions, upon the kingdom of inorganisation.
I lack words to express the full extent, or the earnest
abandon of his persuasion. The belief, however, was
connected (as I have previously hinted) with the grey
stones of the home of his forefathers. The conditions
of the sentience had been here, he imagined, fulfilled in
the method of collocation of the stones — in the order of
their arrangement, as well as in that of the many fungi
which overspread them, and of the decayed trees which
stood around — above all, in the long undisturbed en
durance of this arrangement, and in its reduplication in
the still waters of the tarn. Its evidence — the evidence
of the sentience — was to be seen, he said (and I here
started as he spoke) in the gradual yet certain condensa
tion of an atmosphere of their own about the waters
and the walls. The result was discoverable, he added,
in that silent, yet importunate and terrible influence
which for centuries had moulded the destinies of his
family, and which made him what I now saw him —
what he was. Such opinions need no comment, and I
will make none.

Our books — the books which, for years, had formed
no small portion of the mental existence of the invalid —
were, as might be supposed, in strict keeping with this
character of phantasm. We pored together over such
works as the " Ververt" and "Chartreuse" of Cresset; the
" Belphegor" of Machiavelli ; the " Heaven and Hell "
of Swedenborg ; the " Subterranean Voyage of Nicholas
Klimm," by Holberg ; the " Chiromancy " of Robert
Flud, of Jean D'Indagine, and of De la Chambre ; the
" Journey into the Blue Distance " of Tieck ; and the
" City of the Sun " of Campanella. One favourite
volume was a small octavo edition of the " Directorium

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER

Inquisitorum," by the Dominican Eymeric de Gironne;
and there were passages in Pomponius Mela, about
the old African Satyrs and ^gipans, over which
Usher would sit dreaming for hours. His chief delight,
however, was found in the perusal of an exceedingly
rare and curious book in quarto Gothic — the manual of
a forgotten church — the " Vigilia? Mortuorum Chorum
Ecclesiae Maguntinae."

I could not help thinking of the wild ritual of this
work, and of its probable influence upon the hypochon
driac, when, one evening, having informed me abruptly
that the Lady Madeline was no more, he stated his in
tention of preserving her corpse for a fortnight (pre
viously to its final interment), in one of the numerous
vaults within the main walls of the building. The
worldly reason, however, assigned for this singular pro
ceeding, was one which I did not feel at liberty to dispute.
The brother had been led to his resolution (so he told
me) by consideration of the unusual character of the
malady of the deceased, of certain obtrusive and eager
inquiries on the part of her medical men, and of the
remote and exposed situation of the burial-ground of the
family. I will not deny that when I called to mind the
sinister countenance of the person whom I met upon the
staircase, on the day of my arrival at the house, I had no
desire to oppose what I regarded as at best but a harmless,
and by no means an unnatural, precaution.

At the request of Usher, I personally aided him in
the arrangements for the temporary entombment. The
body having been encoffined, we two alone bore it to
its rest. The vault in which we placed it (and which
had been so long unopened that our torches, half
smothered in its oppressive atmosphere, gave us little
opportunity for investigation) was small, damp, and

TALES OF MYSTERY

entirely without means of admission for light ; lying,
at great depth, immediately beneath that portion of the
building in which was my own sleeping apartment. It
had been used, apparently, in remote feudal times, for
the worst purpose of a donjon-keep, and, in later days, as
a place of deposit for powder, or some other highly
combustible substance, as a portion of its floor, and the
whole interior of a long archway through which we
reached it, were carefully sheathed with copper. The
door, of massive iron, had been also similarly protected.
Its immense weight caused an unusually sharp, grating
sound, as it moved upon its hinges.

Having deposited our mournful burden upon tressels
within this region of horror, we partially turned aside
the yet unscrewed lid of the coffin, and looked upon the
face of the tenant. A striking similitude between the
brother and sister now first arrested my attention ; and
Usher, divining, perhaps, my thoughts, murmured out
some few words from which I learned that the deceased
and himself had been twins, and that sympathies of a
scarcely intelligible nature had always existed between
them. Our glances, however, rested not long upon the
dead — for we could not regard her unawed. The disease
which had thus entombed the lady in the maturity of
youth, had left, as usual in all maladies of a strictly
cataleptical character, the mockery of a faint blush upon
the bosom and the face, and that suspiciously lingering
smile upon the lip which is so terrible in death. We
replaced and screwed down the lid, and, having secured
the door of iron, made our way with toil into the
scarcely less gloomy apartments of the upper portion of
the house.

And now, some days of bitter grief having elapsed,
an observable change came over the features of the
90

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER

mental disorder of my friend. His ordinary manner had
vanished. His ordinary occupations were neglected or
forgotten. He roamed from chamber to chamber with
hurried, unequal, and objectless step. The pallor of his
countenance had assumed, if possible, a more ghastly hue
— but the luminousness of his eye had utterly gone out.
The once occasional huskiness of his tone was heard no
more ; and a tremulous quaver, as if of extreme terror,
habitually characterised his utterance. There were
times, indeed, when I thought his unceasingly agitated
mind was labouring with some oppressive secret, to
divulge which he struggled for the necessary courage.
At times, again, I was obliged to resolve all into the
mere inexplicable vagaries of madness, for I beheld
him gazing upon vacancy for long hours, in an atti
tude of the profoundest attention, as if listening to
some imaginary sound. It was no wonder that
his condition terrified — that it infected me. I felt
creeping upon me, by slow yet certain degrees, the
wild influences of his own fantastic yet impressive
superstitions.

It was, especially, upon retiring to bed late in the
night of the seventh or eighth day after the placing of
the Lady Madeline within the donjon, that I experienced
the full power of such feelings. Sleep came not near
my couch — while the hours waned and waned away.
I struggled to reason off the nervousness which had
dominion over me. I endeavoured to believe that much,
if not all of what I felt, was due to the bewildering
influence of the gloomy furniture of the room — of the
dark and tattered draperies, which, tortured into motion
by the breath of a rising tempest, swayed fitfully to
and fro upon the walls, and rustled uneasily about the
decorations of the bed. But my efforts were fruitless.

91

TALES OF MYSTERY

An irrepressible tremor gradually pervaded my frame,
and at length there sat upon my very heart an incubus
of utterly causeless alarm. Shaking this off with a gasp
and a struggle, I uplifted myself upon the pillows, and,
peering earnestly within the intense darkness of the
chamber, hearkened — I know not why, except that an
instinctive spirit prompted me — to certain low and
indefinite sounds which came, through the pauses of
the storm, at long intervals, I knew not whence.
Overpowered by an intense sentiment of horror,
unaccountable yet unendurable, I threw on my
clothes with haste (for I felt that I should sleep no
more during the night), and endeavoured to arouse
myself from the pitiable condition into which I
had fallen, by pacing rapidly to and fro through the
apartment.

I had taken but few turns in this manner, when a
light step on an adjoining staircase arrested my attention.
I presently recognised it as that of Usher. In an instant
afterward he rapped, with a gentle touch, at my door,
and entered, bearing a lamp. His countenance was, as
usual, cadaverously wan — but, moreover, there was a
species of mad hilarity in his eyes — an evidently re
strained hysteria in his whole demeanour. His air
appalled me — but anything was preferable to the
solitude which I had so long endured, and I even
welcomed his presence as a relief.

" And you have not seen it ? " he said abruptly,
after having stared about him for some moments in
silence — " you have not then seen it ? — but, stay ! you
shall." Thus speaking, and having carefully shaded his
lamp, he hurried to one of the casements, and threw it
freely open to the storm.

The impetuous fury of the entering gust nearly lifted

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER

us from our feet. It was, indeed, a tempestuous yet
sternly beautiful night, and one wildly singular in its
terror and its beauty. A whirlwind had apparently
collected its force in our vicinity ; for there were
frequent and violent alterations in the direction of the
wind ; and the exceeding density of the clouds (which
hung so low as to press upon the turrets of the house)
did not prevent our perceiving the lifelike velocity with
which they flew careering from all points against each
other, without passing away into the distance. I say
that even their exceeding density did not prevent our
perceiving this — yet we had no glimpse of the moon
or stars — nor was there any flashing forth of the
lightning. But the under surfaces of the huge masses
of agitated vapour, as well as all terrestrial objects
immediately around us, were glowing in the un
natural light of a faintly luminous and distinctly visible
gaseous exhalation which hung about and enshrouded
the mansion.

"You must not — you shall not behold this ! " said
I, shuddering, to Usher, as I led him, with a gentle
violence, from the window to a seat. " These appear
ances, which bewilder you, are merely electrical phe
nomena not uncommon — or it may be that they have
their ghastly origin in the rank miasma of the tarn.
Let us close this casement — the air is chilling and
dangerous to your frame. Here is one of your favourite
romances. I will read, and you shall listen — and so we
will pass away this terrible night together."

The antique volume which I had taken up was the
" Mad Trist " of Sir Launcelot Canning ; but I had
called it a favourite of Usher's more in sad jest than in
earnest ; for, in truth, there is little in its uncouth and
unimaginative prolixity which could have had interest

93

TALES OF MYSTERY

for the lofty and spiritual ideality of my friend. It was,
however, the only book immediately at hand ; and I
indulged a vague hope that the excitement which now
agitated the hypochondriac, might find relief (for the
history of mental disorder is full of similar anomalies)
even in the extremeness of the folly which I should
read. Could I have judged indeed, by the wild over
strained air of vivacity with which he hearkened, or
apparently hearkened, to the words of the tale, I might
well have congratulated myself upon the success of my
design.

I had arrived at that well-known portion of the
story where Ethelred, the hero of the Trist, having
sought in vain for peaceable admission into the dwelling
of the hermit, proceeds to make good an entrance by
force. Here, it will be remembered, the words of the
narrative run thus :

" And Ethelred, who was by nature of a doughty
heart, and who was now mighty withal, on account of
the powerfulness of the wine which he had drunken,
waited no longer to hold parley with the hermit, who,
in sooth, was of an obstinate and maliceful turn, but,
feeling the rain upon his shoulders, and fearing the
rising of the tempest, uplifted his mace outright, and,
with blows, made quickly room in the plankings of the
door for his gauntleted hand ; and now pulling there
with sturdily, he so cracked, and ripped, and tore all
asunder, that the noise of the dry and hollow-sound
ing wood alarmed and reverberated throughout the
forest."

At the termination of this sentence I started, and
for a moment, paused ; for it appeared to me (although
I at once concluded that my excited fancy had deceived
me) — it appeared to me that, from some very remote

94

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER

portion of the mansion, there came, indistinctly, to
my ears, what might have been, in its exact similarity
of character, the echo (but a stifled and dull one cer
tainly) of the very cracking and ripping sound which
Sir Launcelot had so particularly described. It was,
beyond doubt, the coincidence alone which had arrested
my attention ; for, amid the rattling of the sashes of
the casements, and the ordinary commingled noises of
the still increasing storm, the sound, in itself, had
nothing, surely, which should have interested or dis
turbed me. I continued the story :

" But the good champion Ethelred, now entering
within the door, was sore enraged and amazed to per
ceive no signal of the maliceful hermit ; but, in the
stead thereof, a dragon of a scaly and prodigious de
meanour, and of a fiery tongue, which sate in guard
before a palace of gold, with a floor of silver ; and
upon the wall there hung a shield of shining brass with
this legend enwritten :

Who entereth herein, a conqueror hath been ;
Who slayeth the dragon, the shield he shall win ;

and Ethelred uplifted his mace, and struck upon the
head of the dragon, which fell before him, and
gave up his pesty breath, with a shriek so horrid
and harsh, and withal so piercing, that Ethelred
had fain to close his ears with his hands against the
dreadful noise of it, the like whereof was never before
heard."

Here again I paused abruptly, and now with a
feeling of wild amazement — for there could be no doubt
whatever that, in this instance, I did actually hear (al
though from what direction it proceeded I found it
impossible to say) a low and apparently distant, but

95

TALES OF MYSTERY

harsh, protracted, and most unusual screaming or grating
sound — the exact counterpart of what my fancy had
already conjured up for the dragon's unnatural shriek
as described by the romancer.

Oppressed, as I certainly was, upon the occurrence
of the second and most extraordinary coincidence, by a
thousand conflicting sensations, in which wonder and
extreme terror were predominant, I still retained suffi
cient presence of mind to avoid exciting, by any obser
vation, the sensitive nervousness of my companion. I
was by no means certain that he had noticed the sounds
in question ; although assuredly, a strange alteration
had, during the last few minutes, taken place in his
demeanour. From a position fronting my own, he had
gradually brought round his chair, so as to sit with his
face to the door of the chamber, and thus I could but
partially perceive his features, although I saw that his
lips trembled as if he were murmuring inaudibly. His
head had dropped upon his breast — yet I knew that he
was not asleep, from the wide and rigid opening of the
eye as I caught a glance of it in profile. The motion
of his body, too, was at variance with this idea — for he
rocked from side to side with a gentle yet constant and
uniform sway. Having rapidly taken notice of all this,
I resumed the narrative of Sir Launcelot, which thus
proceeded :

" And now, the champion, having escaped from the
terrible fury of the dragon, bethinking himself of the
brazen shield, and of the breaking up of the enchant
ment which was upon it, removed the carcass from out
of the way before him, and approached valorously over
the silver pavement of the castle to where the shield
was upon the wall ; which in sooth tarried not for his
full coming, but fell down at his feet upon the silver

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER

floor, with a mighty, great, and terrible ringing
sound."

No sooner had these syllables passed my lips, than —
as if a shield of brass had indeed, at the moment, fallen
heavily upon a floor of silver — I became aware of a
distinct, hollow, metallic, and clangorous, yet apparently
muffled reverberation. Completely unnerved, I leaped
to my feet ; but the measured rocking movement of
Usher was undisturbed. I rushed to the chair in which
he sat. His eyes were bent fixedly before him, and
throughout his whole countenance there reigned a
stony rigidity. But as I placed my hand upon his
shoulder, there came a strong shudder over his whole
person ; a sickly smile quivered about his lips ; and I
saw that he spoke in a low, hurried, and gibbering
murmur, as if unconscious of my presence. Bending
closely over him, I at length drank in the hideous
import of his words.

" Not hear it ? — yes, I hear it, and have heard it.
Long — long — long — many minutes, many hours, many
days have I heard it — yet I dared not — oh, pity me,
miserable wretch that I am ! — I dared not — I dared 'not
speak ! We have put her living in the tomb ! Said I not
that my senses were acute ? I now tell you that I heard
her first feeble movements in the hollow coffin. I
heard them — many, many days ago — yet I dared not
— I dared not speak ! And now — to-night — Ethelred —
ha ! ha ! — the breaking of the hermit's door, and the
death-cry of the dragon, and the clangour of the shield !
— say, rather, the rending of her coffin, and the grating
of the iron hinges of her prison, and her struggles
within the coppered archway of the vault ! Oh,
whither shall I fly ? Will she not be here anon ? Is
she not hurrying to upbraid me for my haste ? Have

G 97

TALES OF MYSTERY

I not heard her footstep on the stair ? Do I not dis
tinguish that heavy and horrible beating of her heart ?
MADMAN ! " here he sprang furiously to his feet, and
shrieked out his syllables, as if in the effort he were
giving up his soul — " MADMAN ! I TELL YOU THAT SHE

NOW STANDS WITHOUT THE DOOR ! "

As if in the superhuman energy of his utterance
there had been found the potency of a spell — the huge
antique panels to which the speaker pointed, threw
slowly back, upon the instant, their ponderous and
ebony jaws. It was the work of the rushing gust —
but then without those doors there DID stand the lofty
and enshrouded figure of the Lady Madeline of Usher.
There was blood upon her white robes, and the evi
dence of some bitter struggle upon every portion of her
emaciated frame. For a moment she remained trem
bling and reeling to and fro upon the threshold, then,
with a low moaning cry, fell heavily inward upon the
person of her brother, and in her violent and now final
death agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse, and a
victim to the terrors he had anticipated.

From that chamber, and from that mansion, I fled
aghast. The storm was still abroad in all its wrath as
I found myself crossing the old causeway. Suddenly
there shot along the path a wild light, and I turned to
see whence a gleam so unusual could have issued ; for
the vast house and its shadows were alone behind me.
The radiance was that of the full, setting, and blood-
red moon, which now shone vividly through that once
barely-discernible fissure of which I have before spoken
as extending from the roof of the building, in a zigzag
direction to the base. While I gazed, this fissure
rapidly widened — there came a fierce breath of the
whirlwind — the entire orb of the satellite burst at once

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER

upon my sight — my brain reeled as I saw the mighty
walls rushing asunder — there was a long tumultuous
shouting sound like the voice of a thousand waters —
and the deep and dank tarn at my feet closed sullenly
and silently over the fragments of the " HOUSE OF
USHER."

99

THE ASSIGNATION

ILL-FATED and mysterious man ! — bewildered in
the brilliancy of thine own imagination, and fallen
in the flames of thine own youth ! Again in
fancy I behold thee ! Once more thy form hath
risen before me ! — not — oh, not as thou art — in the
cold valley and shadow — but as thou shouldst be —
squandering away a life of magnificent meditation in
that city of dim visions, thine own Venice — which is a
star-beloved Elysium of the sea, and the wide windows
of whose Palladian palaces look down with a deep and
bitter meaning upon the secrets of her silent waters.
Yes ! I repeat it — as thou shouldst be. There are surely
other worlds than this — other thoughts than the
thoughts of the multitude — other speculations than
the speculations of the sophist. Who then shall call
thy conduct into question ? who blame thee for thy
visionary hours, or denounce those occupations as a
wasting away of life, which were but the overflowings
of thine everlasting energies ?

It was at Venice, beneath the covered archway
there called the Ponte del Sospiri^ that I met for the third
or fourth time the person of whom I speak. It is with
a confused recollection that I bring to mind the circum
stances of that meeting. Yet I remember — ah ! how
should I forget ? — the deep midnight, the Bridge of
Sighs, the beauty of woman, and the Genius of Romance
that stalked up and down the narrow canal.

It was a night of unusual gloom. The great clock
of the Piazza had sounded the fifth hour of the Italian
evening. The square of the Campanile lay silent and
deserted, and the lights in the old Ducal Palace were
dying fast away. I was returning home from the
Piazzetta, by way of the Grand Canal. But as my

101

TALES OF MYSTERY

gondola arrived opposite the mouth of the canal
San Marco, a female voice from its recesses broke
suddenly upon the night, in one wild, hysterical, and
long-continued shriek. Startled at the sound, I sprang
upon my feet : while the gondolier, letting slip his
single oar, lost it in the pitchy darkness beyond a chance
of recovery, and we were consequently left to the
guidance of the current which here sets from the
greater into the smaller channel. Like some huge and
sable-feathered condor, we were slowly drifting down
towards the Bridge of Sighs, when a thousand flam
beaux, flashing from the windows and down the stair
cases of the Ducal Palace, turned all at once that deep
gloom into a livid and preternatural day.

A child, slipping from the arms of its own mother,
had fallen from an upper window of the lofty structure
into the deep and dim canal. The quiet waters had
closed placidly over their victim ; and, although my
own gondola was the only one in sight, many a stout
swimmer, already in the stream, was seeking in vain
upon the surface, the treasure which was to be found,
alas ! only within the abyss. Upon the broad black
marble flagstones at the entrance of the palace, and a
few steps above the water, stood a figure which none
who then saw can have ever since forgotten. It was
the Marchesa Aphrodite — the adoration of all Venice
— the gayest of the gay — the most lovely where all
were beautiful — but still the young wife of the old and
intriguing Mentoni, and the mother of that fair child,
her first and only one, who now deep beneath the murky
water, was thinking in bitterness of heart upon her
sweet caresses, and exhausting its little life in struggles
to call upon her name.

She stood alone. Her small, bare, and silvery feet
102

THE ASSIGNATION

gleamed in the black mirror of marble beneath her.
Her hair, not as yet more than half loosened for the
night from its ball-room array, clustered, amid a
shower of diamonds, round and round her classical
head, in curls like those of the young hyacinth. A
snowy-white and gauze-like drapery seemed to be
nearly the sole covering to her delicate form ; but the
midsummer and midnight air was hot, sullen, and still,
and no motion in the statue-like form itself, stirred
even the folds of that raiment of very vapour which
hung around it as the heavy marble hangs around the
Niobe. Yet — strange to say ! — her large lustrous eyes
were not turned downwards upon that grave wherein
her brightest hope lay buried — but riveted in a widely
different direction ! The prison of the Old Republic
is, I think, the stateliest building in all Venice — but
how could that lady gaze so fixedly upon it, when
beneath her lay stifling her only child ? Yon dark,
gloomy niche, too, yawns right opposite her chamber
window — what, then, could there be in its shadows — in
its architecture — in its ivy-wreathed and solemn cor
nices — that the Marchesa di Mentoni had not wondered
at a thousand times before ? Nonsense ! — Who does
not remember that, at such a time as this, the eye like
a shattered mirror, multiplies the images of its sorrow,
and sees in innumerable far-off places the woe which
is close at hand ?

Many steps above the Marchesa, and within the
arch of the water-gate, stood, in full dress, the Satyr-
like figure of Mentoni himself. He was occasionally
occupied in thrumming a guitar, and seemed ennuye to
the very death, as at intervals he gave directions for the
recovery of his child. Stupefied and aghast, I had my
self no power to move from the upright position I had

103

TALES OF MYSTERY

assumed upon first hearing the shriek, and must have
presented to the eyes of the agitated group a spectral
and ominous appearance, as with pale countenance and
rigid limbs, I floated down among them in that funereal
gondola.

All efforts proved in vain. Many of the most
energetic in the search were relaxing their exertions,
and yielding to a gloomy sorrow. There seemed but
little hope for the child (how much less then for the
mother !) ; but now, from the interior of that dark niche
which has been already mentioned as forming a part of
the Old Republican prison, and as fronting the lattice
of the Marchesa, a figure muffled in a cloak stepped out
within reach of the light, and, pausing a moment upon
the verge of the giddy descent, plunged headlong into
the canal. As, in an instant afterwards, he stood with
the still living and breathing child within his grasp,
upon the marble flagstones by the side of the Marchesa,
his cloak heavy with the drenching water, became
unfastened, and, falling in folds about his feet, discovered
to the wonder-stricken spectators the graceful person of
a very young man, with the sound of whose name the
greater part of Europe was then ringing.

No word spoke the deliverer. But the Marchesa !
She will now receive her child — she will press it to her
heart — she will cling to its little form, and smother it
with her caresses. Alas ! another s arms have taken it
from the stranger — another's arms have taken it away,
and borne it afar off, unnoticed, into the palace ! And
the Marchesa ! Her lip — her beautiful lip trembles :
tears are gathering in her eyes — those eyes which, like
Pliny's acanthus, are " soft and almost liquid." Yes !
tears are gathering in those eyes — and see ! the entire
woman thrills throughout the soul, and the statue has
104

THE ASSIGNATION

started into life ! The pallor of the marble counten
ance, the swelling of the marble bosom, the very purity
of the marble feet, we behold suddenly flushed over with
a tide of ungovernable crimson ; and a slight shudder
quivers about her delicate frame, as a gentle air at
Napoli about the rich silver lilies in the grass.

Why should that lady blush ? To this demand there
is no answer — except that, having left, in the eager
haste and terror of a mother's heart, the privacy of her
own boudoir^ she has neglected to enthral her tiny feet
in their slippers, and utterly forgotten to throw over
her Venetian shoulders that drapery which is their due.
What other possible reason could there have been for
her so blushing ? — for the glance of those wild appealing
eyes ? — for the unusual tumult of that throbbing bosom ?
— for the convulsive pressure of that trembling hand ? —
that hand which fell, as Mentoni turned into the palace,
accidentally, upon the hand of the stranger. What
reason could there have been for the low — the singu
larly low tone of those unmeaning words which the
lady uttered hurriedly in bidding him adieu f " Thou
hast conquered — " she said, or the murmurs of the
water deceived me — " thou hast conquered — one hour
after sunrise — we shall meet — so let it be ! "

ffc Tjr ?fv T(V T(C

The tumult had subsided, the lights had died away
within the palace, and the stranger, whom I now
recognised, stood alone upon the flags. He shook with
inconceivable agitation, and his eye glanced around in
search of a gondola. I could not do less than offer him
the service of my own ; and he accepted the civility.
Having obtained an oar at the water-gate, we pro
ceeded together to his residence, while he rapidly
recovered his self-possession, and spoke of our former

105

TALES OF MYSTERY

slight acquaintance in terms of great apparent
cordiality.

There are some subjects upon which I take pleasure
in being minute. The person of the stranger — let me
call him by this title, who to all the world was still a
stranger — the person of the stranger is one of these
subjects. In height he might have been below rather
than above the medium size : although there were
moments of intense passion when his frame actually
expanded and belied the assertion. The light, almost
slender symmetry of his figure, promised more of that
ready activity which he evinced at the Bridge of Sighs,
than of that Herculean strength which he has been
known to wield without an effort, upon occasions of
more dangerous emergency. With the mouth and chin
of a deity — singular, wild, full, liquid eyes, whose
shadows varied from pure hazel to intense and brilliant
jet — and a profusion of curling, black hair, from which
a forehead of unusual breadth gleamed forth at intervals
all light and ivory — his were features than which I have
seen none more classically regular, except perhaps, the
marble ones of the Emperor Commodus. Yet his
countenance was, nevertheless, one of those which all
men have seen at some period of their lives, and have
never afterwards seen again. It had no peculiar — it
had no settled predominant expression to be fastened
upon the memory ; a countenance seen and instantly
forgotten — but forgotten with a vague and never-
ceasing desire of recalling it to mind. Not that the
spirit of each rapid passion failed, at any time, to throw
its own distinct image upon the mirror of that face —
but that the mirror, mirror-like, retained no vestige of
the passion, when the passion had departed.

Upon leaving him on the night of our adventure,
1 06

THE ASSIGNATION

he solicited me, in what I thought an urgent manner,
to call upon him very early the next morning. Shortly
after sunrise, I found myself accordingly at his Palazzo,
one of those huge structures of gloomy, yet fantastic
pomp, which tower above the waters of the Grand
Canal in the vicinity of the Rialto. I was shown up a
broad winding staircase of mosaics, into an apartment
whose unparalleled splendour burst through the opening
door with an actual glare, making me blind and dizzy
with luxuriousness.

I knew my acquaintance to be wealthy. Report
had spoken of his possessions in terms which I had
even ventured to call terms of ridiculous exaggeration.
But as I gazed about me, I could not bring myself to
believe that the wealth of any subject in Europe could
have supplied the princely magnificence which burned
and blazed around.

Although, as I say, the sun had arisen, yet the room
was still brilliantly lighted up. I judge from this
circumstance, as well as from an air of exhaustion in
the countenance of my friend, that he had not retired
to bed during the whole of the preceding night. In
the architecture and embellishments of the chamber,
the evident design had been to dazzle and astound.
Little attention had been paid to the decora of what is
technically called keeping^ or to the proprieties of
nationality. The eye wandered from object to object,
and rested upon none — neither the grotesques of the
Greek painters, nor the sculptures of the best Italian
days, nor the huge carvings of untutored Egypt. Rich
draperies in every part of the room trembled to the
vibration of low, melancholy music, whose origin was
not to be discovered. The senses were oppressed by
mingled and conflicting perfumes, reeking up from

107

TALES OF MYSTERY

strange convolute censers, together with multitudinous
flaring and flickering tongues of emerald and violet
fire. The rays of the newly risen sun poured in upon
the whole, through windows formed each of a single
pane of crimson-tinted glass. Glancing to and fro, in
a thousand reflections, from curtains which rolled from
their cornices like cataracts of molten silver, the beams
of natural glory mingled at length fitfully with the
artificial light, and lay weltering in subdued masses
upon a carpet of rich, liquid-looking cloth of Chili
gold.

" Ha ! ha ! ha ! — ha ! ha ! ha ! " — laughed the
proprietor, motioning me to a seat as I entered the
room, and throwing himself back at full length upon
an ottoman. " I see," said he, perceiving that I could
not immediately reconcile myself to the bienseance of so
singular a welcome — " I see you are astonished at my
apartment — at my statues — my pictures — my origi
nality of conception in architecture and upholstery —
absolutely drunk, eh ? with my magnificence ? But
pardon me, my dear sir," (here his tone of voice
dropped to the very spirit of cordiality) " pardon me
for my uncharitable laughter. You appeared so utterly
astonished. Besides, some things are so completely
ludicrous that a man must laugh or die. To die laugh
ing must be the most glorious of all glorious deaths !
Sir Thomas More — a very fine man was Sir Thomas
More — Sir Thomas More died laughing, you remember.
Also in the ' Absurdities ' of Ravisius Textor, there
is a long list of characters who came to the same mag
nificent end. Do you know, however," continued he
musingly, " that at Sparta (which is now Palasochori)
— at Sparta, I say, to the west of the citadel, among
a chaos of scarcely visible ruins, is a kind of ' socle ^ upon
108

THE ASSIGNATION

which are still legible the letters AA2M. They arc
undoubtedly part of FEAA2MA. Now at Sparta were
a thousand temples and shrines to a thousand different
divinities. How exceedingly strange that the altar of
Laughter should have survived all the others ! But in
the present instance," he resumed, with a singular
alteration of voice and manner, " I have no right to be
merry at your expense. You might well have been
amazed. Europe cannot produce anything so fine as
this, my little regal cabinet. My other apartments
are by no means of the same order ; mere ultras of
fashionable insipidity. This is better than fashion — is
it not ? Yet this has but to be seen to become the
rage — that is, with those who could afford it at the cost
of their entire patrimony. I have guarded, however,
against any such profanation. With one exception
you are the only human being besides myself and my
va/et, who has been admitted within the mysteries of
these imperial precincts, since they have been bedizened
as you see ! "

I bowed in acknowledgment ; for the overpowering
sense of splendour and perfume, and music, together
with the unexpected eccentricity of his address and
manner, prevented me from expressing in words my
appreciation of what I might have construed into a
compliment.

" Here," he resumed, arising and leaning on my
arm as he sauntered around the apartment — " here are
paintings from the Greeks to Cimabue, and from
Cimabue to the present hour. Many are chosen, as you
see, with little deference to the opinions of Virtu. They
are all,-- however, fitting tapestry for a chamber such as
this. Here, too, are some chefs d'ceuvre of the unknown
great — and here unfinished designs by men, celebrated

109

TALES OF MYSTERY

in their day, whose very names the perspicacity of the
academies has left to silence and to me. What think
you," said he, turning abruptly as he spoke — " what
think you of this Madonna della Pieta ? "

" It is Guide's own ! " I said with all the enthu
siasm of my nature, for I had been poring intently
over its surpassing loveliness. " It is Guido's own ! —
how could you have obtained it ? — she is undoubtedly in
painting what the Venus is in sculpture."

" Ha ! " said he thoughtfully, " the Venus — the
beautiful Venus ? — the Venus of the Medici ? — she of
the diminutive head and the gilded hair ? Part of the
left arm " (here his voice dropped so as to be heard with
difficulty), " and all the right are restorations, and in
the coquetry of that right arm lies, I think, the quin
tessence of all affectation. Give me the Canova ! The
Apollo, too ! — is a copy — there can be no doubt of it
— blind fool that I am, who cannot behold the boasted
inspiration of the Apollo ! I cannot help — pity me !
— I cannot help preferring the Antinous. Was it not
Socrates who said that the statuary found his statue in
the block of marble ! Then Michael Angelo was by no
means original in his couplet :

" * Non ha 1'ottimo artista alcun concetto

Che un marmo solo in se non circonscriva.' '

It has been, or should be, remarked that, in the
manner of the true gentleman, we are always aware of
a difference from the bearing of the vulgar, without
being at once precisely able to determine in what such
difference consists. Allowing the remark to have applied
in its full force to the outward demeanour of my
acquaintance, I felt it, on that eventful morning, still
more fully applicable to his moral temperament and

I 10

THE ASSIGNATION

character. Nor can I better define that peculiarity of
spirit which seemed to place him so essentially apart
from all other human beings, than by calling it a habit
of intense and continual thought, pervading even his
most trivial actions — intruding upon his moments of
dalliance — and interweaving itself with his very flashes of
merriment — like adders which writhe from out the eyes
of the grinning masks in the cornices around the temples
of Persepolis.

I could not help, however, repeatedly observing,
through the mingled tone of levity and solemnity with
which he rapidly descanted upon matters of little im
portance, a certain air of trepidation — a degree of
nervous unction in action and in speech — an unquiet
excitability of manner which appeared to me at all
times unaccountable, and upon some occasions even
filled me with alarm. Frequently, too, pausing in the
middle of a sentence whose commencement he had
apparently forgotten, he seemed to be listening in the
deepest attention, as if either in momentary expectation
of a visitor, or to sounds which must have had existence
in his imagination alone.

It was during one of these reveries or pauses of
apparent abstraction, that, in turning over a page of the
poet and scholar Politian's beautiful tragedy The Orfeo
(the first native Italian tragedy) which lay near me upon
an ottoman, I discovered a passage underlined in pencil.
It was a passage towards the end of the third act — a
passage of the most heart-stirring excitement — a passage
which, although tainted with impurity, no man shall
read without a thrill of novel emotion — no woman
without a sigh. The whole page was blotted with
fresh tears, and, upon the opposite interleaf, were the
following English lines, written in a hand so very

1 1 1

TALES OF MYSTERY

different from the peculiar characters of my acquaintance
that I had some difficulty in recognising it as his own.

Thou wast that all to me, love,

For which my soul did pine —
A green isle in the sea, love,

A fountain and a shrine,
All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers,

And all the flowers were mine.

Ah, dream too bright to last !

Ah, starry Hope ! that didst arise
But to be overcast !

A voice from out the Future cries,
" On ! on ! "—but o'er the Past

(Dim gulf!) my spirit hovering lies
Mute, motionless, aghast !

For alas ! alas ! with me

The light of life is o'er.
" No more — no more — no more "
(Such language holds the solemn sea

To the sands upon the shore)
Shall bloom the thunder-blasted tree,

Or the stricken eagle soar !

Now all my days are trances,

And all my nightly dreams
Are where thy gray eye glances,

And where thy footstep gleams —
In what ethereal dances,

By what Italian streams.

Alas ! for that accursed time

They bore thee o'er the billow,
From Love to titled age and crime,

And an unholy pillow —
From me, and from our misty clime,

Where weeps the silver willow !

That these lines were written in English — a language
with which I had not believed their author acquainted
— afforded me little matter for surprise. I was too well
112

THE ASSIGNATION

aware of the extent of his acquirements, and of the
singular pleasure he took in concealing them from
observation, to be astonished at any similar discovery ;
but the place of date, I must confess, occasioned me no
little amazement. It had been originally written
London^ and afterwards carefully overscored — not, how
ever, so effectually as to conceal the word from a
scrutinising eye. I say this occasioned me no little
amazement ; for I well remember that, in a former
conversation with my friend, I particularly inquired if
he had at any time met in London the Marchesa di
Mentoni (who for some years previous to her marriage
had resided in that city), when his answer, if I mistake
not, gave me to understand that he had never visited
the metropolis of Great Britain. I might as well here
mention that I have more than once heard (without of
course giving credit to a report involving so many im
probabilities), that the person of whom I speak was not
only by birth, but in education, an Englishman.

*Jv 7|P Tjv TJv 7Jv

"There is one painting," said he, without being
aware of my notice of the tragedy — " there is still one
painting which you have not seen." And throwing
aside a drapery, he discovered a full-length portrait of
the Marchesa Aphrodite.

Human art could have done no more in the delinea
tion of her superhuman beauty. The same ethereal
figure which stood before me the preceding night upon
the steps of the Ducal Palace, stood before me once
again. But in the expression of the countenance, which
was beaming all over with smiles, there still lurked
(incomprehensible anomaly !) that fitful strain of melan
choly which will ever be found inseparable from the
perfection of the beautiful. Her right arm lay folded

H 113

TALES OF MYSTERY

over her bosom. With her left she pointed downwards
to a curiously fashioned vase. One small, fairy foot,
alone visible, barely touched the earth — and, scarcely
discernible in the brilliant atmosphere which seemed
to encircle and enshrine her loveliness, floated a pair of
the most delicately imagined wings. My glance fell
from the painting to the figure of my friend, and the
vigorous words of Chapman's " Bussy D'Ambois "
quivered instinctively upon my lips :

" He is up

There like a Roman statue ! He will stand
Till Death hath made him marble ! "

" Come ! " he said at length, turning towards a table
of richly enamelled and massive silver, upon which were
a few goblets fantastically stained, together with two
large Etruscan vases, fashioned in the same extraordinary
model as that in the foreground of the portrait, and
filled with what I supposed to be Johannisberger.
" Come ! " he said abruptly, " let us drink ! It is early
— but let us drink. It is indeed early," he continued,
musingly, as a cherub with a heavy golden hammer
made the apartment ring with the first hour after sun
rise — " it is Indeed early, but what matters it ? let us
drink ! Let us pour out an offering to yon solemn sun
which these gaudy lamps and censers are so eager to
subdue ! " And having made me pledge him in a
bumper, he swallowed in rapid succession several
goblets of the wine.

"To dream," he continued, resuming the tone of
his desultory conversation, as he held up to the rich
light of a censer one of the magnificent vases — " to
dream has been the business of my life. I have there
fore framed for myself, as you see, a bower of dreams.
114

THE ASSIGNATION

In the heart of Venice could I have erected a better ?
You behold around you, it is true, a medley of archi
tectural embellishments. The chastity of Ionia is
offended by antediluvian devices, and the sphinxes of
Egypt are outstretched upon carpets of gold. Yet the
effect is incongruous to the timid alone. Proprieties
of place, and especially of time, are the bugbears which
terrify mankind from the contemplation of the magnifi
cent. Once I was myself a decorist ; but that sublimation
of folly has palled upon my soul. All this is now the
fitter for my purpose. Like these arabesque censers, my
spirit is writhing in fire, and the delirium of this scene
is fashioning me for the wilder visions of that land of
real dreams whither I am now rapidly departing." He
here paused abruptly, bent his head to his bosom, and
seemed to listen to a sound which I could not hear. At
length, erecting his frame, he looked upwards and
ejaculated the lines of the Bishop of Chichester :

Stay for me there ! I will not fail
To meet thee in that hollow vale.

In the next instant, confessing the power of the
wine, he threw himself at full length upon an
ottoman.

A quick step was now heard upon the staircase, and
a loud knock at the door rapidly succeeded. I was
hastening to anticipate a second disturbance, when a
page of Mentoni's household burst into the room, and
faltered out, in a voice choking with emotion, the
incoherent words, " My mistress ! — my mistress ! —
poisoned ! — poisoned ! Oh beautiful — oh beautiful
Aphrodite ! "

Bewildered, I flew to the ottoman, and endea
voured to arouse the sleeper to a sense of the startling

"5

TALES OF MYSTERY

intelligence. But his limbs were rigid — his lips were
livid — his lately beaming eyes were riveted in death.
I staggered back towards the table — my hand fell
upon a cracked and blackened goblet — and a con
sciousness of the entire and terrible truth flashed
suddenly over my soul.

116

LIGEIA

I CANNOT, for my soul, remember how, when, or
even precisely where, I first became acquainted
with the Lady Ligeia. Long years have since
elapsed, and my memory is feeble through much
suffering. Or, perhaps, I cannot now bring these points
to mind, because, in truth, the character of my beloved,
her rare learning, her singular yet placid cast of beauty,
and the thrilling and enthralling eloquence of her low,
musical language, made their way into my heart by
paces so steadily and stealthily progressive that they
have been unnoticed and unknown. Yet I believe that
I met her first and most frequently in some large, old
decaying city near the Rhine. Of her family — I have
surely heard her speak. That it is of a remotely
ancient date cannot be doubted. Ligeia ! Ligeia !
Buried in studies of a nature more than all else
adapted to deaden impressions of the outward world,
it is by that sweet word alone — by Ligeia — that I bring
before mine eyes in fancy the image of her who is
no more. And now, while I write, a recollection
flashes upon me that I have never known the paternal
name of her who was my friend and my betrothed,
and who became the partner of my studies, and
finally the wife of my bosom. Was it a playful
charge on the part of my Ligeia ? or was it a test
of my strength of affection, that I should institute no
inquiries upon this point ? or was it rather a caprice of
my own — a wildly romantic offering on the shrine of
the most passionate devotion ? I but indistinctly recall
the fact itself — what wonder that I have utterly for
gotten the circumstances which originated or attended
it ? And, indeed, if ever that spirit which is entitled
Romance — if ever she, the wan and misty-winged

117

TALES OF MYSTERY

Ashtophet of idolatrous Egypt, presided, as they tell,
over marriages ill-omened, then most surely she presided
over mine.

There is one dear topic, however, on which my
memory fails me not. It is the person of Ligeia. In
stature she was tall, somewhat slender, and, in her latter
days, even emaciated. I would in vain attempt to por
tray the majesty, the quiet ease of her demeanour, or
the incomprehensible lightness and elasticity of her foot
fall. She came and departed as a shadow. I was never
made aware of her entrance into my closed study save
by the dear music of her low sweet voice, as she placed
her marble hand upon my shoulder. In beauty of face
no maiden ever equalled her. It was the radiance of an
opium-dream — an airy and spirit-lifting vision more
wildly divine than the phantasies which hovered about
the slumbering souls of the daughters of Delos. Yet her
features were not of that regular mould which we have
been falsely taught to worship in the classical labours of
the heathen. " There is no exquisite beauty," says
Bacon, Lord Verulam, speaking truly of all the forms
and genera of beauty, " without some strangeness in the
proportion." Yet, although I saw that the features of
Ligeia were not of a classic regularity — although I per
ceived that her loveliness was indeed " exquisite," and
felt that there was much of " strangeness " pervading it,
yet I have tried in vain to detect the irregularity and to
trace home my own perception of " the strange." I
examined the contour of the lofty and pale forehead — it
was faultless — how cold indeed that word when applied
to a majesty so divine ! — the skin rivalling the purest
ivory, the commanding extent and repose, the gentle
prominence of the regions above the temples ; and then
the raven-black, the glossy, the luxuriant and naturally-
118

LIGEIA

curling tresses, setting forth the full force of the Homeric
epithet, " hyacinthine " ! I looked at the delicate out
lines of the nose — and nowhere but in the graceful
medallions of the Hebrews had I beheld a similar per
fection. There were the same luxurious smoothness of
surface, the same scarcely perceptible tendency to the
aquiline, the same harmoniously-curved nostrils speaking
the free spirit. I regarded the sweet mouth. Here was
indeed the triumph of all things heavenly — the magni
ficent turn of the short upper lip — the soft, voluptuous
slumber of the under — the dimples which sported, and
the colour which spoke — the teeth glancing back with
a brilliancy almost startling, every ray of the holy light
which fell upon them in her serene and placid, yet most
exultantly radiant of all smiles. I scrutinised the forma
tion of the chin — and here, too, I found the gentleness
of breadth, the softness and the majesty, the fulness and
the spirituality of the Greek — the contour which the
god Apollo revealed but in a dream, to Cleomenes, the
son of the Athenian. And then I peered into the large
eyes of Ligeia.

For eyes we have no models in the remotely antique.
It might have been, too, that in these eyes of my
beloved lay the secret to which Lord Verulam alludes.
They were, I must believe, far larger than the ordinary
eyes of our own race. They were even fuller than the
fullest of the gazelle eyes of the tribe of the valley of
Nourjahad. Yet it was only at intervals — in moments
of intense excitement — that this peculiarity became
more than slightly noticeable in Ligeia. And at such
moments was her beauty — in my heated fancy thus it
appeared perhaps — the beauty of beings either above or
apart from the earth — the beauty of the fabulous Houri
of the Turk. The hue of the orbs was the most

119

TALES OF MYSTERY

brilliant of black, and, far over them, hung jetty lashes of
great length. The brows, slightly irregular in outline,
had the same tint. The " strangeness," however, which
I found in the eyes, was of a nature distinct from the
formation, or the colour, or the brilliancy of the fea
tures, and must, after all, be referred to the expression.
Ah, word of no meaning ! behind whose vast latitude
of mere sound we intrench our ignorance of so much
of the spiritual. The expression of the eyes of Ligeia !
How for long hours have I pondered upon it ! How
have I, through the whole of a midsummer night,
struggled to fathom it ! What was it — that something
more profound than the well of Democritus — which
lay far within the pupils of my beloved ! What was
it ? I was possessed with a passion to discover. Those
eyes ! those large, those shining, those divine orbs !
they became to me twin stars of Leda, and I to them
devoutest of astrologers.

There is no point, among the many incomprehen
sible anomalies of the science of mind, more thrillingly
exciting than the fact — never, I believe, noticed in the
schools — that, in our endeavours to recall to memory
something long forgotten, we often find ourselves upon
the very verge of remembrance, without being able, in
the end, to remember. And thus how frequently,
in my intense scrutiny of Ligeia's eyes, have I felt
approaching the full knowledge of their expression —
felt it approaching — yet not quite be mine — and so at
length entirely depart ! And (strange, oh strangest
mystery of all !) I found, in the commonest objects of
the universe, a circle of analogies to that expression.
I mean to say that, subsequently to the period when
Ligeia's beauty passed into my spirit, there dwelling as
in a shrine, I derived, from many existences in the
120

LIGEIA

material world, a sentiment such as I felt always
aroused within me by her large and luminous orbs.
Yet not the more could I define that sentiment, or
analyse, or even steadily view it. I recognised it, let
me repeat, sometimes in the survey of a rapidly-growing
vine — in the contemplation of a moth, a butterfly, a
chrysalis, a stream of running water. I have felt it in
the ocean ; in the falling of a meteor. I have felt it in
the glances of unusually aged people. And there are
one or two stars in heaven — (one especially, a star of
the sixth magnitude, double and changeable, to be
found near the large star in Lyra) in a telescopic
scrutiny of which I have been made aware of the
feeling. I have been filled with it by certain sounds
from stringed instruments, and not unfrequently by
passages from books. Among innumerable other
instances, I well remember something in a volume of
Joseph Glanvill, which (perhaps merely from its quaint-
ness — who shall say ?) never failed to inspire me with
the sentiment — " And the will therein lieth, which
dieth not. Who knoweth the mysteries of the will,
with its vigour ? For God is but a great will pervad
ing all things by nature of its intentness. Man doth
not yield him to the angels, nor unto death utterly, save
only through the weakness of his feeble will."

Length of years, and subsequent reflection, have
enabled me to trace, indeed, some remote connection
between this passage in the English moralist and a
portion of the character of Ligeia. An intensity in
thought, action, or speech, was possibly, in her, a result,
or at least an index, of that gigantic volition which,
during our long intercourse, failed to give other
and more immediate evidence of its existence. Of all
the women whom I have ever known, she, the out-

121

TALES OF MYSTERY

wardly calm, the ever-placid Ligeia, was the most
violently a prey to the tumultuous vultures of stern
passion. And of such passion I could form no estimate,
save by the miraculous expansion of those eyes which
at once so delighted and appalled me — by the almost
magical melody, modulation, distinctness, and placidity
of her very low voice — and by the fierce energy (ren
dered doubly effective by -contrast with her manner of
utterance) of the wild words which she habitually
uttered.

I have spoken of the learning of Ligeia : it was
immense — such as I have never known in woman. In
the classical tongues was she deeply proficient, and as
far as my own acquaintance extended in regard to the
modern dialects of Europe, I have never known her at
fault. Indeed upon any theme of the most admired,
because simply the most abstruse of the boasted erudi
tion of the academy, have I ever found Ligeia at fault ?
How singularly — how thrillingly, this one point in the
nature of my wife has forced itself, at this late period
only, upon my attention ! I said her knowledge was
such as I have never known in woman — but where
breathes the man who has traversed, and successfully,
all the wide areas of moral, physical, and mathematical
science ? I saw not then what I now clearly perceive,
that the acquisitions of Ligeia were gigantic, were
astounding ; yet I was sufficiently aware of her infinite
supremacy to resign myself, with a childlike confidence,
to her guidance through the chaotic world of meta
physical investigation at which I was most busily
occupied during the earlier years of our marriage.
With how vast a triumph — with how vivid a delight —
with how much of all that is ethereal in hope — did I
feel, as she bent over me in studies but little sought —

122

LIGEIA

but less known — that delicious vista by slow degrees
expanding before me, down whose long, gorgeous, and
all untrodden path, I might at length pass onward to
the goal of a wisdom too divinely precious not to be
forbidden !

How poignant, then, must have been the grief with
which, after some years, I beheld my well-grounded
expectations take wings to themselves and fly away !
Without Ligeia I was but as a child groping benighted.
Her presence, her readings alone, rendered vividly
luminous the many mysteries of the transcendentalism
in which we were immersed. Wanting the radiant
lustre of her eyes, letters, lambent and golden, grew
duller than Saturnian lead. And now those eyes shone
less and less frequently upon the pages over which I
pored. Ligeia grew ill. The wild eyes blazed with a
too-too glorious effulgence ; the pale ringers became
of the transparent waxen hue of the grave, and the
blue veins upon the lofty forehead swelled and sank
impetuously with the tides of the most gentle emotion.
I saw that she must die — and I struggled desperately
in spirit with the grim Azrael. And the struggles of
the passionate wife were, to my astonishment, even
more energetic than my own. There had been much
in her stern nature to impress me with the belief that,
to her, death would have come without its terrors ; —
but not so. Words are impotent to convey any just
idea of the fierceness of resistance with which she
wrestled with the Shadow. I groaned in anguish at
the pitiable spectacle. I would have soothed — I would
have reasoned ; but, in the intensity of her wild desire
for life, — for life — but for life — solace and reason were
alike the uttermost of folly. Yet not until the last
instance, amid the most convulsive writhings of her

123

TALES OF MYSTERY

fierce spirit, was shaken the external placidity of her
demeanour. Her voice grew more gentle — grew more
low — yet I would not wish to dwell upon the wild
meaning of the quietly uttered words. My brain reeled
as I hearkened entranced to a melody more than mortal
— to assumptions and aspirations which mortality had
never before known.

That she loved me I should not have doubted ; and
I might have been easily aware that, in a bosom such
as hers, love would have reigned no ordinary passion.
But in death only was I fully impressed with the
strength of her affection. For long hours, detaining
my hand, would she pour out before me the overflow
ing of a heart whose more than passionate devotion
amounted to idolatry. How had I deserved to be so
blessed by such confessions ! — how had I deserved to
be so cursed with the removal of my beloved in the
hour of her making them ! But upon this subject I
cannot bear to dilate. Let me say only, that in Ligeia's
more than womanly abandonment to a love, alas ! all
unmerited, all unworthily bestowed, I at length recog
nised the principle of her longing with so wildly earnest
a desire for the life which was now fleeing so rapidly
away. It is this wild longing — it is this eager vehe
mence of desire for life — but for life — that I have no
power to portray — no utterance capable of expressing.

At high noon of the night in which she departed,
beckoning me, peremptorily, to her side, she bade me
repeat certain verses composed by herself not many
days before. I obeyed her. — They were these :

Lo ! 'tis a gala night

Within the lonesome latter years !
An angel throng, bewinged, bedight

In veils, and drowned in tears,
124

LIGEIA

Sit in a theatre, to see

A play of hopes and fears,
While the orchestra breathes fitfully

The music of the spheres.

Mimes, in the form of God on high,

Mutter and mumble low,
And hither and thither fly;

Mere puppets they, who come and go
At bidding of vast formless things

That shift the scenery to and fro,
Flapping from out their Condor wings

Invisible Woe !

That motley drama ! — oh, be sure

It shall not be forgot !
With its Phantom chased for evermore,

By a crowd that seize it not,
Through a circle that ever returneth in

To the self-same spot,
And much of Madness and more of Sin

And Horror the soul of the plot.

But see, amid the mimic rout,

A crawling shape intrude !
A blood-red thing that writhes from out

The scenic solitude !
It writhes ! — it writhes ! — with mortal pangs

The mimes become its food,
And the seraphs sob at vermin fangs

In human gore imbued.

Out — out are the lights — out all !

And over each quivering form,
The curtain, a funeral pall,

Comes down with the rush of a storm,
And the angels, all pallid and wan,

Uprising, unveiling, affirm
That the play is the tragedy, " Man,"

And its hero the Conqueror Worm.

"O God ! " half shrieked Ligeia, leaping to her feet
and extending her arms aloft with a spasmodic move
ment, as I made an end of these lines — " O God ! O

125

TALES OF MYSTERY

Divine Father ! — shall these things be undeviatingly
so ? — shall this Conqueror be not once conquered ? Are
we not part and parcel in Thee ? Who — who knoweth
the mysteries of the will with its vigour ? Man doth
not yield him to the angels, nor unto death utterly^ save
only through the weakness of his feeble will."

And now, as if exhausted with emotion, she suffered
her white arms to fall, and returned solemnly to her
bed of death. And as she breathed her last sighs, there
came mingled with them a low murmur from her lips.
I bent to them my ear and distinguished, again, the
concluding words of the passage in Glanvill — " Man
doth not yield him to the angels^ nor unto death utterly^ save
only through the weakness of his feeble will"

She died ; — and I, crushed into the very dust with
sorrow, could no longer endure the lonely desolation of
my dwelling in the dim and decaying city by the Rhine.
I had no lack of what the world calls wealth. Ligeia
had brought me far more, very far more than ordinarily
falls to the lot of mortals. After a few months, there
fore, of weary and aimless wandering, I purchased, and
put in some repair, an abbey, which I shall not name,
in one of the wildest and least frequented portions
of fair England. The gloomy and dreary grandeur of
the building, the almost savage aspect of the domain,
the many melancholy and time-honoured memories
connected with both, had much in unison with the
feelings of utter abandonment which had driven me into
that remote and unsocial region of the country. Yet
although the external abbey, with its verdant decay
hanging about it, suffered but little alteration, I gave
way, with a child-like perversity, and perchance with a
faint hope of alleviating my sorrows, to a display of
more than regal magnificence within. — For such follies,
126

LIGEIA

even in childhood, I had imbibed a taste, and now they
came back to me as if in the dotage of grief. Alas, I
feel how much even of incipient madness might have
been discovered in the gorgeous and fantastic draperies,
in the solemn carvings of Egypt, in the wild cornices
and furniture, in the Bedlam patterns of the carpets of
tufted gold ! I had become a bounden slave in the
trammels of opium, and my labours and my orders had
taken a colouring from my dreams. But these absurdi
ties I must not pause to detail. Let me speak only of
that one chamber, ever accursed, whither in a moment
of mental alienation, I led from the altar as my bride —
as the successor of the unforgotten Ligeia — the fair-
haired and blue-eyed Lady Rowena Trevanion, of
Tremaine.

There is no individual portion of the architecture
and decoration of that bridal chamber which is not now
visibly before me. Where were the souls of the haughty
family of the bride, when, through thirst of gold, they
permitted to pass the threshold of an apartment so be
decked, a maiden and a daughter so beloved ? I have said
that I minutely remember the details of the chamber —
yet I am sadly forgetful on topics of deep moment — and
here there was no system, no keeping, in the fantastic
display, to take hold upon the memory. The room lay
in a high turret of the castellated abbey, was pentagonal
in shape, and of capacious size. Occupying the whole
southern face of the pentagon was the sole window — an
immense sheet of unbroken glass from Venice — a single
pane, and tinted of a leaden hue, so that the rays of either
the sun or moon, passing through it, fell with a ghastly
lustre on the objects within. Over the upper portion of
this huge window, extended the trellis-work of an aged
vine, which clambered up the massy walls of the turret.

127

TALES OF MYSTERY

The ceiling, of gloomy-looking oak, was excessively
lofty, vaulted, and elaborately fretted with the wildest
and most grotesque specimens of a semi-Gothic, semi-
Druidical device. From out the most central recess of
this melancholy vaulting, depended, by a single chain of
gold with long links, a huge censer of the same metal,
Saracenic in pattern, and with many perforations so con
trived that there writhed in and out of them, as if endued
with a serpent vitality, a continual succession of parti
coloured fires.

Some few ottomans and golden candelabra, of Eastern
figure, were in various stations about — and there was the
couch, too — the bridal couch — of an Indian model, and
low, and sculptured of solid ebony, with a pall-like
canopy above. In each of the angles of the chamber
stood on end a gigantic sarcophagus of black granite,
from the tombs of the kings over against Luxor, with
their aged lids full of immemorial sculpture. But in the
draping of the apartment lay, alas ! the chief phantasy
of all. The lofty walls, gigantic in height — even unpro-
portionably so — were hung from summit to foot, in vast
folds, with a heavy and massive-looking tapestry —
tapestry of a material which was found alike as a carpet
on the floor, as a covering for the ottomans and the
ebony bed, as a canopy for the bed, and as the gorgeous
volutes of the curtains which partially shaded the win
dow. The material was the richest cloth of gold. It
was spotted all over, at irregular intervals, with arabesque
figures, about a foot in diameter, and wrought upon the
cloth in patterns of the most jetty black. But these
figures partook of the true character of the arabesque
only when regarded from a single point of view. By a
contrivance now common, and indeed traceable to a very
remote period of antiquity, they were made changeable
128

LIGEIA

in aspect. To one entering the room, they bore the
appearance of simple monstrosities ; but upon a farther
advance, this appearance gradually departed ; and step
by step, as the visitor moved his station in the chamber,
he saw himself surrounded by an endless succession of
ghastly forms which belong to the superstition of the
Norman, or arise in the guilty slumbers of the monk.
The phantasmagoric effect was vastly heightened by the
artificial introduction of a strong continual current of
wind behind the draperies — giving a hideous and uneasy
animation to the whole.

In halls such as these — in a bridal chamber such as
this — I passed, with the Lady of Tremaine, the unhal
lowed hours of the first month of our marriage — passed
them with but little disquietude. That my wife dreaded
the fierce moodiness of my temper — that she shunned
me and loved me but little — I could not help per
ceiving ; but it gave me rather pleasure than otherwise.
I loathed her with a hatred belonging more to demon
than to man. My memory flew back (oh, with what
intensity of regret !) to Ligeia, the beloved, the august,
the beautiful, the entombed. I revelled in recollections
of her purity, of her wisdom, of her lofty, her ethereal
nature, of her passionate, her idolatrous love. Now,
then, did my spirit fully and freely burn with more than
all the fires of her own. In the excitement of my opium
dreams (for I was habitually fettered in the shackles of
the drug) I would call aloud upon her name, during the
silence of the night, or among the sheltered recesses of
the glens by day, as if, through the wild eagerness, the
solemn passion, the consuming ardour of my longing for
the departed, I could restore her to the pathway she had
abandoned — ah, could it be forever ? — upon the earth.

About the commencement of the second month of

i 129

TALES OF MYSTERY

the marriage, the Lady Rowena was attacked with
sudden illness, from which her recovery was slow. The
fever which consumed her rendered her nights uneasy ;
and in her perturbed state of half-slumber, she spoke of
sounds, and of motions, in and about the chamber of the
turret, which I concluded had no origin save in the dis
temper of her fancy, or perhaps in the phantasmagoric
influences of the chamber itself. She became at length
convalescent — finally well. Yet but a brief period
elapsed, ere a second more violent disorder again threw
her upon a bed of suffering; and from this attack her
frame, at all times feeble, never altogether recovered.
Her illnesses were, after this epoch, of alarming character,
and of more alarming recurrence, defying alike the know
ledge and the great exertions of her physicians. With
the increase of the chronic disease which had thus,
apparently, taken too sure hold upon her constitution to
be eradicated by human means, I could not fail to observe
a similar increase in the nervous irritation of her tem
perament, and in her excitability by trivial causes of
fear. She spoke again, and now more frequently and
pertinaciously, of the sounds — of the slight sounds — and
of the unusual motions among the tapestries, to which
she had formerly alluded.

One night, near the closing in of September, she
pressed this distressing subject with more than usual
emphasis upon my attention. She had just awakened
from an unquiet slumber, and I had been watching,
with feelings half of anxiety, half of vague terror, the
workings of her emaciated countenance. I sat by the
side of her ebony bed, upon one of the ottomans of India.
She partly arose, and spoke, in an earnest low whisper,
of sounds which she then heard, but which I could not
hear — of motions which she then saw, but which I
130

LIGEIA

could not perceive. The wind was rushing hurriedly
behind the tapestries, and I wished to show her (what,
let me confess it, I could not all believe) that those
almost inarticulate breathings, and those very gentle
variations of the figures upon the wall, were but the
natural effects of that customary rushing of the wind.
But a deadly pallor, overspreading her face, had proved
to me that my exertions to reassure her would be
fruitless. She appeared to be fainting, and no attendants
were within call. I remembered where was deposited
a decanter of light wine which had been ordered by her
physicians, and hastened across the chamber to procure
it. But, as I stepped beneath the light of the censer,
two circumstances of a startling nature attracted my
attention. I had felt that some palpable although
invisible object had passed lightly by my person ; and
I saw that there lay upon the golden carpet, in the very
middle of the rich lustre thrown from the censer, a
shadow — a faint, indefinite shadow of angelic aspect —
such as might be fancied for a shadow of a shade. But
I was wild with the excitement of an immoderate dose
of opium, and heeded these things but little, nor spoke
of them to Rowena. Having found the wine, I re-
crossed the chamber, and poured out a gobletful, which
I held to the lips of the fainting lady. She had now
partially recovered, however, and took the vessel herself,
while I sank upon an ottoman near me, with my eyes
fastened upon her person. It was then that I became
distinctly aware of a gentle footfall upon the carpet,
and near the couch, and in a second thereafter, as
Rowena was in the act of raising the wine to her lips,
I saw, or may have dreamed that I saw, fall within the
goblet, as if from some invisible spring in the atmo
sphere of the room, three or four large drops of a

TALES OF MYSTERY

brilliant and ruby-coloured fluid. If this I saw — not
so Rowena. She swallowed the wine unhesitatingly,
and I forbore to speak to her of a circumstance which
must, after all, I considered, have been but the sugges
tion of a vivid imagination, rendered morbidly active
by the terror of the lady, by the opium, and by the
hour.

Yet I cannot conceal it from my own perception
that, immediately subsequent to the fall of the ruby
drops, a rapid change for the worse took place in the
disorder of my wife ; so that on the third subsequent
night, the hands of her menials prepared her for the
tomb, and on the fourth, I sat alone, with her shrouded
body, in that fantastic chamber which had received her
as my bride. Wild visions, opium-engendered, flitted,
shadow-like, before me. I gazed with unquiet eye upon
the sarcophagi in the angles of the room, upon the
varying figures of the drapery, and upon the writhing
of the parti-coloured fires in the censer overhead. My
eyes then fell, as I called to mind the circumstances of
a former night, to the spot beneath the glare of the
censer where I had seen the faint traces of the shadow.
It was there, however, no longer ; and breathing with
greater freedom, I turned my glances to the pallid and
rigid figure upon the bed. Then rushed upon me a
thousand memories of Ligeia — and then came back
upon my heart, with the turbulent violence of a flood,
the whole of that unutterable woe with which I had
regarded her thus enshrouded. The night waned ; and
still, with a bosom full of bitter thoughts of the one
only and supremely beloved, I remained gazing upon
the body of Rowena.

It might have been midnight, or perhaps earlier, or
later, for I had taken no note of time, when a sob, low,
132

LIGEIA

gentle, but very distinct, startled me from my reverie.
\felt that it came from the bed of ebony — the bed ot
death. I listened in an agony of superstitious terror—
but there was no repetition of the sound. I strained
my vision to detect any motion in the corpse — but
there was not the slightest perceptible. Yet I could
not have been deceived. I had heard the noise, how
ever faint, and my soul was awakened within me. I
resolutely and perseveringly kept my attention riveted
upon the body. Many minutes elapsed before any cir
cumstances occurred tending to throw light upon the
mystery. At length it became evident that a slight, a
very feeble, and barely noticeable tinge of colour had
flushed up within the cheeks, and along the sunken
small veins of the eyelids. Through a species of un
utterable horror and awe, for which the language of
mortality has no sufficiently energetic expression, I feL
my heart cease to beat, my limbs grow rigid where I
sat. Yet a sense of duty finally operated to restore my
self-possession. I could no longer doubt that we had
been precipitate in our preparations — that Rowena still
lived. It was necessary that some immediate exertion
be made ; yet the turret was altogether apart from the
portion of the abbey tenanted by the servants — there
were none within call — I had no means of summoning
them to my aid without leaving the room for many
minutes — and this I could not venture to do. I there
fore struggled alone in my endeavours to call back the
spirit still hovering. In a short period it was certain,
however, that a relapse had taken place ; the colour
disappeared from both eyelid and cheek, leaving a wan
ness even more than that of marble ; the lips became
doubly shrivelled and pinched up in the ghastly expres
sion of death ; a repulsive clamminess and coldness

TALES OF MYSTERY

overspread rapidly the surface of the body ; and all the
usual rigorous stiffness immediately supervened. I fell
back with a shudder upon the couch from which I had
been so startlingly aroused, and again gave myself up
to passionate waking visions of Ligeia.

An hour thus elapsed when (could it be possible ?)
I was a second time aware of some vague sound issuing
from the region of the bed. I listened — in extremity
of horror. The sound came again — it was a sigh.
Rushing to the corpse, I saw — distinctly saw — a tremor
upon the lips. In a minute afterwards they relaxed,
disclosing a bright line of the pearly teeth. Amazement
now struggled in my bosom with the profound awe
which had hitherto reigned there alone. I felt that my
vision grew dim, that my reason wandered ; and it was
only by a violent effort that I at length succeeded in
nerving myself to the task which duty thus once more
had pointed out. There was now a partial glow upon
the forehead and upon the cheek and throat ; a per
ceptible warmth pervaded the whole frame ; there was
even a slight pulsation at the heart. The lady lived ;
and with redoubled ardour I betook myself to the task
of restoration. I chafed and bathed the temples and
the hands, and used every exertion which experience,
and no little medical reading, could suggest. But in
vain. Suddenly, the colour fled, the pulsation ceased,
the lips resumed the expression of the dead, and, in an
instant afterwards, the whole body took upon itself the
icy chilliness, the livid hue, the intense rigidity, the
sunken outline, and all the loathsome peculiarities of
that which has been, for many days, a tenant of the
tomb.

And again I sunk into visions of Ligeia — and again
(what marvel that I shudder while I write ?) again there
'34

LIGEIA

reached my ears a low sob from the region of the ebony
bed. But why shall I minutely detail the unspeakable
horrors of that night ? Why shall I pause to relate
how, time after time, until near the period of the grey
dawn, this hideous drama of revivification was repeated ;
how each terrific relapse was only into a sterner and
apparently more irredeemable death ; how each agony
wore the aspect of a struggle with some invisible foe ;
and how each struggle was succeeded by I know not
what of wild change in the personal appearance of the
corpse ? Let me hurry to a conclusion.

The greater part of the fearful night had worn
away, and she who had been dead, once again stirred —
and now more vigorously than hitherto, although
arousing from a dissolution more appalling in its utter
hopelessness than any. I had long ceased to struggle
or to move, and remained sitting rigidly upon the
ottoman, a helpless prey to a whirl of violent emotions,
of which extreme awe was perhaps the least terrible,
the least consuming. The corpse, I repeat, stirred,
and now more vigorously than before. The hues of
life flushed up with unwonted energy into the counte
nance — the limbs relaxed — and, save that the eyelids
were yet pressed heavily together, and that the bandages
and draperies of the grave still imparted their charnel
character to the figure, I might have dreamed that
Rowena had indeed shaken off, utterly, the fetters of
Death. But if this idea was not, even then, altogether
adopted, I could at least doubt no longer, when arising
from the bed, tottering, with feeble steps, with closed
eyes, and with the manner of one bewildered in a dream,
the thing that was enshrouded advanced boldly and
palpably into the middle of the apartment.

I trembled not — I stirred not — for a crowd of unutter-

'35

TALES OF MYSTERY

able fancies connected with the air, the stature, the
demeanour of the figure, rushing hurriedly through my
brain, had paralysed — had chilled me into stone. I
stirred not — but gazed upon the apparition. There was
a mad disorder in my thoughts — a tumult unappeasable.
Could it, indeed, be the living Rowena who confronted
me ? Could it indeed be Rowena at all — the fair-haired,
the blue-eyed Lady Rowena Trevanion of Tremaine ?
Why, why should I doubt it ! The bandage lay heavily
about the mouth — but then might it not be the mouth
of the breathing Lady of Tremaine ? And the cheeks
— there were the roses as in her noon of life — yes, these
might indeed be the fair cheeks of the living Lady of
Tremaine. And the chin, with its dimples, as in health,
might it not be hers ? — but had she then grown taller since
her malady ? What inexpressible madness seized me
with that thought ? One bound, and I had reached her
feet ! Shrinking from my touch, she let fall from her
head, unloosened, the ghastly cerements which had con
fined it, and there streamed forth, into the rushing atmo
sphere of the chamber, huge masses of long and dishevelled
hair ; // was blacker than the raven wings of the midnight !
And now slowly opened the eyes of the figure which stood
before me. " Here then, at least," I shrieked aloud,
"can I never — can I never be mistaken — these are the full,
and the black, and the wild eyes — of my lost love — of
the lady — of the LADY LIGEIA."

136

ELEONORA

I AM come of a race noted for vigour of fancy and
ardour of passion. Men have called me mad ;
but the question is not yet settled, whether
madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence —
whether much that is glorious — whether all that
is profound — does not spring from disease of thought
— from moods of mind exalted at the expense ot
the general intellect. They who dream by day are
cognisant of many things which escape those who dream
only by night. In their grey visions they obtain glimpses
of eternity, and thrill, in awaking, to find that they have
been upon the verge of the great secret. In snatches,
they learn something of the wisdom which is of good,
and more of the mere knowledge which is of evil.
They penetrate, however rudderless or compassless, into
the vast ocean of the " light ineffable " and again, like
the adventurers of the Nubian geographer, " aggressi
sunt mare tenebrarum^ quid in eo esset exploraturi"

We will say, then, that I am mad. I grant, at least
that there are two distinct conditions of my mental
existence — the condition of a lucid reason, not to be
disputed, and belonging to the memory of events form
ing the first epoch of my life — and a condition of shadow
and doubt, appertaining to the present, and to the recol
lection of what constitutes the second great era of my
being. Therefore, what I shall tell of the earlier period,
believe ; and to what I may relate of the later time,
give only such credit as may seem due ; or doubt it
altogether ; or, if doubt it ye cannot, then play unto its
riddle the CEdipus.

She whom I loved in youth, and of whom I now
pen calmly and distinctly these remembrances, was the
sole daughter of the only sister of my mother long

'37

TALES OF MYSTERY

departed. Eleonora was the name of my cousin. We
had always dwelled together, beneath a tropical sun, in
the Valley of the Many-Coloured Grass. No unguided
footstep ever came upon that vale ; for it lay far away
up among a range of giant hills that hung beetling
around about it, shutting out the sunlight from its
sweetest recesses. No path was trodden in its vicinity ;
and, to reach our happy home, there was need of putting
back, with force, the foliage of many thousands of forest
trees, and of crushing to death the glories of manymillions
of fragrant flowers. Thus it was that we lived all alone,
knowing nothing of the world without the valley — I,
and my cousin, and her mother.

From the dim regions beyond the mountains at the
upper end of our encircled domain, there crept out a
narrow and deep river, brighter than all save the eyes of
Eleonora ; and, winding stealthily about in mazy courses
it passed away, at length, through a shadowy gorge,
among hills still dimmer than those whence it had issued.
We called it the " River of Silence " ; for there seemed
to be a hushing influence in its flow. No murmur arose
from its bed, and so gently it wandered along, that the
pearly pebbles upon which we loved to gaze, far down
within its bosom, stirred not at all, but lay in a motion
less content, each in its own old station, shining on
gloriously for ever.

The margin of the river, and of the many dazzling
rivulets that glided, through devious ways, into its
channel, as well as the spaces that extended from the
margins away down into the depths of the streams until
they reached the bed of pebbles at the bottom — these
spots, not less than the whole surface of the valley,
from the river to the mountains that girdled it in, were
carpeted all by a soft green grass, thick, short, perfectly

138

ELEONORA

even, and vanilla-perfumed, but so besprinkled through
out with the yellow buttercup, the white daisy, the
purple violet, and the ruby-red asphodel, that its
exceeding beauty spoke to our hearts, in loud tones,
of the love and of the glory of God.

And here and there, in groves about this grass, like
wildernesses of dreams, sprang up fantastic trees, whose
tall slender stems stood not upright, but slanted grace
fully towards the light that peered at noon-day into
the centre of the valley. Their bark was speckled
with the vivid alternate splendour of ebony and silver,
and was smoother than all save the cheeks of Eleonora ;
so that but for the brilliant green of the huge leaves
that spread from their summits in long tremulous lines,
dallying with the Zephyrs, one might have fancied
them giant serpents of Syria doing homage to their
Sovereign the Sun.

Hand in hand about this valley, for fifteen years,
roamed I with Eleonora before Love entered within
our hearts. It was one evening at the close of the
third lustrum of her life, and of the fourth of my
own, that we sat, locked in each other's embrace,
beneath the serpent-like trees, and looked down within
the waters of the River of Silence at our images
therein. We spoke no words during the rest of
that sweet day ; and our words even upon the
morrow were tremulous and few. We had drawn the
god Eros from that wave, and now we felt that he had
enkindled within us the fiery souls of our forefathers.
The passions which had for centuries distinguished our
race, came thronging with the fancies for which they
had been equally noted, and together breathed a
delirious bliss over the Valley of the Many-Coloured
Grass. A change fell upon all things. Strange brilliant

TALES OF MYSTERY

flowers, star-shaped, burst out upon the trees where no
flowers had been known before. The tints of the green
carpet deepened ; and when, one by one, the white
daisies shrank away, there sprang up, in place of them,
ten by ten of the ruby-red asphodel. And life arose
in our paths ; for the tall flamingo, hitherto unseen,
with all gay glowing birds, flaunted his scarlet plumage
before us. The golden and silver fish haunted the
river, out of the bosom of which issued, little by little,
a murmur that swelled, at length, into a lulling melody
more divine than that of the harp of ^Eolus — sweeter
than all save the voice of Eleonora. And now, too, a
voluminous cloud, which we had long watched in the
regions of Hesper, floated out thence, all gorgeous in
crimson and gold, and settling in peace above us, sank,
day by day, lower and lower, until its edges rested
upon the tops of the mountains, turning all their dim
ness into magnificence, and shutting us up, as if for ever,
within a magic prison-house of grandeur and of glory.

The loveliness of Eleonora was that of the Seraphim ;
but she was a maiden artless and innocent as the brief
life she had led among the flowers. No guile disguised
the fervour of love which animated her heart, and she
examined with me its inmost recesses as we walked
together in the Valley of the Many-Coloured Grass,
and discoursed of the mighty changes which had lately
taken place therein.

At length, having spoken one day, in tears, of the
last sad change which must befall Humanity, she
thenceforward dwelt only upon this one sorrowful
theme, interweaving it into all our converse, as, in the
songs of the bard of Schiraz, the same images are
found occurring, again and again, in every impressive
variation of phrase.
140

#0 • 1 !

p ,'»•

mtt.*mm

Ss-,^1 *tyv

ELEONORA

She had seen that the finger of Death was upon her
bosom — that, like the ephemeron, she had been made
perfect in loveliness only to die ; but the terrors of the
grave, to her, lay solely in a consideration which she
revealed to me, one evening at twilight, by the banks
of the River of Silence. She grieved to think that,
having entombed her in the Valley of the Many-
Coloured Grass, I would quit for ever its happy
recesses, transferring the love which now was so pas
sionately her own to some maiden of the outer and
every-day world. And, then and there, I threw myself
hurriedly at the feet of Eleonora, and offered up a vow,
to herself and Heaven, that I would never bind myself
in marriage to any daughter of Earth — that I would in
no manner prove recreant to her dear memory, or to
the memory of the devout affection with which she
had blessed me. And I called the Mighty Ruler of
the Universe to witness the pious solemnity of my
vow. And the curse which I invoked of Him and of
her, a saint in Helusion, should I prove traitorous to
that promise, involved a penalty the exceeding great
horror of which will not permit me to make record of
it here. And the bright eyes of Eleonora grew brighter
at my words ; and she sighed as if a deadly burthen
had been taken from her breast ; and she trembled and
very bitterly wept ; but she made acceptance of the
vow (for what was she but a child ?), and it made easy
to her the bed of her death. And she said to me, not
many days afterwards, tranquilly dying, that, because of
what I had done for the comfort of her spirit, she
would watch over me in that spirit when departed,
and, if so it were permitted her, return to me visibly in
the watches of the night ; but, if this thing were,
indeed, beyond the power of the souls in Paradise, that

141

TALES OF MYSTERY

she would, at least, give me frequent indications of
her presence ; sighing upon me in the evening winds,
or filling the air which I breathed with perfume from
the censers of the angels. And, with these words upon
her lips, she yielded up her innocent life, putting an
end to the first epoch of my own.

Thus far I have faithfully said. But as I pass the
barrier in Time's path formed by the death of my
beloved, and proceed with the second era of my
existence, I feel that a shadow gathers over my brain,
and I mistrust the perfect sanity of the record. But let
me on. Years dragged themselves along heavily, and
still I dwelled within the Valley of the Many-Coloured
Grass ; but a second change had come upon all things.
The star-shaped flowers shrank into the stems of the
trees, and appeared no more. The tints of the green
carpet faded ; and, one by one, the ruby-red asphodels
withered away ; and there sprang up in place of them,
ten by ten, dark eye-like violets that writhed uneasily
and were ever encumbered with dew. And Life de
parted from our paths ; for the tall flamingo flaunted no
longer his scarlet plumage before us, but flew sadly
from the vale into the hills, with all the gay glowing
birds that had arrived in his company. And the golden
and silver fish swam down through the gorge at the
lower end of our domain and bedecked the sweet river
never again. And the lulling melody that had been
softer than the wind-harp of ^Eolus and more divine
than all save the voice of Eleonora, it died little by little
away, in murmurs growing lower and lower, until the
stream returned at length utterly into the solemnity of
its original silence. And then, lastly, the voluminous
cloud uprose, and, abandoning the tops of the mountains
to the dimness of old, fell back into the regions of
142

ELEONORA

Hesper, and took away all its manifold golden and
gorgeous glories from the Valley of the Many-Coloured
Grass.

Yet the promises of Eleonora were not forgotten,
for I heard the sounds of the swinging of the censers of
the angels ; and streams of a holy perfume floated ever
and ever about the valley ; and at lone hours, when my
heart beat heavily, the winds that bathed my brow
came unto me laden with soft sighs, and indistinct
murmurs filled often the night air ; and once — oh, but
once only ! — I was awakened from a slumber like the
slumber of death by the pressing of spiritual lips upon
my own.

But the void within my heart refused, even thus, to
be filled. I longed for the love which had before filled
it to overflowing. At length the valley pained me
through its memories of Eleonora, and I left it for ever
for the vanities and the turbulent triumphs of the
world.

IP >p 4t v >P

I found myself within a strange city, where all
things might have served to blot from recollection the
sweet dreams I had dreamed so long in the Valley of
the Many-Coloured Grass. The pomps and pageantries
of a stately court, and the mad clangour of arms, and
the radiant loveliness of woman, bewildered and in
toxicated my brain. But as yet my soul had proved
true to its vows, and the indications of the presence of
Eleonora were still given me in the silent hours of the
night. Suddenly these manifestations — they ceased ; and
the world grew dark before mine eyes ; and I stood
aghast at the burning thoughts which possessed — at the
terrible temptations which beset me ; for there came
from some far, far distant and unknown land, into the

H3

TALES OF MYSTERY

gay court of the king I served, a maiden to whose
beauty my whole recreant heart yielded at once — at
whose footstool I bowed down without a struggle, in the
most ardent, in the most abject worship of love. What
indeed was my passion for the young girl of the valley
in comparison with the fervour, and the delirium, and
the spirit-lifting ecstasy of adoration with which I
poured out my whole soul in tears at the feet of the
ethereal Ermengarde ? Oh, bright was the seraph
Ermengarde ! and in that knowledge I had room for
none other. Oh, divine was the angel Ermengarde !
and as I looked down into the depths of her memorial
eyes I thought only of them — and of her.

I wedded — nor dreaded the curse I had invoked ; and
its bitterness was not visited upon me. And once — but
once again in the silence of the night, there came
through my lattice the soft sighs which had forsaken
me ; and they modelled themselves into familiar and
sweet voice, saying :

" Sleep in peace ! for the Spirit of Love reigneth
and ruleth, and, in taking to thy passionate heart her
who is Ermengarde, thou art absolved, for reasons
which shall be made known to thee in Heaven, of thy
vows unto Eleonora.'

144

THE MASQUE OF THE
RED DEATH

I

"Red Death" had long devastated the
country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal,
or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its
seal — the redness and horror of blood. There
were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse
bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. The scarlet
stains upon the body, and especially upon the face of the
victim, were the pest ban which shut him out from the
aid and from the sympathy of his fellow-men. And the
whole seizure, progress, and termination of the disease,
were the incidents of half an hour.

But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and
sagacious. When his dominions were half depopulated,
he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-
hearted friends from among the knights and dames of
his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion
of one of his castellated abbeys. This was an extensive
and magnificent structure, the creation of the prince's
own eccentric yet august taste. A strong and lofty
wall girdled it in. This wall had gates of iron. The
courtiers, having entered, brought furnaces and massy
hammers and welded the bolts. They resolved to leave
means neither of ingress nor egress to the sudden im
pulses of despair or of frenzy from within. The abbey
was amply provisioned. With such precautions the
courtiers might bid defiance to contagion. The external
world could take care of itself. In the meantime it
was folly to grieve, or to think. The prince had pro
vided all the appliances of pleasure. There were
buffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballet-
dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there

K 145

TALES OF MYSTERY

was wine. All these and security were within. With
out was the " Red Death."

It was toward the close of the fifth or sixth month
of his seclusion, and while the pestilence raged most
furiously abroad, that the Prince Prospero entertained
his thousand friends at a masked ball of the most unusual
magnificence.

It was a voluptuous scene, that masquerade. But
first let me tell of the rooms in which it was held.
These were seven — an imperial suite. In many palaces,
however, such suites form a long and straight vista,
while the folding doors slide back nearly to the walls on
either hand, so that the view of the whole extent is
scarcely impeded. Here the case was very different, as
might have been expected from the duke's love of the
bizarre. The apartments were so irregularly disposed that
the vision embraced but little more than one at a time.
There was a sharp turn at every twenty or thirty yards,
and at each turn a novel effect. To the right and left,
in the middle of each wall, a tall and narrow Gothic
window looked out upon a closed corridor which pur
sued the windings of the suite. These windows were
of stained glass, whose colour varied in accordance with
the prevailing hue of the decorations of the chamber
into which it opened. That at the eastern extremity
was hung, for example, in blue — and vividly blue were
its windows. The second chamber was purple in its
ornaments and tapestries, and here the panes were purple.
The third was green throughout, and so were the case
ments. The fourth was furnished and lighted with
orange — the fifth with white — the sixth with violet.
The seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black
velvet tapestries that hung all over the ceiling and
down the walls, falling in heavy folds upon a carpet of
146

THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

the same material and hue. But in this chamber only
the colour of the windows failed to correspond with the
decorations. The panes here were scarlet — a deep blood
colour. Now in no one of the seven apartments was
there any lamp or candelabrum, amid the profusion of
golden ornaments that lay scattered to and fro or de
pended from the roof. There was no light of any kind
emanating from lamp or candle within the suite of
chambers. But in the corridors that followed the suite
there stood, opposite to each window, a heavy tripod
bearing a brazier of fire, that projected its rays through
the tinted glass and so glaringly illumined the room.
And thus were produced a multitude of gaudy and
fantastic appearances. But in the western or black
chamber the effect of the fire-light that streamed upon
the dark hangings through the blood-tinted panes was
ghastly in the extreme, and produced so wild a look
upon the countenances of those who entered, that there
were few of the company bold enough to set foot within
its precincts at all.

It was in this apartment, also, that there stood
against the western wall, a gigantic clock of ebony.
Its pendulum swung to and fro with a dull, heavy,
monotonous clang ; and when the minute-hand made
the circuit of the face, and the hour was to be stricken,
there came from the brazen lungs of the clock a sound
which was clear and loud and deep and exceedingly
musical, but of so peculiar a note and emphasis that, at
each lapse of an hour, the musicians of the orchestra
were constrained to pause, momentarily, in their per
formance, to harken to the sound ; and thus the waltzers
perforce ceased their evolutions ; and there was a brief
disconcert of the whole gay company ; and, while the
chimes of the clock yet rang, it was observed that the

H7

TALES OF MYSTERY

giddiest grew pale, and the more aged and sedate passed
their hands over their brows as if in confused reverie or
meditation. But when the echoes had fully ceased, a
light laughter at once pervaded the assembly ; the
musicians looked at each other and smiled as if at
their own nervousness and folly, and made whispering
vows, each to the other, that the next chiming of the
clock should produce in them no similar emotion ; and
then, after the lapse of sixty minutes (which embrace
three thousand and six hundred seconds of the Time
that flies), there came yet another chiming of the clock,
and then were the same disconcert and tremulousness
and meditation as before.

But, in spite of these things, it was a gay and
magnificent revel. The tastes of the duke were peculiar.
He had a fine eye for colours and effects. He disre
garded the decora of mere fashion. His plans were
bold and fiery, and his conceptions glowed with barbaric
lustre. There are some who would have thought him
mad. His followers felt that he was not. It was necessary
to hear and see and touch him to be sure that he was not.

He had directed, in great part, the movable em
bellishments of the seven chambers, upon occasion of
this greaty?fc ; and it was his own guiding taste which
had given character to the masqueraders. Be sure they
were grotesque. There were much glare and glitter
and piquancy and phantasm — much of what has been
since seen in Hernani. There were arabesque figures
with unsuited limbs and appointments. There were
delirious fancies such as the madman fashions. There
were much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much
of the bizarre^ something of the terrible, and not a little
of that which might have excited disgust. To and fro
in the seven chambers there stalked, in fact, a multitude
148

THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

of dreams. And these — the dreams — writhed in and
about, taking hue from the rooms, and causing the wild
music of the orchestra to seem as the echo of their
steps. And, anon, there strikes the ebony clock which
stands in the hall of the velvet. And then, for a
moment, all is still, and all is silent save the voice of the
clock. The dreams are stiff-frozen as they stand. But
the echoes of the chime die away — they have endured
but an instant — and a light, half-subdued laughter floats
after them as they depart. And now again the music
swells, and the dreams live, and writhe to and fro more
merrily than ever, taking hue from the many-tinted
windows through which stream the rays from the
tripods. But to the chamber which lies most west-
wardly of the seven there are now none of the maskers
who venture ; for the night is waning away ; and
there flows a ruddier light through the blood-coloured
panes ; and the blackness of the sable drapery appals ;
and to him whose foot falls upon the sable carpet, there
comes from the near clock of ebony a muffled peal more
solemnly emphatic than any which reaches their ears
who indulged in the more remote gaieties of the other
apartments.

But these other apartments were densely crowded,
and in them beat feverishly the heart of life. And the
revel went whirlingly on, until at length there com
menced the sounding of midnight upon the clock.
And then the music ceased, as I have told ; and the
evolutions of the waltzers were quieted ; and there was
an uneasy cessation of all things as before. But now
there were twelve strokes to be sounded by the bell of
the clock ; and thus it happened, perhaps, that more
of thought crept, with more of time, into the medita
tions of the thoughtful among those who revelled.

149

TALES OF MYSTERY

And thus too, it happened, perhaps, that before the last
echoes of the last chime had utterly sunk into silence,
there were many individuals in the crowd who had
found leisure to become aware of the presence of a
masked figure which had arrested the attention of no
single individual before. And the rumour of this new
presence having spread itself whisperingly around, there
arose at length from the whole company a buzz, or
murmur, expressive of disapprobation and surprise —
then, finally, of terror, of horror, and of disgust.

In an assembly of phantasms such as I have painted,
it may well be supposed that no ordinary appearance
could have excited much sensation. In truth the mas
querade license of the night was nearly unlimited ; but
the figure in question had out-Heroded Herod, and
gone beyond the bounds of even the prince's indefinite
decorum. There are chords in the hearts of the most
reckless which cannot be touched without emotion.
Even with the utterly lost, to whom life and death are
equally jests, there are matters of which no jest can be
made. The whole company, indeed, seemed now deeply
to feel that in the costume and bearing of the stranger
neither wit nor propriety existed. The figure was tall
and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habili
ments of the grave. The mask which concealed the visage
was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a
stiffened corpse that the closest scrutiny must have had
difficulty in detecting the cheat. And yet all this might
have been endured, if not approved, by the mad revellers
around. But the mummer had gone so far as to assume
the type of the Red Death. His vesture was dabbled in
blood — and his broad brow, with all the features of the
face, was sprinkled with the scarlet horror.

When the eyes of Prince Prospero fell upon this
150

THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH

spectral image (which, with a slow and solemn move
ment, as if more fully to sustain its role^ stalked to and
fro among the waltzers) he was seen to be convulsed in
the first moment with a strong shudder either of terror
or distaste ; but, in the next, his brow reddened with
rage.

" Who dares," — he demanded hoarsely of the
courtiers who stood near him — " who dares insult us
with this blasphemous mockery ? Seize him and un
mask him — that we may know whom we have to hang,
at sunrise, from the battlements ! "

In was in the eastern or blue chamber in which
stood the Prince Prospero as he uttered these words.
They rang throughout the seven rooms loudly and
clearly, for the prince was a bold and robust man, and
the music had become hushed at the waving of his
hand.

It was in the blue room where stood the prince, with
a group of pale courtiers by his side. At first, as he
spoke, there was a slight rushing movement of this
group in the direction of the intruder, who at the
moment was also near at hand, and now, with deliberate
and stately step, made closer approach to the speaker.
But from a certain nameless awe with which the mad
assumptions of the mummer had inspired the whole
party, there were found none who put forth hand to
seize him ; so that, unimpeded, he passed within a yard
of the prince's person ; and while the vast assembly, as
if with one impulse, shrank from the centres of the rooms
to the walls, he made his way uninterruptedly, but with
the same solemn and measured step which had distin
guished him from the first, through the blue chamber
to the purple — through the purple to the green — through
the green to the orange — through this again to the white

'51

— and even thence to the violet, ere a decided movement
had been made to arrest him. It was then, however,
that the Prince Prospero, maddening with rage and the
shame of his own momentary cowardice, rushed hur
riedly through the six chambers, while none followed
him on account of a deadly terror that had seized upon
all. He bore aloft a drawn dagger, and had approached
in rapid impetuosity, to within three or four feet of the
retreating figure, when the latter, having attained the
extremity of the velvet apartment, turned suddenly and
confronted his pursuer. There was a sharp cry — and
the dagger dropped gleaming upon the sable carpet,
upon which, instantly afterward, fell prostrate in death
the Prince Prospero. Then, summoning the wild
courage of despair, a throng of the revellers at once
threw themselves into the black apartment, and, seizing
the mummer, whose tall figure stood erect and motion
less within the shadow of the ebony clock, gasped in
unutterable horror at finding the grave cerements and
corpse-like mask, which they handled with so violent a
rudeness, untenanted by any tangible form.

And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red
Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And
one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed
halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing
posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock
went out with that of the last of the gay. And the
flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and
Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion
over all.

152

I

THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO

thousand injuries of Fortunate I had borne
as I best could, but when he ventured upon
insult, I vowed revenge. You, who so
well know the nature of my soul, will not
suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a threat.
At length I would be avenged ; this was a point defi
nitely settled — but the very definiteness with which it
was resolved precluded the idea of risk. I must not
only punish but punish with impunity. A wrong is
unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser.
It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make
himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong.

It must be understood that neither by word nor
deed had I given Fortunato cause to doubt my good
will. I continued, as was my wont, to smile in his
face, and he did not perceive that my smile now was at
the thought of his immolation.

He had a weak point — this Fortunato — although in
other regards he was a man to be respected and even
feared. He prided himself on his connoisseurship in
wine. Few Italians have the true virtuoso spirit. For
the most part their enthusiasm is adopted to suit the
time and opportunity, to practise imposture upon the
British and Austrian millionaires. In painting and gem-
mary, Fortunato, like his countrymen, was a quack,
but in the matter of old wines he was sincere. In this
respect I did not differ from him materially ; I was
skilful in the Italian vintages myself, and bought largely
whenever I could.

It was about dusk, one evening during the supreme
madness of the carnival season, that I encountered my
friend. He accosted me with excessive warmth, for
he had been drinking much. The man wore motley.

'S3

TALES OF MYSTERY

He had on a tight-fitting parti-striped dress, and his
head was surmounted by the conical cap and bells. I
was so pleased to see him that I thought I should never
have done wringing his hand.

I said to him — " My dear Fortunato, you are luckily
met. How remarkably well you are looking to-day.
But I have received a pipe of what passes for Amontil
lado, and I have my doubts."

" How ? " said he. " Amontillado ? A pipe ?
Impossible ! And in the middle of the carnival ! "

" I have my doubts," I replied ; " and I was silly
enough to pay the full Amontillado price without con
sulting you in the matter. You were not to be found,
and 1 was fearful of losing a bargain."

" Amontillado ! "

" I have my doubts."

" Amontillado ! "

"And I must satisfy them."

" Amontillado ! "

" As you are engaged, I am on my way to Luchresi.
If any one has a critical turn it is he. He will tell
me "

" Luchresi cannot tell Amontillado from Sherry."

" And yet some fools will have it that his taste is a
match for your own."

" Come, let us go."

" Whither ? "

"To your vaults."

" My friend, no ; I will not impose upon your
good nature. I perceive you have an engagement.
Luchresi "

" I have no engagement — come."

" My friend, no. It is not the engagement, but the
severe cold with which I perceive you are afflicted.

'54

THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO

The vaults are insufferably damp. They are encrusted
with nitre."

" Let us go, nevertheless. The cold is merely
nothing. Amontillado ! You have been imposed upon.
And as for Luchresi, he cannot distinguish Sherry from
Amontillado."

Thus speaking, Fortunato possessed himself of my
arm ; and putting on a mask of black silk and drawing
a roquelaure closely about my person, I suffered him to
hurry me to my palazzo.

There were no attendants at home ; they had
absconded to make merry in honour of the time. I
had told them that I should not return until the morn
ing, and had given them explicit orders not to stir from
the house. These orders were sufficient, I well knew,
to insure their immediate disappearance, one and all, as
soon as my back was turned.

I took from their sconces two flambeaux, and giving
one to Fortunato, bowed him through several suites of
rooms to the archway that led into the vaults. I passed
down a long and winding staircase, requesting him to
be cautious as he followed. We came at length to the
foot of the descent, and stood together upon the damp
ground of the catacombs of the Montresors.

The gait of my friend was unsteady, and the bells
upon his cap jingled as he strode.

"The pipe," he said.

" It is farther on," said I ; " but observe the white
web-work which gleams from these cavern walls."

He turned towards me, and looked into my eyes with
two filmy orbs that distilled the rheum of intoxication.

" Nitre ? " he asked, at length.

" Nitre," I replied. " How long have you had that
cough ? "

'55

TALES OF MYSTERY

" Ugh ! ugh ! ugh ! — ugh ! ugh ! ugh ! — ugh !
ugh ! ugh ! — ugh ! ugh ! ugh ! — ugh ! ugh ! ugh ! "

My poor friend found it impossible to reply for many
minutes.

" It is nothing," he said at last.

" Come," I said, with decision, " we will go back ;
your health is precious. You are rich, respected,
admired, beloved ; you are happy, as once I was.
You are a man to be missed. For me it is no matter.
We will go back ; you will be ill, and I cannot be
responsible. Besides, there is Luchresi "

" Enough," he said ; " the cough is a mere nothing ;
it will not kill me. I shall not die of a cough."

"True — true," I replied; "and, indeed, I had no
intention of alarming you unnecessarily — but you should
use all proper caution. A draught of this Medoc will
defend us from the damps."

Here I knocked off the neck of a bottle which I
drew from a long row of its fellows that lay upon the
mould.

" Drink," I said, presenting him the wine.

He raised it to his lips with a leer. He paused and
nodded to me familiarly, while his bells jingled.

" I drink," he said, " to the buried that repose
around us."

"And I to your long life."

He again took my arm, and we proceeded.

"These vaults," he said, " are extensive."

"The Montresors," I replied, "were a great and
numerous family."

" I forget your arms."

" A huge human foot d'or, in a field azure ; the
foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are imbedded
in the heel."

•56

THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO

" And the motto ? "

" Nemo me impune I aces sit"

" Good ! " he said.

The wine sparkled in his eyes and the bells jingled.
My own fancy grew warm with the Medoc. We had
passed through long walls of piled skeletons, with casks
and puncheons intermingling, into the inmost recesses
of catacombs. I paused again, and this time I made
bold to seize Fortunato by an arm above the
elbow.

" The nitre ! " I said ; " see, it increases. It hangs
like moss upon the vaults. We are below the river's
bed. The drops of moisture trickle among the bones.
Come, we will go back ere it is too late. Your
cough "

" It is nothing," he said ; " let us go on. But
first, another draught of the Medoc."

I broke and reached him a flagon of De Grave. He
emptied it at a breath. His eyes flashed with a fierce
light. He laughed and threw the bottle upwards with
a gesticulation I did not understand.

I looked at him in surprise. He repeated the
movement — a grotesque one.

" You do not comprehend ? " he said.

" Not I," I replied.

" Then you are not of the brotherhood."

" How ? "

" You are not of the masons."

" Yes, yes," I said ; " yes, yes."

" You ? Impossible ! A mason ? "

" A mason," I replied.

" A sign," he said, " a sign."

" It is this," I answered, producing from beneath the
folds of my roquelaure a trowel.

'57

TALES OF MYSTERY

" You jest," he exclaimed, recoiling a few paces.
" But let us proceed to the Amontillado."

" Be it so," I said, replacing the tool beneath the
cloak and again offering my arm. He leaned upon it
heavily. We continued our route in search of the
Amontillado. We passed through a range of low
arches, descended, passed on, and descending again,
arrived at a deep crypt, in which the foulness of the air
caused our flambeaux rather to glow than flame.

At the most remote end of the crypt there appeared
another less spacious. Its walls had been lined with
human remains, piled to the vault overhead, in the
fashion of the great catacombs of Paris. Three sides
of this interior crypt were still ornamented in this
manner. From the fourth side the bones had been
thrown down, and lay promiscuously upon the earth,
forming at one point a mound of some size. Within
the wall thus exposed by the displacing of the bones,
we perceived a still interior crypt or recess, in depth
about four feet, in width three, in height six or seven.
It seemed to have been constructed for no especial use
within itself, but formed merely the interval between
two of the colossal supports of the roof of the cata
combs, and was backed by one of their circumscribing
walls of solid granite.

It was in vain that Fortunato, uplifting his dull
torch, endeavoured to pry into the depth of the recess.
Its termination the feeble light did not enable us to
see.

"Proceed," I said; " herein is the Amontillado. As
for Luchresi "

" He is an ignoramus," interrupted my friend, as he
stepped unsteadily forward, while I followed imme
diately at his heels. In an instant he had reached the

THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO

extremity of the niche, and finding his progress arrested
by the rock, stood stupidly bewildered. A moment
more and I had fettered him to the granite. In its
surface were two iron staples, distant from each other
about two feet, horizontally. From one of these de
pended a short chain, from the other a padlock. Throw
ing the links about his waist, it was but the work of a
few seconds to secure it. He was too much astounded
to resist. Withdrawing the key I stepped back from
the recess.

" Pass your hand," I said, " over the wall ; you can
not help feeling the nitre. Indeed, it is very damp.
Once more let me implore you to return. No ? Then
I must positively leave you. But I must first render you
all the little attentions in my power."

" The Amontillado ! " ejaculated my friend, not yet
recovered from his astonishment.

" True," I replied ; " the Amontillado."

As I said these words I busied myself among the
pile of bones of which I have before spoken. Throwing
them aside, I soon uncovered a quantity of building
stone and mortar. With these materials and with the
aid of my trowel, I began vigorously to wall up the
entrance of the niche.

I had scarcely laid the first tier of the masonry when
I discovered that the intoxication of Fortunato had in
a great measure worn ofF. The earliest indication I had
of this was a low moaning cry from the depth of the
recess. It was not the cry of a drunken man. There
was then a long and obstinate silence. I laid the second
tier, and the third, and the fourth ; and then I heard
the furious vibrations of the chain. The noise lasted
for several minutes, during which, that I might hearken
to it with the more satisfaction, I ceased my labours and

'59

TALES OF MYSTERY

sat down upon the bones. When at last the clanking
subsided, I resumed the trowel, and finished without
interruption the fifth, the sixth, and the seventh tier.
The wall was now nearly upon a level with my breast. I
again paused, and holding the flambeaux over the
mason-work, threw a few feeble rays upon the figure
within.

A succession of loud and shrill screams, bursting
suddenly from the throat of the chained form, seemed
to thrust me violently back. For a brief moment I
hesitated, I trembled. Unsheathing my rapier, I began
to grope with it about the recess ; but the thought of
an instant reassured me. I placed my hand upon the
solid fabric of the catacombs, and felt satisfied. I re-
approached the wall ; I replied to the yells of him who
clamoured. I re-echoed, I aided, I surpassed them in
volume and in strength. I did this, and the clamourer
grew still.

It was now midnight, and my task was drawing to
a close. I had completed the eighth, the ninth, and
the tenth tier. I had finished a portion of the last and
the eleventh ; there remained but a single stone to be
fitted and plastered in. I struggled with its weight ; I
placed it partially in its destined position. But now
there came from out the niche a low laugh that erected
the hairs upon my head. It was succeeded by a sad
voice, which I had difficulty in recognising as that of
the noble Fortunato. The voice said :

" Ha ! ha ! ha ! — he ! he ! he ! — a very good joke,
indeed — an excellent jest. We shall have many a rich
laugh about it at the palazzo — he ! he ! he ! — over our
wine — he ! he ! he ! "

" The Amontillado ! " I said.

" He ! he ! he ! — he ! he ! he ! — yes, the Amon-
160

THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO

tillado. But is it not getting late ? Will not they be
awaiting us at the palazzo, the Lady Fortunato and the
rest ? Let us be gone."

" Yes," I said, " let us be gone."

" For the love of God^ Montresor ! "

" Yes," I said, « for the love of God ! "

But to these words I hearkened in vain for a reply.
I grew impatient. I called aloud :

" Fortunato ! "

No answer. I called again :

" Fortunato ! "

No answer still. I thrust a torch through the
remaining aperture and let it fall within. There came
forth in return only a jingling of the bells. My heart
grew sick ; it was the dampness of the catacombs that
made it so. I hastened to make an end of my labour.
I forced the last stone into its position ; I plastered it
up. Against the new masonry I re-erected the old
rampart of bones. For the half of a century no mortal
has disturbed them. In pace requiescat !

161

H

METZENGERSTEIN

ORROR and fatality have been stalking
abroad in all ages. Why then give a date
to the story I have to tell ? Let it suffice to
say, that at the period of which I speak,
there existed, in the interior of Hungary, a settled
although hidden belief in the doctrines of the Metem
psychosis. Of the doctrines themselves — that is, of their
falsity, or of their probability — I say nothing. I assert,
however, that much of our incredulity (as La Bruyere
says of all our unhappiness) "inentde nepouvoir etre seuls"*

But there were some points in the Hungarian super
stition which were fast verging to absurdity. They —
the Hungarians — differed very essentially from their
Eastern authorities. For example. "The soul" said the
former — I give the words of an acute and intelligent
Parisian — "tie demeure qrfune settle fois dans un corps sen
sible : au reste — un cAeva/, un chien^ un homme meme, n'est
que la ressemblance peu tangible de ces animaux."

The families at Berlifitzing and Metzengerstein had
been at variance for centuries. Never before were two
houses, so illustrious, mutually embittered by hostility
so deadly. The origin of this enmity seems to be found
in the words of an ancient prophecy — " A lofty name
shall have a fearful fall when, as the rider over his horse,
the mortality of Metzengerstein shall triumph over the
immortality of Berlifitzing."

To be sure, the words themselves had little or no
meaning. But more trivial causes have given rise — and
that no long while ago — to consequences equally eventful.

* Mercier, in "UAn deux nnlle quatre cents quarante" seriously maintains
the doctrines of the Metempsychosis, and J. D'Israeli says that " no system is
so simple and so little repugnant to the understanding." Colonel Ethan Allen,
the " Green Mountain Boy," is also said to have been a serious metempsy-
chosist.

163

TALES OF MYSTERY

Besides, the estates, which were contiguous, had long
exercised a rival influence in the affairs of a busy govern
ment. Moreover, near neighbours are seldom friends ;
and the inhabitants of the Castle Berlifitzing might look
from their lofty buttresses, into the very windows of the
Palace Metzengerstein. Least of all had the more than
feudal magnificence, thus discovered, a tendency to allay
the irritable feelings of the less ancient and less wealthy
Berlifitzing. What wonder, then, that the words, how
ever silly, of that prediction, should have succeeded in
setting and keeping at variance two families already pre
disposed to quarrel by every instigation of hereditary
jealousy. The prophecy seemed to imply — if it implied
anything — a final triumph on the part of the already
more powerful house ; and was of course remembered
with the more bitter animosity by the weaker and less
influential.

Wilhelm, Count Berlifitzing, although loftily de
scended, was, at the epoch of this narrative, an infirm
and doting old man, remarkable for nothing but an in
ordinate and inveterate personal antipathy to the family
of his rival, and so passionate a love of horses, and of
hunting, that neither bodily infirmity, great age, nor
mental incapacity, prevented his daily participation in
the dangers of the chase.

Frederick, Baron Metzengerstein, was, on the other

hand, not yet of age. His father, the Minister G ,

died young. His mother, the Lady Mary, followed him
quickly. Frederick was, at that time, in his eighteenth
year. In a city, eighteen years are no long period ; but
in a wilderness — in so magnificent a wilderness as that
old principality, the pendulum vibrates with a deeper
meaning.

From some peculiar circumstances attending the
164

METZENGERSTEIN

administration of his father, the young Baron, at the
decease of the former, entered immediately upon his
vast possessions. Such estates were seldom held before
by a nobleman of Hungary. His castles were without
number. The chief in point of splendour and extent
was the " Palace Metzengerstein." The boundary line
of his dominions was never clearly defined ; but his
principal park embraced a circuit of fifty miles.

Upon the succession of a proprietor so young, with
a character so well known, to a fortune so unparalleled,
little speculation was afloat in regard to his probable
course of conduct. And, indeed, for the space of three
days, the behaviour of the heir out-Heroded Herod, and
fairly surpassed the expectations of his most enthusiastic
admirers. Shameful debaucheries — flagrant treacheries
— unheard-of atrocities — gave his trembling vassals
quickly to understand that no servile submission on their
part — no punctilios of conscience on his own — were
thenceforward to prove any security against the remorse
less fangs of a petty Caligula. On the night of the fourth
day, the stables of the Castle Berlifitzing were dis
covered to be on fire ; and the unanimous opinion of the
neighbourhood added the crime of the incendiary to the
already hideous list of the Baron's misdemeanours and
enormities.

But during the tumult occasioned by this occurrence,
the young nobleman himself sat apparently buried in
meditation, in a vast and desolate upper apartment of
the family palace of Metzengerstein. The rich although
faded tapestry hangings which swung gloomily upon
the walls represented the shadowy and majestic forms
of a thousand illustrious ancestors. Here, rich-ermined
priests and pontifical dignitaries, familiarly seated with
the autocrat and the sovereign, put a veto on the wishes

-65

TALES OF MYSTERY

of a temporal king, or restrained with the fiat of papal
supremacy the rebellious sceptre of the Arch-enemy.
There > the dark, tall statues of the Princes Metzenger-
stein — their muscular war-coursers plunging over the
carcasses of fallen foes — startled the steadiest nerves
with their vigorous expression ; and here, again, the
voluptuous and swan-like figures of the dames of days
gone by floated away in the mazes of an unreal dance
to the strains of imaginary melody.

But as the Baron listened, or affected to listen, to the
gradually increasing uproar in the stables of Berlifitzing
— or perhaps pondered upon some more novel, some
more decided act of audacity — his eyes were turned
unwittingly to the figure of an enormous, and unnatu
rally coloured horse, represented, in the tapestry as
belonging to a Saracen ancestor of the family of his
rival. The horse itself, in the foreground of the design,
stood motionless and statue-like — while, farther back,
its discomfited rider perished by the dagger of a Met-
zengerstein.

On Frederick's lip arose a fiendish expression, as he
became aware of the direction which his glance had,
without his consciousness, assumed. Yet he did not
remove it. On the contrary, he could by no means
account for the overwhelming anxiety which appeared
falling like a pall upon his senses. It was with difficulty
that he reconciled his dreamy and incoherent feelings
with the certainty of being awake. The longer he
gazed the more absorbing became the spell — the
more impossible did it appear that he could ever
withdraw his glance from the fascination of that
tapestry. But the tumult without becoming suddenly
more violent, with a compulsory exertion he diverted
his attention to the glare of ruddy light thrown full
166

METZENGERSTEIN

by the flaming stables upon the windows of the
apartment.

The action, however, was but momentary ; his gaze
returned mechanically to the wall. To his extreme
horror and astonishment, the head of the gigantic steed
had, in the meantime, altered its position. The neck
of the animal before arched, as if in compassion, over
the prostrate body of its lord, was now extended at full
length, in the direction of the Baron. The eyes, before
invisible, now wore an energetic and human expression,
while they gleamed with a fiery and unusual red ; and
the distended lips of the apparently enraged horse left in
full view his sepulchral and disgusting teeth.

Stupefied with terror, the young nobleman tottered
to the door. As he threw it open, a flash of red light,
streaming far into the chamber, flung his shadow with
a clear outline against the quivering tapestry ; and he
shuddered to perceive that shadow — as he staggered
awhile upon the threshold — assuming the exact position
and precisely filling up the contour, of the relentless
and triumphant murderer of the Saracen Berlifitzing.

To lighten the depression of his spirits, the Baron
hurried into the open air. At the principal gate of the
palace he encountered three equerries. With much
difficulty, and at the imminent peril of their lives, they
were restraining the convulsive plunges of a gigantic
and fiery-coloured horse.

" Whose horse ? Where did you get him ? "
demanded the youth, in a querulous and husky tone,
as he became instantly aware that the mysterious steed
in the tapestried chamber was the very counterpart of
the furious animal before his eyes.

" He is your own property, sire," replied one of the
equerries, " at least he is claimed by no other owner.

167

TALES OF MYSTERY

We caught him flying, all smoking and foaming with
rage, from the burning stables of the Castle Berlifitzing.
Supposing him to have belonged to the old Count's stud
of foreign horses, we led him back as an estray. But
the grooms there disclaim any title to the creature ;
which is strange, since he bears evident marks of having
made a narrow escape from the flames."

"The letters W. V. B. are also branded very dis
tinctly on his forehead," interrupted a second equerry ;
"I supposed them, of course, to be the initials of William
Von Berlifitzing — but all at the castle are positive in
denying any knowledge of the horse."

" Extremely singular ! " said the young Baron, with
a musing air, and apparently unconscious of the mean
ing of his words. " He is, as you say, a remarkable
horse — a prodigious horse ! although, as you very justly
observe, of a suspicious and untractable character ; let
him be mine, however," he added, after a pause, " per
haps a rider like Frederick of Metzengerstein may
tame even the devil from the stables of Berlifitzing."

" You are mistaken, my lord ; the horse, as I think
we mentioned, is not from the stables of the Count. If
such had been the case, we know our duty better than
to bring him into the presence of a noble of your
family."

" True ! " observed the Baron drily ; and at that
instant a page of the bedchamber came from the palace
with a heightened colour and a precipitate step. He
whispered into his master's ear an account of the
sudden disappearance of a small portion of the tapestry,
in an apartment which he designated ; entering, at
the same time, into particulars of a minute and
circumstantial character ; but from the low tone
of voice in which these latter were communicated,
168

METZENGERSTEIN

nothing escaped to gratify the excited curiosity of the
equerries.

The young Frederick, during the conference, seemed
agitated by a variety of emotions. He soon, however,
recovered his composure, and an expression of deter
mined malignancy settled upon his countenance, as he
gave peremptory orders that the apartment in question
should be immediately locked up, and the key placed
in his own possession.

" Have you heard of the unhappy death of the old
hunter, Berlifitzing ? " said one of his vassals to the
Baron, as, after the departure of the page, the huge
steed which that nobleman had adopted as his own,
plunged and curveted with redoubled fury, down the
long avenue which extended from the palace to the
stables of Metzengerstein.

" No ! " said the Baron, turning abruptly toward the
speaker, " dead ! say you ? "

" It is indeed true, my lord ; and, to the noble of
your name, will be, I imagine, no unwelcome intelli
gence."

A rapid smile shot over the countenance of the
listener. " How died he ? "

" In his rash exertions to rescue a favourite portion
of the hunting stud, he has himself perished miserably
in the flames."

" I — n — d — e — e — d — ! " ejaculated the Baron, as
if slowly and deliberately impressed with the truth of
some exciting idea.

" Indeed ; " repeated the vassal.

" Shocking ! " said the youth, calmly, and turned
quietly into the palace.

From this date a marked alteration took place in
the outward demeanour of the dissolute young Baron

169

TALES OF MYSTERY

Frederick Von Metzengerstein. Indeed, his behaviour
disappointed every expectation, and proved little in
accordance with the views of many a manoeuvring
mamma ; while his habits and manner, still less than
formerly, offered anything congenial with those of the
neighbouring aristocracy. He was never to be seen
beyond the limits of his own domain, and in his wide
and social world, was utterly companionless — unless,
indeed, that unnatural, impetuous, and fiery-coloured
horse, which he henceforward continually bestrode,
had any mysterious right to the title of his friend.

Numerous invitations on the part of the neighbour
hood for a long time, however, periodically came in.
" Will the Baron honour our festival with his presence ?"
" Will the Baron join us in a hunting of the boar ? "
— " Metzengerstein does not hunt ; " " Metzenger
stein will not attend," were the haughty and laconic
answers.

These repeated insults were not to be endured by an
imperious nobility. Such invitations became less cor
dial — less frequent — in time they ceased altogether.
The widow of the unfortunate Count Berlifitzing was
even heard to express a hope " that the Baron might be
at home when he did not wish to be at home, since he
disdained the company of his equals ; and ride when he
did not wish to ride, since he preferred the society of a
horse." This, to be sure, was a very silly explosion of
hereditary pique ; and merely proved how singularly
unmeaning our sayings are apt to become, when we
desire to be unusually energetic.

The charitable, nevertheless, attributed the alteration
in the conduct of the young nobleman to the natural
sorrow of a son for the untimely loss of his parents ;
forgetting, however, his atrocious and reckless behaviour
170

METZENGERSTEIN

during the short period immediately succeeding that
bereavement. Some there were, indeed, who suggested
a too haughty idea of self-consequence and dignity.
Others again (among whom may be mentioned the
family physician) did not hesitate in speaking of morbid
melancholy, and hereditary ill-health ; while dark hints,
of a more equivocal nature, were current among the
multitude.

Indeed, the Baron's perverse attachment to his lately
acquired charger — an attachment which seemed to attain
new strength from every fresh example of the animal's
ferocious and demon-likepropensities — at length became,
in the eyes of all reasonable men, a hideous and unnatural
fervour. In the glare of noon — at the dead hour of
night — in sickness or in health — in calm or in tempest
— the young Metzengerstein seemed riveted to the
saddle of that colossal horse, whose intractable audacities
so well accorded with his own spirit.

There were circumstances, moreover, which, coupled
with late events, gave an unearthly and portentous
character to the mania of the rider, and to the capabili
ties of the steed. The space passed over in a single
leap had been accurately measured, and was found to
exceed, by an astounding difference, the wildest expec
tations of the most imaginative. The Baron, besides,
had no particular name for the animal, although all the
rest in his collection were distinguished by character
istic appellations. His stable, too, was appointed at a
distance from the rest ; and, with regard to grooming
and other necessary offices, none but the owner in person
had ventured to officiate, or even to enter the enclosure
of that horse's particular stall. It was also to be
observed, that although the three grooms, who had
caught the steed as he fled from the conflagration at

171

TALES OF MYSTERY

Berlifitzing, had succeeded in arresting his course by
means of a chain-bridle and noose — yet not one of the
three could with any certainty affirm that he had, during
that dangerous struggle, or at any period thereafter,
actually placed his hand upon the body of the beast.
Instances of peculiar intelligence in the demeanour of a
noble and high-spirited horse are not to be supposed
capable of exciting unreasonable attention, but there
were certain circumstances which intruded themselves
perforce upon the most sceptical and phlegmatic ; and
it is said there were times when the animal caused the
gaping crowd who stood around to recoil in horror
from the deep and impressive meaning of his terrible
stamp — times when the young Metzengerstein turned
pale and shrunk away from the rapid and searching
expression of his human-looking eye.

Among all the retinue of the Baron, however, none
were found to doubt the ardour of that extraordinary
affection which existed on the part of the young noble
man for the fiery qualities of his horse ; at least, none
but an insignificant and misshapen little page, whose
deformities were in everybody's way, and whose opinions
were of the least possible importance. He (if his ideas
are worth mentioning at all) had the effrontery to assert
that his master never vaulted into the saddle without an
unaccountable and almost imperceptible shudder ; and
that, upon his return from every long-continued and
habitual ride, an expression of triumphant malignity
distorted every muscle in his countenance.

One tempestuous night, Metzengerstein, awaking
from a heavy slumber, descended like a maniac from his
chamber, and, mounting in hot haste, bounded away
into the mazes of the forest. An occurrence so common
attracted no particular attention, but his return was
172

METZENGERSTEIN

looked for with intense anxiety on the part of his
domestics, when after some hours' absence, the stupen
dous and magnificent battlements of the Palace Metzen-
gerstein were discovered crackling and rocking to their
very foundation, under the influence of a dense and
livid mass of ungovernable fire.

As the flames, when first seen, had already made so
terrible a progress that all efforts to save any portion of
the building were evidently futile, the astonished neigh
bourhood stood idly around in silent if not pathetic
wonder. But a new and fearful object soon riveted
the attention of the multitude, and proved how much
more intense is the excitement wrought in the feelings
of a crowd by the contemplation of human agony, than
that brought about by the most appalling spectacles of
inanimate matter.

Up the long avenue of aged oaks which led from
the forest to the main entrance of the Palace Metzen-
gerstein, a steed, bearing an unbonneted and disordered
rider, was seen leaping with an impetuosity which out
stripped the very Demon of the Tempest.

The career of the horseman was indisputably, on his
own part, uncontrollable. The agony of his counten
ance, the convulsive struggle of his frame, gave evidence
of superhuman exertion ; but no sound, save a solitary
shriek, escaped from his lacerated lips, which were
bitten through and through in the intensity of terror.
One instant, and the clattering of hoofs resounded sharply
and shrilly above the roaring of the flames and the
shrieking of the winds — another, and, clearing at a
single plunge the gate-way and the moat, the steed
bounded far up the tottering staircases of the palace,
and, with its rider, disappeared amid the whirlwind of
chaotic fire.

'73

TALES OF MYSTERY

The fury of the tempest immediately died away, and
a dead calm suddenly succeeded. A white flame still
enveloped the building like a shroud, and, streaming far
away into the quiet atmosphere, shot forth a glare of
preternatural light ; while a cloud of smoke settled
heavily over the battlements in the distinct colossal
figure of — a horse.

THE PIT 8f THE PENDULUM

I WAS sick — sick unto death with that long agony ;
and when they at length unbound me, and I was
permitted to sit, I felt that my senses were leaving
me. The sentence — the dread sentence of death —
was the last of distinct accentuation which reached my
ears. After that the sound of the inquisitorial voices
seemed merged in one dreamy indeterminate hum. It
conveyed to my soul the idea of revolution — perhaps
from its association in fancy with the burr of a mill-
wheel. This only for a brief period, for presently I
heard no more. Yet, for a while, I saw — but with how
terrible an exaggeration ! I saw the lips of the black-
robed judges. They appeared to me white — whiter
than the sheet upon which I trace these words — and
thin even to grotesqueness ; thin with the intensity of
their expression of firmness — of immovable resolution —
of stern contempt of human torture. I saw that the
decrees of what to me was Fate were still issuing from
those lips. I saw them writhe with a deadly locution.
I saw them fashion the syllables of my name ; and I
shuddered because no sound succeeded. I saw, too, for
a few moments of delirious horror, the soft and nearly
imperceptible waving of the sable draperies which
enwrapped the walls of the apartment. And then my
vision fell upon the seven tall candles upon the table.
At first they wore the aspect of charity, and seemed
white slender angels who would save me ; but then, all
at once, there came a most deadly nausea over my spirit,
and I felt every fibre in my frame thrill as if I had
touched the wire of a galvanic battery, while the angel
forms became meaningless spectres, with heads of flame,
and I saw that from them there would be no help.
And then there stole into my fancy, like a rich musical

'75

TALES OF MYSTERY

note, the thought of what sweet rest there must be in
the grave. The thought came gently and stealthily,
and it seemed long before it attained full appreciation ;
but just as my spirit came at length properly to feel
and entertain it, the figures of the judges vanished, as if
magically, from before me ; the tall candles sank into
nothingness; their flames went out utterly; the black
ness of darkness supervened ; all sensations appeared
swallowed up in a mad rushing descent as of the soul
into Hades. Then silence, and stillness, and night were
the universe.

I had swooned ; but still will not say that all of
consciousness was lost. What of it remained I will
not attempt to define, or even to describe ; yet all was
not lost. In the deepest slumber — no ! In delirium —
no ! In a swoon — no ! In death — no ! even in the
grave all is not lost. Else there is no immortality for
man. Arousing from the most profound of slumbers,
we break the gossamer web of some dream. Yet in a
second afterward (so frail may that web have been) we
remember not that we have dreamed. In the return to
life from the swoon there are two stages : first, that of
the sense of mental or spiritual ; secondly, that of the
sense of physical, existence. It seems probable that if,
upon reaching the second stage, we could recall the
impressions of the first, we should find these impressions
eloquent in memories of the gulf beyond. And that
gulf is — what ? How at least shall we distinguish its
shadows from those of the tomb ? But if the impres
sions of what I have termed the first stage, are not at
will, recalled, yet, after long interval, do they not come
unbidden, while we marvel whence they come ? He
who has never swooned, is not he who finds strange
palaces and wildly familiar faces in coals that glow ; is
176

THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM

not he who beholds floating in mid-air the sad visions
that the many may not view; is not he who ponders
over the perfume of some novel flower ; is not he
whose brain grows bewildered with the meaning of
some musical cadence which has never before arrested
his attention.

Amid frequent and thoughtful endeavours to re
member, amid earnest struggles to regather some token
of the state of seeming nothingness into which my soul
had lapsed, there have been moments when I have
dreamed of success ; there have been brief, very brief
periods when I conjured up remembrances which the
lucid reason of a later epoch assures me could have had
reference only to that condition of seeming uncon
sciousness. The shadows of memory tell, indistinctly,
of tall figures that lifted and bore me in silence down —
down — still down — till a hideous dizziness oppressed
me at the mere idea of the interminableness of the
descent. They tell also of a vague horror at my heart,
on account of that heart's unnatural stillness. Then
comes a sense of sudden motionlessness throughout all
things ; as if those who bore me (a ghastly train !) had
outrun, in their descent, the limits of the limitless, and
paused from the wearisomeness of their toil. After
this I call to mind flatness and dampness ; and then all
is madness — the madness of a memory which busies
itself among forbidden things.

Very suddenly there came back to my soul motion
and sound — the tumultuous motion of my heart, and,
in my ears, the sound of its beating. Then a pause in
which all is blank. Then again sound, and motion, and
touch — a tingling sensation pervading my frame. Then
the mere consciousness of existence, without thought —
a condition which lasted long. Then very suddenly,

M 177

TALES OF MYSTERY

thought^ and shuddering terror, and earnest endeavour to
comprehend my true state. Then a strong desire to
lapse into insensibility. Then a rushing revival of soul
and a successful effort to move. And now a full memory
of the trial, of the judges, of the sable draperies, of the
sentence, of the sickness, of the swoon. Then entire
forgetfulness of all that followed ; of all that a later day
and much earnestness of endeavour have enabled me
vaguely to recall.

So far, I had not opened my eyes. I felt that I lay
upon my back, unbound. I reached out my hand, and
it fell heavily upon something damp and hard. There
I suffered it to remain for many minutes, while I strove
to imagine where and what I could be. I longed, yet
dared not, to employ my vision. I dreaded the first
glance at objects around me. It was not that I feared
to look upon things horrible, but that I grew aghast lest
there should be nothing to see. At length, with a wild
desperation at heart, I quickly unclosed my eyes. My
worst thoughts, then, were confirmed. The blackness
of eternal night encompassed me. I struggled for breath.
The intensity of the darkness seemed to oppress and
stifle me. The atmosphere was intolerably close. I
still lay quietly, and made effort to exercise my reason.
I brought to mind the inquisitorial proceedings, and
attempted from that point to deduce my real condition.
The sentence had passed ; and it appeared to me that a
very long interval of time had since elapsed. Yet not
for a moment did I suppose myself actually dead. Such
a supposition, notwithstanding what we read in fiction,
is altogether inconsistent with real existence ; — but
where and in what state was I ? The condemned to
death, I knew, perished usually at the auto-da-fes^ and
one of these had been held on the very night of the

THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM

day of my trial. Had I been remanded to my dungeon,
to await the next sacrifice, which would not take place
for many months ? This I at once saw could not be.
Victims had been in immediate demand. Moreover, my
dungeon, as well as all the condemned cells at Toledo, had
stone floors, and light was now altogether excluded.

A fearful idea now suddenly drove the blood in
torrents upon my heart, and for a brief period I once
more relapsed into insensibility. Upon recovering, I
at once started to my feet, trembling convulsively in
every fibre. I thrust my arms wildly above and around
me in all directions. I felt nothing ; yet dreaded to
move a step, lest I should be impeded by the walls of a
tomb. Perspiration burst from every pore, and stood
in cold big beads upon my forehead. The agony of
suspense grew at length intolerable, and I cautiously
moved forward, with my arms extended, and my eyes
straining from their sockets in the hope of catching
some faint ray of light. I proceeded for many paces ;
but still all was blackness and vacancy. I breathed more
freely. It seemed evident that mine was not, at least,
the most hideous of fates.

And now, as I still continued to step cautiously on
ward, there came thronging upon my recollection a
thousand vague rumours of the horrors of Toledo. Of
the dungeons there had been strange things narrated —
fables I had always deemed them — but yet strange, and
too ghastly to repeat, save in a whisper. Was I left to
perish of starvation in this subterranean world of dark
ness ; or what fate, perhaps even more fearful, awaited
me ? That the result would be death, and a death of
more than customary bitterness, I knew too well the
character of my judges to doubt. The mode and the
hour were all that occupied or distracted me.

179

TALES OF MYSTERY

My outstretched hands at length encountered some
solid obstruction. It was a wall, seemingly of stone
masonry — very smooth, slimy, and cold. I followed it
up; stepping with all the careful distrust with which
certain antique narratives had inspired me. This
process, however, afforded me no means of ascertaining
the dimensions of my dungeon, as I might make its
circuit and return to the point whence I set out with
out being aware of the fact, so perfectly uniform seemed
the wall. I therefore sought the knife which had been
in my pocket when led into the inquisitorial chamber ;
but it was gone ; my clothes had been exchanged for a
wrapper of coarse serge. I had thought of forcing the
blade in some minute crevice of the masonry, so as to
identify my point of departure. The difficulty, never
theless, was but trivial ; although, in the disorder of
my fancy, it seemed at first insuperable. I tore a part
of the hem from the robe and placed the fragment at
full length, and at right angles to the wall. In groping
my way around the prison, I could not fail to encounter
this rag upon completing the circuit. So, at least, I
thought ; but I had not counted upon the extent of
the dungeon, or upon my own weakness. The ground
was moist and slippery. I staggered onward for some
time, when I stumbled and fell. My excessive fatigue
induced me to remain prostrate ; and sleep soon over
took me as I lay.

Upon awaking, and stretching forth an arm, I found
beside me a loaf and a pitcher with water. I was too
much exhausted to reflect upon this circumstance, but
ate and drank with avidity. Shortly afterward, I re
sumed my tour around the prison, and with much toil,
came at last upon the fragment of the serge. Up to
the period when I fell, I had counted fifty-two paces,
180

THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM

and, upon resuming my walk, I had counted forty-eight
more — when I arrived at the rag. There were in all,
then, a hundred paces ; and, admitting two paces to the
yard, I presumed the dungeon to be fifty yards in cir
cuit. I had met, however, with many angles in the
wall, and thus I could form no guess at the shape of
the vault, for vault I could not help supposing it to be.

I had little object — certainly no hope — in these re
searches ; but a vague curiosity prompted me to con
tinue them. Quitting the wall, I resolved to cross the
area of the enclosure. At first, I proceeded with ex
treme caution, for the floor, although seemingly of
solid material, was treacherous with slime. At length,
however, I took courage, and did not hesitate to step
firmly — endeavouring to cross in as direct a line as
possible. I had advanced some ten or twelve paces in
this manner, when the remnant of the torn hem of my
robe became entangled between my legs. I stepped on
it, and fell violently on my face.

In the confusion attending my fall, I did not imme
diately apprehend a somewhat startling circumstance,
which yet, in a few seconds afterward, and while I still
lay prostrate, arrested my attention. It was this : my
chin rested upon the floor of the prison, but my lips,
and the upper portion of my head, although seemingly
at a less elevation than the chin, touched nothing. At
the same time, my forehead seemed bathed in a clammy
vapour, and the peculiar smell of decayed fungus arose
to my nostrils. I put forward my arm, and shuddered
to find that I had fallen at the very brink of a circular
pit, whose extent, of course, I had no means of ascer
taining at the moment. Groping about the masonry
just below the margin, I succeeded in dislodging a small
fragment, and let it fall into the abyss. For many

181

TALES OF MYSTERY

seconds I barkened to its reverberations as it dashed
against the sides of the chasm in its descent ; at length,
there was a sullen plunge into water, succeeded by loud
echoes. At the same moment, there came a sound
resembling the quick opening and as rapid closing of a
door overhead, while a faint gleam of light flashed
suddenly through the gloom, and as suddenly faded
away.

I saw clearly the doom which had been prepared
for me, and congratulated myself upon the timely
accident by which I had escaped. Another step before
my fall, and the world had seen me no more. And the
death just avoided was of that very character which I
had regarded as fabulous and frivolous in the tales re
specting the Inquisition. To the victims of its tyranny,
there was the choice of death with its direst physical
agonies, or death with its most hideous moral horrors.
I had been reserved for the latter. By long suffering
my nerves had been unstrung, until I trembled at the
sound of my own voice, and had become in every
respect a fitting subject for the species of torture which
awaited me.

Shaking in every limb, I groped my way back to
the wall — resolving there to perish rather than risk the
terrors of the wells, of which my imagination now
pictured many in various positions about the dungeon.
In other conditions of mind, I might have had courage
to end my misery at once, by a plunge into one of these
abysses ; but now I was the veriest of cowards. Neither
could I forget what I had read of these pits — that the
sudden extinction of life formed no part of their most
horrible plan.

Agitation of spirit kept me awake for many long
hours, but at length I again slumbered. Upon arousing,
182

THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM

I found by my side, as before, a loaf and a pitcher of
water. A burning thirst consumed me, and I emptied
the vessel at a draught. It must have been drugged —
for scarcely had I drunk, before I became irresistibly
drowsy. A deep sleep fell upon me — a sleep like that
of death. How long it lasted, of course I know not ;
but when, once again, I unclosed my eyes, the objects
around me were visible. By a wild, sulphurous lustre,
the origin of which I could not at first determine, I
was enabled to see the extent and aspect of the prison.

In its size I had been greatly mistaken. The whole
circuit of its walls did not exceed twenty-five yards.
For some minutes this fact occasioned me a world of
vain trouble ; vain indeed — for what could be of less
importance, under the terrible circumstances which
environed me, than the mere dimensions of my dun
geon ? But my soul took a wild interest in trifles, and
I busied myself in endeavours to account for the error
I had committed in my measurement. The truth at
length flashed upon me. In my first attempt at
exploration I had counted fifty-two paces, up to the
period when I fell : I must then have been within a
pace or two of the fragment of serge ; in fact, I had
nearly performed the circuit of the vault. I then slept
— and upon awaking, I must have turned upon my
steps — thus supposing the circuit nearly double what it
actually was. My confusion of mind prevented me
from observing that I began my tour with the wall to
the left, and ended with the wall to the right.

I had been deceived, too, in respect to the shape of
the enclosure. In feeling my way I had found many
angles, and thus deduced an idea of great irregularity ;
so potent is the effect of total darkness upon one arous
ing from lethargy or sleep ! The angles were simply

TALES OF MYSTERY

those of a few slight depressions, or niches at odd
intervals. The general shape of the prison was square.
What I had taken for masonry seemed now to be iron,
or some other metal, in huge plates, whose sutures or
joints occasioned the depression. The entire surface of
this metallic enclosure was rudely daubed in all the
hideous and repulsive devices to which the charnel
superstition of the monks has given rise. The figures
of fiends in aspects of menace, with skeleton forms, and
other more really fearful images, overspread and dis
figured the walls. I observed that the outlines of these
monstrosities were sufficiently distinct, but that the
colours seemed faded and blurred, as if from the effects
of a damp atmosphere. I now noticed the floor, too,
which was of stone. In the centre yawned the circular
pit from whose jaws I had escaped ; but it was the only
one in the dungeon.

All this I saw indistinctly and by much effort — for
my personal condition had been greatly changed during
slumber. I now lay upon my back, and at full length,
on a species of low framework of wood. To this I was
securely bound by a long strap resembling a surcingle.
It passed in many convolutions about my limbs and
body, leaving at liberty only my head, and my left arm
to such extent, that I could, by dint of much exertion,
supply myself with food from an earthen dish which lay
by my side on the floor. I saw, to my horror, that the
pitcher had been removed. I say, to my horror — for I was
consumed with intolerable thirst. This thirst it appeared
to be the design of my persecutors to stimulate — for the
food in the dish was meat pungently seasoned.

Looking upward, I surveyed the ceiling of my
prison. It was some thirty or forty feet overhead, and
constructed much as the side walls. In one of its
184

THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM

panels a very singular figure riveted my whole atten
tion. It was the painted figure of Time as he is
commonly represented, save that, in lieu of a scythe,
he held what, at a casual glance, I supposed to be the
pictured image of a huge pendulum, such as we see on
antique clocks. There was something, however, in the
appearance of this machine which caused me to regard
it more attentively. While I gazed directly upward at
it (for its position was immediately- over my own) I
fancied that I saw it in motion. In an instant after
ward the fancy was confirmed. Its sweep was brief,
and of course slow. I watched it for some minutes
somewhat in fear, but more in wonder. Wearied at
length with observing its dull movement, I turned my
eyes upon the other objects in the cell.

A slight noise attracted my notice, and, looking to
the floor, I saw several enormous rats traversing it.
They had issued from the well which lay just within
view to my right. Even then, while I gazed, they
came up in troops, hurriedly, with ravenous eyes, allured
by the scent of the meat. From this it required much
effort and attention to scare them away.

It might have been half an hour, perhaps even an
hour (for I could take but imperfect note of time),
before I again cast my eyes upward. What I then saw
confounded and amazed me. The sweep of the pen
dulum had increased in extent by nearly a yard. As a
natural consequence its velocity was also much greater.
But what mainly disturbed me was the idea that it had
perceptibly descended. I now observed — with what
horror it is needless to say — that its nether extremity
was formed of a crescent of glittering steel, about a
foot in length from horn to horn ; the horns upward,
and the under edge evidently as keen as that of a razor.

TALES OF MYSTERY

Like a razor also, it seemed massive and heavy, taper
ing from the edge into a solid and broad structure
above. It was appended to a weighty rod of brass, and
the whole hissed as it swung through the air.

I could no longer doubt the doom prepared for me
by monkish ingenuity in torture. My cognisance of
the pit had become known to the inquisitorial agents —
the pit) whose horrors had been destined for so bold a
recusant as myself — the pit> typical of hell and regarded
by rumour as the Ultima Thule of all their punish
ments. The plunge into this pit I had avoided by the
merest of accidents, and I knew that surprise, or en
trapment into torment, formed an important portion of
all the grotesquerie of these dungeon deaths. Having
failed to fall, it was no part of the demon plan to hurl
me into the abyss ; and thus (there being no alterna
tive) a different and a milder destruction awaited me.
Milder ! I half smiled in my agony as I thought of
such application of such a term.

What boots it to tell of the long, long hours of
horror more than mortal, during which I counted the
rushing oscillations of the steel ! Inch by inch — line
by line — with a descent only appreciable at intervals
that seemed ages — down and still down it came ! Days
passed — it might have been that many days passed —
ere it swept so closely over me as to fan me with its
acrid breath. The odour of the sharp steel forced itself
into my nostrils. I prayed — I wearied heaven with my
prayer for its more speedy descent. I grew frantically
mad, and struggled to force myself upward against the
sweep of the fearful scimitar. And then I fell suddenly
calm, and lay smiling at the glittering death, as a child
at some rare bauble.

There was another interval of utter insensibility ;
1 86

THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM

it was brief; for upon again lapsing into life, there had
been no perceptible descent in the pendulum. But it
might have been long — for I knew there were demons
who took note of my swoon, and who could have
arrested the vibration at pleasure. Upon my recovery,
too, I felt very — oh ! inexpressibly — sick and weak, as
if through long inanition. Even amid the agonies of
that period the human nature craved food. With
painful effort I outstretched my left arm as far as my
bonds permitted, and took possession of the small
remnant which had been spared me by the rats. As I
put a portion of it within my lips, there rushed to my
mind a half-formed thought of joy — of hope. Yet what
business had / with hope ? It was, as I say, a half-
formed thought — man has many such, which are never
completed. I felt that it was of joy — of hope ; but I
felt also that it had perished in its formation. In vain
I struggled to perfect — to regain it. Long suffering
had nearly annihilated all my ordinary powers of mind.
I was an imbecile — an idiot.

The vibration of the pendulum was at right angles
to my length. I saw that the crescent was designed to
cross the region of the heart. It would fray the serge
of my robe — it would return and repeat its operations
— again — and again. Notwithstanding its terrifically
wide sweep (some thirty feet or more), and the hissing
vigour of its descent, sufficient to sunder these very walls
of iron, still the fraying of my robe would be all that,
for several minutes, it would accomplish. And at this
thought I paused. I dared not go further than this
reflection. I dwelt upon it with a pertinacity of atten
tion — as if, in so dwelling, I could arrest here the descent
of the steel. I forced myself to ponder upon the sound
of the crescent as it should pass across the garment —

187

TALES OF MYSTERY

upon the peculiar thrilling sensation which the friction
of cloth produces on the nerves. I pondered over all
this frivolity until my teeth were on edge.

Down — steadily down it crept. I took a frenzied
pleasure in contrasting its downward with its lateral
velocity. To the right — to the left — far and wide —
with the shriek of a damned spirit ! to my heart, with
the stealthy pace of the tiger ! I alternately laughed
and howled, as the one or the other idea grew pre
dominant.

Down — certainly, relentlessly down ! It vibrated
within three inches of my bosom ! I struggled vio
lently — furiously — to free my left arm. This was free
only from the elbow to the hand. I could reach the
latter, from the platter beside me, to my mouth, with
great effort, but no farther. Could I have broken the
fastenings above the elbow, I would have seized and
attempted to arrest the pendulum. I might as well
have attempted to arrest an avalanche !

Down — still unceasingly — still inevitably down !
I gasped and struggled at each vibration. I shrunk
convulsively at its every sweep. My eyes followed its
outward or upward whirls with the eagerness of the
most unmeaning despair ; they closed themselves spas
modically at the descent, although death would have
been a relief, oh, how unspeakable ! Still I quivered
in every nerve to think how slight a sinking of the
machinery would precipitate that keen, glistening axe
upon my bosom. It was hope that prompted the nerve
to quiver — the frame to shrink. It was hope — the hope
that triumphs on the rack — that whispers to the death-
condemned even in the dungeons of the Inquisition.

I saw that some ten or twelve vibrations would bring
the steel in actual contact with my robe — and with this
188

THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM

observation there suddenly came over my spirit all the
keen, collected calmness of despair. For the first time
during many hours — or perhaps days — I thought. It
now occurred to me, that the bandage, or surcingle,
which enveloped me, was unique. I was tied by no
separate cord. The first stroke of the razor- like crescent
athwart any portion of the band would so detach it that
it might be unwound from my person by means of my
left hand. But how fearful, in that case, the proximity
of the steel ! The result of the slightest struggle, how
deadly ! Was it likely, moreover, that the minions of
the torturer had not foreseen and provided for this
possibility ? Was it probable that the bandage crossed
my bosom in the track of the pendulum ? Dreading to
find my faint and, as it seemed, my last hope frustrated,
I so far elevated my head as to obtain a distinct view of
my breast. The surcingle enveloped my limbs and body
close in all directions — save in the path of the destroying
crescent.

Scarcely had I dropped my head back into its
original position, when there flashed upon my mind
what I cannot better describe than as the unformed half
of that idea of deliverance to which I have previously
alluded, and of which a moiety only floated indeter
minately through my brain when I raised food to my
burning lips. The whole thought was now present —
feeble, scarcely sane, scarcely definite — but still entire.
I proceeded at once, with the nervous energy of despair,
to attempt its execution.

For many hours the immediate vicinity of the low
framework upon which I lay had been literally swarm
ing with rats. They were wild, bold, ravenous — their
red eyes glaring upon me as if they waited but for
motionlessness on my part to make me their prey. " To

180

TALES OF MYSTERY

what food," I thought, " have they been accustomed
in the well f "

They had devoured, in spite of all my efforts to
prevent them, all but a small remnant of the contents
of the dish. I had fallen into an habitual see-saw or
wave of the hand about the platter ; and, at length, the
unconscious uniformity of the movement deprived it of
effect. In their voracity, the vermin frequently fastened
their sharp fangs in my fingers. With the particles
of the oily and spicy viand which now remained, I
thoroughly rubbed the bandage wherever I could reach
it ; then, raising my hand from the floor, I lay breath
lessly still.

At first the ravenous animals were startled and
terrified at the change — at the cessation of movement.
They shrank alarmedly back ; many sought the well.
But this was only for a moment. I had not counted in
vain upon their voracity. Observing that I remained
without motion, one or two of the boldest leaped upon
the framework and smelt at the surcingle. This seemed
the signal for a general rush. Forth from the well they
hurried in fresh troops. They clung to the wood — they
overran it, and leaped in hundreds upon my person.
The measured movement of the pendulum disturbed
them not at all. Avoiding its strokes they busied
themselves with the anointed bandage. They pressed
— they swarmed upon me in ever-accumulating heaps.
They writhed upon my throat ; their cold lips sought
my own ; I was half-stifled by their thronging pressure ;
disgust, for which the world has no name, swelled my
bosom, and chilled, with a heavy clamminess, my heart.
Yet one minute^ and I felt that the struggle would be
over. Plainly I perceived the loosening of the bandage.
I knew that in more than one place it must be already
190

THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM

severed. With a more than human resolution I lay
still.

Nor had I erred in my calculations — nor had I
endured in vain. I at length felt that I vf&sfree. The
surcingle hung in ribands from my body. But the stroke
of the pendulum already pressed upon my bosom. It
had divided the serge of the robe. It had cut through
the linen beneath. Twice again it swung, and a sharp
sense of pain shot through every nerve. But the moment
of escape had arrived. At a wave of my hand my
deliverers hurried tumultuously away. With a steady
movement — cautious, sidelong, shrinking, and slow — I
slid from the embrace of the bandage and beyond
the reach of the scimitar. For the moment, at least, /
was free.

Free ! — and in the grasp of the Inquisition ! I had
scarcely stepped from my wooden bed of horror upon
the stone floor of the prison, when the motion of the
hellish machine ceased, and I beheld it drawn up, by
some invisible force, through the ceiling. This was a
lesson which I took desperately to heart. My every
motion was undoubtedly watched. Free ! — I had but
escaped death in one form of agony, to be delivered
unto worse than death in some other. With that
thought I rolled my eyes nervously around on the
barriers of iron that hemmed me in. Something un
usual — some change which at first I could not appreciate
distinctly — it was obvious, had taken place in the apart
ment. For many minutes of a dreamy and trembling
abstraction I busied myself in vain, unconnected con
jecture. During this period I became aware, for the
first time, of the origin of the sulphurous light which
illumined the cell. It proceeded from a fissure, about
half an inch in width, extending entirely around the

191

TALES OF MYSTERY

prison at the base of the walls, which thus appeared,
and were, completely separated from the floor. I
endeavoured, but of course in vain, to look through the
aperture.

As I arose from the attempt, the mystery of the
alteration in the chamber broke at once upon my
understanding. I have observed that, although the
outlines of the figures upon the walls were sufficiently
distinct, yet the colours seemed blurred and indefinite.
These colours had now assumed, and were momentarily
assuming, a startling and most intense brilliancy that
gave to the spectral and fiendish portraitures an
aspect that might have thrilled even firmer nerves than
my own. Demon eyes of a wild and ghastly vivacity,
glared upon me in a thousand directions, where none
had been visible before, and gleamed with the lurid
lustre of a fire that I could not force my imagination to
regard as unreal.

Unreal ! — Even while I breathed there came to my
nostrils the breath of the vapour of heated iron ! A
suffocating odour pervaded the prison ! A deeper glow
settled each moment in the eyes that glared at my
agonies ! A richer tint of crimson diffused itself over
the pictured horrors of blood. I panted ! I gasped
for breath ! There could be no doubt of the design of
my tormentors — oh, most unrelenting ! oh ! most
demoniac of men ! I shrank from the glowing metal
to the centre of the cell. Amid the thought of the
fiery destruction that impended, the idea of the coolness
of the well came over my soul like balm. I rushed to
its deadly brink. I threw my straining vision below.
The glare from the enkindled roof illumined its inmost
recesses. Yet, for a wild moment, did my spirit refuse
to comprehend the meaning of what I saw. At length
192

THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM

it forced — it wrestled its way into my soul — it burned
itself in upon my shuddering reason. Oh ! for a voice
to speak ! — oh ! horror ! — oh ! any horror but this !
With a shriek I rushed from the margin, and buried
my face in my hands — weeping bitterly.

The heat rapidly increased, and once again I looked
up, shuddering as with a fit of the ague. There had
been a second change in the cell — and now the change
was obviously in the form. As before, it was in vain
that I at first endeavoured to appreciate or understand
what was taking place. But not long was I left in
doubt. The Inquisitorial vengeance had been hurried
by my two-fold escape, and there was to be no more
dallying with the King of Terrors. The room had
been square. I saw that two of its iron angles were
now acute — two, consequently, obtuse. The fearful
difference quickly increased with a low rumbling or
moaning sound. In an instant the apartment had
shifted its form into that of a lozenge. But the alte
ration stopped not here — I neither hoped nor desired
it to stop. I could have clasped the red walls to my
bosom as a garment of eternal peace. " Death," I said,
" any death but that of the pit ! " Fool ! might I not
have known that into the pit it was the object of the
burning iron to urge me ? Could I resist its glow ?
or if even that, could I withstand its pressure ? And
now, flatter and flatter grew the lozenge, with a rapidity
that left me no time for contemplation. Its centre,
and of course its greatest width, came just over the
yawning gulf. I shrank back — but the closing walls
pressed me resistlessly onward. At length for my seared
and writhing body there was no longer an inch of foot
hold on the firm floor of the prison. I struggled no
more, but the agony of my soul found vent in one loud,

N 193

TALES OF MYSTERY

long, and final scream of despair. I felt that I tottered
upon the brink — I averted my eyes —

There was a discordant hum of human voices !
There was a loud blast as of many trumpets ! There
was a harsh grating as of a thousand thunders ! The
fiery walls rushed back ! An outstretched arm caught
my own as I fell, fainting, into the abyss. It was that
of General Lasalle. The French army had entered
Toledo. The Inquisition was in the hands of its
enemies.

194

A DESCENT INTO THE
MAELSTROM

WE had now reached the summit of the
loftiest crag. For some minutes the old
man seemed too much exhausted to speak.
" Not long ago," said he at length, " and
I could have guided you on this route as well as the
youngest of my sons ; but, about three years past, there
happened to me an event such as never happened before
to mortal man — or, at least, such as no man ever sur
vived to tell of — and the six hours of deadly terror
which I then endured have broken me up body and soul.
You suppose me a very old man — but I am not. It took
less than a single day to change these hairs from a jetty
black to white, to weaken my limbs, and to unstring
my nerves, so that I tremble at the least exertion, and
am frightened at a shadow. Do you know I can
scarcely look over this little cliff without getting
giddy ? "

The "little cliff," upon whose edge he had so care
lessly thrown himself down to rest that the weightier
portion of his body hung over it, while he was only
kept from falling by the tenure of his elbow on its
extreme and slippery edge — this " little cliff" arose, a
sheer unobstructed precipice of black shining rock, some
fifteen or sixteen hundred feet from the world of crags
beneath us. Nothing would have tempted me to be
within half a dozen yards of its brink. In truth so
deeply was I excited by the perilous position of my
companion, that I fell at full length upon the ground,
clung to the shrubs around me, and dared not even
glance upward at the sky — while I struggled in vain to
divest myself of the idea that the very foundations of

*95

TALES OF MYSTERY

the mountain were in danger from the lury of the winds.
It was long before I could reason myself into sufficient
courage to sit up and look out into the distance.

" You must get over these fancies," said the guide,
"for I have brought you here that you might have the
best possible view of the scene of that event I mentioned
— and to tell you the whole story with the spot just
under your eye."

" We are now," he continued, in that particularising
manner which distinguished him — " we are now close
upon the Norwegian coast — in the sixty-eighth degree
of latitude — in the great province of Nordland — and in
the dreary district of Lofoden. The mountain upon
whose top we sit is Helseggen, the Cloudy. Now
raise yourself up a little higher — hold on to the grass
if you feel giddy — so — and look out, beyond the belt of
vapour beneath us, into the sea."

I looked dizzily, and beheld a wide expanse of ocean,
whose waters wore so inky a hue as to bring at once to
my mind the Nubian geographer's account of the Mare
Tenebrarum. A panorama more deplorably desolate no
human imagination can conceive. To the right and
left, as far as the eye could reach, there lay outstretched
like ramparts of the world, lines of horribly black and
beetling cliff, whose character of gloom was but the
more forcibly illustrated by the surf which reared high
up against it its white and ghastly crest, howling and
shrieking for ever. Just opposite the promontory upon
whose apex we were placed, and at a distance of some
five or six miles out at sea, there was visible a small,
bleak-looking island ; or, more properly, its position
was discernible through the wilderness of surge in which
it was enveloped. About two miles nearer the land,
arose another of smaller size, hideously craggy and
196

A DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTROM

barren, and encompassed at various intervals by a cluster
of dark rocks.

The appearance of the ocean, in the space between
the more distant island and the shore, had something
very unusual about it. Although, at the time, so strong
a gale was blowing landward that a brig in the remote
offing lay to under a double-reefed trysail, and constantly
plunged her whole hull out of sight, still there was
here nothing like a regular swell, but only a short quick
angry cross dashing of water in every direction — as
well in the teeth of the wind as otherwise. Of foam
there was little except in the immediate vicinity of the
rocks.

" The island in the distance," resumed the old man,
"is called by the Norwegians Vurrgh. The one mid
way is Moskoe. That a mile to the northward is
Ambaaren. Yonder are Islesen, Hotholm, Keildhelm,
Suarven, and Buckholm. Further off — between Moskoe
and Vurrgh — are Otterholm, Flimen, Sandflesen, and
Stockholm. These are the true names of the places —
but why it has been thought necessary to name them
at all, is more than either you or I can understand.
Do you hear anything ? Do you see any change in the
water ? "

We had now been about ten minutes upon the top
of Helseggen, to which we had ascended from the
interior of Lofoden, so that we had caught no glimpse
of the sea until it had burst upon us from the summit.
As the old man spoke, I became aware of a loud and
gradually increasing sound, like the moaning of a vast
herd of buffaloes upon an American prairie ; and at
the same moment I perceived that what seamen term
the chopping character of the ocean beneath us, was
rapidly changing into a current which set to the east-

197

TALES OF MYSTERY

ward. Even while I gazed, this current acquired a
monstrous velocity. Each moment added to its speed
— to its headlong impetuosity. In five minutes the
whole sea as far as Vurrgh, was lashed into ungovern
able fury ; but it was between Moskoe and the coast
that the main uproar held its sway. Here the vast bed
of the waters seamed and scarred into a thousand con
flicting channels, burst suddenly into frenzied convul
sion — heaving, boiling, hissing — gyrating in gigantic
and innumerable vortices, and all whirling and plunging
on to the eastward with a rapidity which water never
elsewhere assumes, except in precipitous descents.

In a few minutes more, there came over the scene
another radical alteration. The general surface grew
somewhat more smooth, and the whirlpools, one by
one, disappeared, while prodigious streaks of foam
became apparent where none had been seen before.
These streaks, at length, spreading out to a great
distance, and entering into combination, took unto
themselves the gyratory motion of the subsided vor
tices, and seemed to form the germ of another more
vast. Suddenly — very suddenly — this assumed a dis
tinct and definite existence, in a circle of more than a
mile in diameter. The edge of the whirl was repre
sented by a broad belt of gleaming spray ; but no
particle of this slipped into the mouth of the terrific
funnel, whose interior, as far as the eye could fathom
it, was a smooth, shining, and jet-black wall of water,
inclined to the horizon at an angle of some forty-five
degrees, speeding dizzily round and round with a sway
ing and sweltering motion, and sending forth to the
winds an appalling voice, half shriek, half roar, such
as not even the mighty cataract of Niagara ever lifts
up in its agony to Heaven.
198

A DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTROM

The mountain trembled to its very base, and the
rock rocked. I threw myself upon my face, and clung
to the scant herbage in an excess of nervous agitation.

" This," said I at length, to the old man — " this can
be nothing else than the great whirlpool of the Mael
strom.

" So it is sometimes termed," said he. " We
Norwegians call it the Moskoe-strom, from the island
of Moskoe in the midway."

The ordinary account of this vortex had by no
means prepared me for what I saw. That of Jonas
Ramus, which is perhaps the most circumstantial of
any, cannot impart the faintest conception either ot
the magnificence, or of the horror of the scene — or of
the wild bewildering sense of the novel which con
founds the beholder. I am not sure from what point
of view the writer in question surveyed it, nor at what
time ; but it could neither have been from the summit
of Helseggen, nor during a storm. There are some
passages of his description, nevertheless, which may be
quoted for their details, although their effect is exceed
ingly feeble in conveying an impression of the
spectacle.

" Between Lofoden and Moskoe," he says, " the
depth of the water is between thirty-six and forty
fathoms ; but on the other side, toward Ver (Vurrgh)
this depth decreases so as not to afford a convenient
passage for a vessel, without the risk of splitting on
the rocks, which happens even in the calmest weather.
When it is flood, the stream runs up the country
between Lofoden and Moskoe with a boisterous
rapidity ; but the roar of its impetuous ebb to the sea
is scarce equalled by the loudest and most dreadful
cataracts ; the noise being heard several leagues off,

199

TALES OF MYSTERY

and the vortices or pits are of such an extent and
depth, that if a ship comes within its attraction, it is
inevitably absorbed and carried down to the bottom,
and there beat to pieces against the rocks ; and when
the water relaxes, the fragments thereof are thrown up
again. But these intervals of tranquillity are only at
the turn of the ebb and flood, and in calm weather,
and last but a quarter of an hour, its violence gradually
returning. When the stream is most boisterous, and
its fury heightened by a storm, it is dangerous to come
within a Norway mile of it. Boats, yachts, and ships
have been carried away by not guarding against it
before they were carried within its reach. It likewise
happens frequently, that whales come too near the
stream, and are overpowered by its violence ; and then
it is impossible to describe their bowlings and bellow-
ings in their fruitless struggles to disengage themselves.
A bear once, attempting to swim from Lofoden to
Moskoe? was caught by the stream and borne down,
while he roared terribly, so as to be heard on shore.
Large stocks of firs and pine trees, after being absorbed
by the current, rise again broken and torn to such a
degree as if bristles grew upon them. This plainly
shows the bottom to consist of craggy rocks, among
which they are whirled to and fro. The stream is
regulated by the flux and reflux of the sea — it being
constantly high and low water every six hours. In
the year 1645, early in the morning of Sexagesima
Sunday, it raged with such noise and impetuosity that
the very stones of the houses on the coast fell to the
ground."

In regard to the depth of the water, I could not
see how this could have been ascertained at all in
the immediate vicinity of the vortex. The " forty
200

A DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTROM

fathoms " must have reference only to portions of the
channel close upon the shore either of Moskoe or
Lofoden. The depth in the centre of the Moskoe-
strom must be unmeasurably greater ; and no better
proof of this fact is necessary than can be obtained
from even the sidelong glance into the abyss of the
whirl which may be had from the highest crag of
Helseggen. Looking down from this pinnacle upon
the howling Phlegethon below, I could not help smiling
at the simplicity with which the honest Jonas Ramus
records, as a matter difficult of belief, the anecdotes of
the whales and the bears, for it appeared to me, in
fact, a self-evident thing, that the largest ships of the
line in existence, coming within the influence of that
deadly attraction, could resist it as little as a feather
the hurricane, and must disappear bodily and at
once.

The attempts to account for the phenomenon —
some of which, I remember, seemed to me sufficiently
plausible in perusal — now wore a very different and
unsatisfactory aspect. The idea generally received is
that this, as well as three smaller vortices among the
Ferroe Islands, " have no other cause than the collision
of waves rising and falling, at flux and reflux, against a
ridge of rocks and shelves, which confines the water so
that it precipitates itself like a cataract ; and thus the
higher the flood rises, the deeper must the fall be, and
the natural result of all is a whirlpool or vortex, the
prodigious suction of which is sufficiently known by
lesser experiments." — These are the words of the
Encyclopaedia Britannic a. Kircher and others imagine
that in the centre of the channel of the Maelstrom is
an abyss penetrating the globe, and issuing in some
very remote part — the Gulf of Bothnia being somewhat

201

TALES OF MYSTERY

decidedly named in one instance. This opinion, idle
in itself, was the one to which, as I gazed, my imagi
nation most readily assented ; and, mentioning it to
the guide, I was rather surprised to hear him say that,
although it was the view almost universally entertained
of the subject by the Norwegians, it nevertheless was
not his own. As to the former notion he confessed
his inability to comprehend it ; and here I agreed with
him — for, however conclusive on paper, it becomes
altogether unintelligible, and even absurd, amid the
thunder of the abyss.

" You have had a good look at the whirl now,"
said the old man, " and if you creep round this crag,
so as to get in its lee, and deaden the roar of the water,
I will tell you a story that will convince you I ought
to know something of the Moskoe-strom."

I placed myself as desired, and he proceeded.

" Myself and my two brothers once owned a
schooner-rigged smack of about seventy tons burthen,
with which we were in the habit of fishing among the
islands beyond Moskoe, nearly to Vurrgh. In all
violent eddies at sea there is good fishing, at proper
opportunities, if one has only the courage to attempt
it ; but among the whole of the Lofoden coastmen, we
three were the only ones who made a regular business of
going out to the islands, as I tell you. The usual grounds
are a great way lower down to the southward. There
fish can be got at all hours, without much risk, and there
fore these places are preferred. The choice spots over
here among the rocks, however, not only yield the
finest variety, but in far greater abundance ; so that we
often got in a single day, what the more timid of the
craft could not scrape together in a week. In fact, we
made it a matter of desperate speculation — the risk of
202

A DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTROM

life standing instead of labour, and courage answering
for capital.

" We kept the smack in a cove about five miles
higher up the coast than this ; and it was our
practice, in fine weather, to take advantage of the
fifteen minutes' slack to push across the main channel
of the Moskoe-strom, far above the pool, and then drop
down upon anchorage somewhere near Otterham, or
Sandflesen, where the eddies are not so violent as else
where. Here we used to remain until nearly time
for slack-water again, when we weighed and made
for home. We never set out upon this expedition
without a steady side wind for going and coming — one
that we felt sure would not fail us before our return —
and we seldom made a miscalculation upon this point.
Twice, during six years, we were forced to stay all night
at anchor on account of a dead calm, which is a rare
thing indeed just about here ; and once we had to
remain on the grounds nearly a week, starving to death,
owing to a gale which blew up shortly after our arrival,
and made the channel too boisterous to be thought of.
Upon this occasion we should have been driven out to
sea in spite of everything (for the whirlpools threw us
round and round so violently, that, at length, we fouled
our anchor and dragged it) if it had not been that we
drifted into one of the innumerable cross currents — here
to-day and gone to-morrow — which drove us under the
lee of Flimen, where, by good luck, we brought up.

" I could not tell you the twentieth part of the
difficulties we encountered c on the ground ' — it is a
bad spot to be in, even in good weather — but we made
shift always to run the gauntlet of the Moskoe-strom
itself without accident ; although at times my heart
has been in my mouth when we happened to be a

203

TALES OF MYSTERY

minute or so behind or before the slack. The wind
sometimes was not as strong as we thought it at start
ing, and then we made rather less way than we could
wish, while the current rendered the smack unmanage
able. My eldest brother had a son eighteen years old,
and I had two stout boys of my own. These would
have been of great assistance at such times, in using the
sweeps as well as afterward in fishing — but, somehow,
although we ran the risk ourselves, we had not the
heart to let the young ones get into the danger — for,
after all said and done, it was a horrible danger, and
that is the truth.

" It is now within a few days of three years since
what I am going to tell you occurred. It was on the
tenth of July, 18 — , a day which the people of this
part of the world will never forget — for it was one in
which blew the most terrible hurricane that ever came
out of the heavens. And yet all the morning, and
indeed until late in the afternoon, there was a gentle
and steady breeze from the south-west, while the sun
shone brightly, so that the oldest seaman among us
could not have foreseen what was to follow.

" The three of us — my two brothers and myself —
had crossed over to the islands about two o'clock P.M.,
and soon nearly loaded the smack with fine fish, which,
we all remarked, were more plenty that day than we
had ever known them. It was just seven, by mywatch^
when we weighed and started for home, so as to make
the worst of the Strom at slack water, which we knew
would be at eight.

" We set out with a fresh wind on our starboard
quarter, and for some time spanked along at a great
rate, never dreaming of danger, for indeed we saw not
the slightest reason to apprehend it. All at once we
204

A DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTROM

were taken aback by a breeze from over Helseggen.
This was most unusual — something that had never
happened to us before — and I began to feel a little
uneasy, without exactly knowing why. We put the
boat on the wind, but could make no headway at all
for the eddies, and I was upon the point of proposing
to return to the anchorage, when, looking astern, we
saw the whole horizon covered with a singular copper-
coloured cloud that rose with the most amazing
velocity.

" In the meantime the breeze that had headed us oft
fell away and we were dead becalmed, drifting about in
every direction. This state of things, however, did not
last long enough to give us time to think about it. In
less than a minute the storm was upon us — in less than
two the sky was entirely overcast — and what with this
and the driving spray, it became suddenly so dark that
we could not see each other in the smack.

" Such a hurricane as then blew it is folly to attempt
describing. The oldest seamen in Norway never
experienced anything like it. We had let our sails go
by the run before it cleverly took us ; but, at the first
puff, both our masts went by the board as if they had
been sawed off — the mainmast taking with it my
youngest brother, who had lashed himself to it for
safety.

" Our boat was the lightest feather of a thing that
ever sat upon water. It had a complete flush deck,
with only a small hatch near the bow, and this hatch
it had always been our custom to batten down when
about to cross the Strom, by way of precaution against
the chopping seas. But for this circumstance we
should have foundered at once — for we lay entirely
buried for some moments. How my elder brother

205

TALES OF MYSTERY

escaped destruction I cannot say, for I never had an
opportunity of ascertaining. For my part, as soon as
I had let the foresail run, I threw myself flat on deck,
with my feet against the narrow gunwale of the bow,
and with my hands grasping a ring-bolt near the foot
of the foremast. It was mere instinct that prompted
me to do this — which was undoubtedly the very best
thing I could have done — for I was too much flurried
to think.

" For some moments we were completely deluged,
as I say, and all this time I held my breath, and clung
to the bolt. When I could stand it no longer I raised
myself upon my knees, still keeping hold with my
hands, and thus got my head clear. Presently our little
boat gave herself a shake, just as a dog does in coming
out of the water, and thus rid herself, in some measure,
of the seas. I was now trying to get the better of the
stupor that had come over me, and to collect my senses
so as to see what was to be done, when I felt somebody
grasp my arm. It was my elder brother, and my heart
leaped for joy, for I had made sure that he was over
board — but the next moment all this joy was turned
into horror — for he put his mouth close to my ear,
and screamed out the word ' Moskoe-strbm ! '

" No one ever will know what my feelings were at
that moment. I shook from head to foot as if I had
had the most violent fit of the ague. I knew what he
meant by that one word well enough — I knew what he
wished to make me understand. With the wind that
now drove us on, we were bound for the whirl of the
Strom, and nothing could save us !

" You perceive that in crossing the Strom channel,
we always went a long way up above the whirl, even
in the calmest weather, and then had to wait and watch
206

A DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTROM

carefully for the slack — but now we were driving right
upon the pool itself, and in such a hurricane as this !
c To be sure,' I thought, ' we shall get there just about
the slack — there is some little hope in that ' — but in the
next moment I cursed myself for being so great a fool
as to dream of hope at all. I knew very well that
we were doomed, had we been ten times a ninety-gun
ship.

" By this time the first fury of the tempest had spent
itself, or perhaps we did not feel it so much, as we
scudded before it, but at all events the seas, which at
first had been kept down by the wind, and lay flat and
frothing, now got up into absolute mountains. A sin
gular change too, had come over the heavens. Around
in every direction it was still as black as pitch, but
nearly overhead there burst out, all at once, a circular
rift of clear sky — as clear as I ever saw — and of a deep
bright blue — and through it there blazed forth the full
moon with a lustre that I never before knew her to
wear. She lit up everything about us with the greatest
distinctness — but, oh God, what a scene it was to light
up.

" I now made one or two attempts to speak to my
brother — but in some manner which I could not under
stand, the din had so increased that I could not make
him hear a single word, although I screamed at the top
of my voice in his ear. Presently he shook his head,
looking as pale as death, and held up one of his fingers,
as if to say ' listen ! '

" At first I could not make out what he meant —
but soon a hideous thought flashed upon me. I dragged
my watch from its fob. It was not going. I glanced
at its face by the moonlight, and then burst into tears
as I flung it far away into the ocean. It had run down

207

TALES OF MYSTERY

at seven o'clock ! We 'were behind the time of the slack, and
the whirl of the Strom was in full fury !

" When a boat is well built, properly trimmed, and
not deep laden, the waves in a strong gale, when she is
going large, seem always to slip from beneath her —
which appears strange to a landsman — and this is what
is called riding, in sea phrase.

" Well, so far we had ridden the swells very cleverly
but presently a gigantic sea happened to take us right
under the counter, and bore us with it as it rose — up
— up — as if into the sky. I would not have believed
that any wave could rise so high. And then down we
came with a sweep, a slide, and a plunge that made me
feel sick and dizzy, as if I was falling from some lofty
mountain-top in a dream. But while we were up I
had thrown a quick glance around — and that one glance
was all-sufficient. I saw our exact position in an
instant. The Moskoe-strom whirlpool was about a
quarter of a mile dead ahead — but no more like the
every-day Moskoe-strom than the whirl, as you now
see it, is like a mill-race. If I had not known where
we were, and what we had to expect, I should not have
recognised the place at all. As it was, I involuntarily
closed my eyes in horror. The lids clenched themselves
together as if in a spasm.

" It could not have been more than two minutes
afterwards until we suddenly felt the waves subside, and
were enveloped in foam. The boat made a sharp half
turn to larboard, and then shot off in its new direction
like a thunderbolt. At the same moment the roaring
noise of the water was completely drowned in a kind of
shrill shriek — such a sound as you might imagine given
out by the water-pipes of many thousand steam-vessels
letting off their steam all together. We were now
208

A DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTROM

in the belt of surf that always surrounds the whirl ;
and I thought, of course, that another moment
would plunge us into the abyss, down which we
could only see indistinctly on account of the amazing
velocity with which we were borne along. The
boat did not seem to sink into the water at all, but
to skim like an air-bubble upon the surface of the
surge. Her starboard side was next the whirl, and
on the larboard arose the world of ocean we had left.
It stood like a huge writhing wall between us and the
horizon.

" It may appear strange, but now, when we were
in the very jaws of the gulf, I felt more composed than
when we were only approaching it. Having made up my
mind to hope no more, I got rid of a great deal of that
terror which unmanned me at first. I supposed it was
despair that strung my nerves.

" It may look like boasting — but what I tell you is
truth — I began to reflect how magnificent a thing it
was to die in such a manner, and how foolish it was in
me to think of so paltry a consideration as my own
individual life, in view of so wonderful a manifestation
of God's power. I do believe that I blushed with
shame when this idea crossed my mind. After a little
while I became possessed with the keenest curiosity
about the whirl itself. I positively felt a wish to explore
its depths, even at the sacrifice I was going to make ;
and my principal grief was that I should never be able
to tell my own companions on shore about the mysteries
I should see. These, no doubt, were singular fancies
to occupy a man's mind in such extremity — and I
have often thought since, that the revolutions of the boat
around the pool might have rendered me a little light
headed.

o 209

TALES OF MYSTERY

" There was another circumstance which tended to
restore my self-possession ; and this was the cessation
of the wind, which could not reach us in our present
situation — for, as you saw for yourself, the belt of the
surf is considerably lower than the general bed of the
ocean, and this latter now towered above us, a high,
black, mountainous ridge. If you have never been at
sea in a heavy gale, you can form no idea of the con
fusion of mind occasioned by the wind and spray
together. They blind, deafen, and strangle you, and
take away all power of action or reflection. But we
were now, in a great measure, rid of these annoyances
— -just as death-condemned felons in prison are allowed
petty indulgences, forbidden them while their doom is
yet uncertain.

" How often we made the circuit of the belt it is
impossible to say. We careered round and round for
perhaps an hour, flying rather than floating, getting
gradually more and more into the middle of the surge,
and then nearer and nearer to its horrible inner edge.
All this time I had never let go of the ring-bolt. My
brother was at the stern, holding on to a small empty
water-cask which had been securely lashed under the
coop of the counter, and was the only thing on deck
that had not been swept overboard when the gale first
took us. As we approached the brink of the pit he
let go his hold upon this, and made for the ring, from
which, in the agony of his terror, he endeavoured to
force my hands, as it was not large enough to afford us
both a secure grasp. I never felt deeper grief than
when I saw him attempt this act — although I knew he
was a madman when he did it — a raving maniac through
sheer fright. I did not care, however, to contest the
point with him. I knew it could make no difference
210

A DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTROM

whether either of us held on at all ; so I let him have
the bolt, and went astern to the cask. This there was
no great difficulty in doing ; for the smack flew round
steadily enough, and upon an even keel — only swaying
to and fro with the immense sweeps and swelters of
the whirl. Scarcely had I secured myself in my new
position, when we gave a wild lurch to starboard, and
rushed headlong into the abyss. I muttered a hurried
prayer to God, and thought all was over.

" As I felt the sickening sweep of the descent, I had
instinctively tightened my hold upon the barrel, and
closed my eyes. For some seconds I dared not open
them — while I expected instant destruction, and won
dered that I was not already in my death-struggles with
the water. But moment after moment elapsed. I still
lived. The sense of falling had ceased ; and the motion
of the vessel seemed much as it had been before, while
in the belt of foam, with the exception that she now
lay more along. I took courage and looked once again
upon the scene.

" Never shall I forget the sensation of awe, horror,
and admiration with which I gazed about me. The
boat appeared to be hanging, as if by magic, midway
down, upon the interior surface of a funnel vast in
circumference, prodigious in depth, and whose perfectly
smooth sides might have been mistaken for ebony, but
for the bewildering rapidity with which they spun
around, and for the gleaming and ghastly radiance they
shot forth, as the rays of the full moon, from that
circular rift amid the clouds which I have already
described, streamed in a flood of golden glory along the
black walls, and far away down into the inmost recesses
of the abyss.

" At firstl was too much confused to observe any-

21 I

TALES OF MYSTERY

thing accurately. The general burst of terrific grandeur
was all that I beheld. When I recovered myself a
little, however, my gaze fell instinctively downward.
In this direction I was able to obtain an unobstructed
view, from the manner in which the smack hung on
the inclined surface of the pool. She was quite upon
an even keel — that is to say, her deck lay in a plane
parallel with that of the water — but this latter sloped
at an angle of more than forty-five degrees, so that we
seemed to be lying upon our beam ends. I could not
help observing, nevertheless, that I had scarcely more
difficulty in maintaining my hold and footing in this
situation, than if we had been upon a dead level ; and
this, I suppose, was owing to the speed at which we
revolved.

" The rays of the moon seemed to search the very
bottom of the profound gulf ; but still I could make
out nothing distinctly on account of a thick mist in
which everything there was enveloped, and over which
there hung a magnificent rainbow, like that narrow and
tottering bridge which Mussulmans say is the only
pathway between Time and Eternity. This mist, or
spray, was no doubt occasioned by the clashing of the
great walls of the funnel, as they all met together
at the bottom — but the yell that went up to the
heavens from out of that mist I dare not attempt to
describe.

" Our first slide into the abyss itself, from the belt
of foam above, had carried us to a great distance down
the slope ; but our further descent was by no means
proportionate. Round and round we swept — not with
any uniform movement — but in dizzying swings and
jerks, that sent us sometimes only a few hundred yards
— sometimes nearly the complete circuit of the whirl.
212

A DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTROM

Our progress downward, at each revolution, was slow,
but very perceptible.

" Looking about me upon the wide waste of liquid
ebony on which we were thus borne, I perceived that
our boat was not the only object in the embrace of the
whirl. Both above and below us were visible fragments
of vessels, large masses of building-timber and trunks of
trees, with many smaller articles, such as pieces of
house furniture, broken boxes, barrels and staves. I
have already described the unnatural curiosity which
had taken the place of my original terrors. It appeared
to grow upon me as I drew nearer and nearer to my
dreadful doom. I now began to watch, with a strange
interest, the numerous things that floated in our com
pany. I must have been delirious, for I even sought
amusement in speculating upon the relative velocities of
their several descents toward the foam below. ' This
fir-tree,' I found myself at one time saying, ' will certainly
be the next thing that takes the awful plunge and dis
appears ' — and then I was disappointed to find that the
wreck of a Dutch merchant ship overtook it and went
down before. At length, after making several guesses
of this nature, and being deceived in all — this fact — the
fact of my invariable miscalculation, set me upon a
train of reflection that made my limbs again tremble,
and my heart beat heavily once more.

" It was not a new terror that thus affected me, but
the dawn of a more exciting hope. This hope arose
partly from memory, and partly from present observa
tion. I called to mind the great variety of buoyant
matter that strewed the coast of Lofoden, having been
absorbed and then thrown forth by the Moskoe-strom.
By far the greater number of the articles were shattered
in the most extraordinary way — so chafed and rough-

213

TALES OF MYSTERY

cned as to have the appearance of being stuck full of
splinters — but then I distinctly recollected that there
were some of them which were 'not disfigured at all.
Now I could not account for this difference except by
supposing that the roughened fragments were the only
ones which had been completely absorbed — that the others
had entered the whirl at so late a period of the tide, or,
from some reason, had descended so slowly after entering,
that they did not reach the bottom before the turn of
the flood came, or of the ebb, as the case might be. I
conceived it possible, in either instance, that they might
thus be whirled up again to the level of the ocean,
without undergoing the fate of those which had been
drawn in more early or absorbed more rapidly. I made
also three important observations. The first was, that
as a general rule, the larger the bodies were, the more
rapid their descent — the second, that, between two
masses of equal extent, the one spherical, and the other
of any other shape ^ the superiority in speed of descent
was with the sphere — the third, that, between two
masses of equal size, the one cylindrical, and the other
of any other shape, the cylinder was absorbed the more
slowly. Since my escape, I have had several conversa
tions on this subject with an old school-master of the
district ; and it was from him that I learned the use of
the words ' cylinder ' and ' sphere.' He explained to
me — although I have forgotten the explanation — how
what I observed was, in fact, the natural consequence
of the forms of the floating fragments — and showed me
how it happened that a cylinder, swimming in a vortex,
offered more resistance to its suction, and was drawn in
with greater difficulty than an equally bulky body, of
any form whatever.*

* See Archimedes, " De Incidentibus in Fluido" lib 2.
214

A DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTROM

" There was one startling circumstance which went
a great way in enforcing these observations, and ren
dering me anxious to turn them to account, and this
was that, at every revolution, we passed something like
a barrel, or else the yard or the mast of a vessel, while
many of these things, which had been on our level when
I first opened my eyes upon the wonders of the whirl
pool, were now high up above us, and seemed to have
moved but little from their original station.

" I no longer hesitated what to do. I resolved to
lash myself securely to the water cask upon which I
now held, to cut it loose from the counter, and to throw
myself with it into the water. I attracted my brother's
attention by signs, pointed to the floating barrels that
came near us, and did everything in my power to make
him understand what I was about to do. I thought
at length that he comprehended my design — but,
whether this was the case or not, he shook his head
despairingly, and refused to move from his station by
the ring-bolt. It was impossible to reach him ; the
emergency admitted of no delay ; and so, with a bitter
struggle, I resigned him to his fate, fastened myself to
the cask by means of the lashings which secured it to
the counter, and precipitated myself with it into the
sea without another moment's hesitation.

" The result, was precisely what I hoped it might
be. As it is myself who now tell you this tale — as you
see that I did escape — and as you are already in posses
sion of the mode in which this escape was effected, and
must therefore anticipate all that I have farther to say
— I will bring my story quickly to conclusion. It
might have been an hour, or thereabouts, after my
quitting the smack, when, having descended to a vast
distance beneath me, it made three or four wild

215

TALES OF MYSTERY

gyrations in rapid succession and, bearing my loved
brother with it, plunged headlong, at once and for ever,
into the chaos of foam below. The barrel to which I
was attached sunk very little further than half the
distance between the bottom of the gulf and the spot
at which I leaped overboard, before a great change took
place in the character of the whirlpool. The slope of
the sides of the vast funnel became momently less and
less steep. The gyrations of the whirl grew, gradually,
less and less violent. By degrees, the froth and the
rainbow disappeared, and the bottom of the gulf seemed
slowly to uprise. The sky was clear, the winds had
gone down, and the full moon was setting radiantly in
the west, when I found myself on the surface of the
ocean, in full view of the shores of Lofoden, and above
the spot where the pool of the Moskoe-strom had been.
It was the hour of the slack — but the sea still heaved
in mountainous waves from the effects of the hurricane.
I was borne violently into the channel of the Strom,
and in a few minutes, was hurried down the coast into
the " grounds " of the fishermen. A boat picked me
up — exhausted from fatigue — and (now that the danger
was removed) speechless from the memory of its
horror. Those who drew me on board were my old
mates and daily companions — but they knew me no
more than they would have known a traveller trom the
spirit-land. My hair, which had been raven black the
day before, was at white as you see it now. They say
too that the whole expression of my countenance had
changed. I told them my story — they did not believe
it. I now tell it to you — and I can scarcely expect
you to put more faith in it than did the merry fisher
men of Lofoden."

216

MS. FOUND IN A BOTTLE

OF my country and of my family I have little
to say. Ill-usage and length of years have
driven me from the one, and estranged me
from the other. Hereditary wealth afforded
me an education of no common order, and a contem
plative turn of mind enabled me to methodise the
stores which early study diligently garnered up. Beyond
all things, the works of the German moralists gave me
great delight ; not from my ill-advised admiration of
their eloquent madness, but from the ease with which
my habits of rigid thoughts enabled me to detect their
falsities. I have often been reproached with the
aridity of my genius ; a deficiency of imagination has
been imputed to me as a crime ; and the Pyrrhonism
of my opinions has at all times rendered me notorious.
Indeed, a strong relish for physical philosophy has, I
fear, tinctured my mind with a very common error of
this age — I mean the habit of referring occurrences,
even the least susceptible of such reference, to the
principles of that science. Upon the whole, no person
could be less liable than myself to be led away from the
severe precincts of truth by the ignes fatuiof superstition.
I have thought proper to premise this much, lest the
incredible tale I have to tell should be considered rather
the raving of a crude imagination, than the positive
experience of a mind to which the reveries of fancy
have been a dead letter and a nullity.

After many years spent in foreign travel, I sailed in
the year 18 — , from the port of Batavia, in the rich and
populous island of Java, on a voyage to the Archipelago
Islands. I went as passenger — having no other induce
ment than a kind of nervous restlessness which haunted
me as a fiend.

217

TALES OF MYSTERY

Our vessel was a beautiful ship of about four
hundred tons, copper-fastened, and built at Bombay of
Malabar teak. She was freighted with cotton-wool
and oil, from the Laccadive Islands. We had also on
board coir, jaggeree, ghee, cocoanuts, and a few cases
of opium. The stowage was clumsily done, and the
vessel consequently crank.

We got under way with a mere breath of wind,
and for many days stood along the eastern coast of
Java, without any other incident to beguile the mono
tony of our course than the occasional meeting with
some of the small grabs of the Archipelago to which
we were bound.

One evening, leaning over the taffrail, I observed a
very singular isolated cloud, to the N.W. It was
remarkable, as well from its colour as from its being
the first we had seen since our departure from Batavia.
I watched it attentively until sunset, when it spread all
at once to the eastward and westward, girting in the
horizon with a narrow strip of vapour, and looking like
a long line of low beach. My notice was soon after
ward attracted by the dusky-red appearance of the
moon, and the peculiar character of the sea. The
latter was undergoing a rapid change, and the water
seemed more than usually transparent. Although I
could distinctly see the bottom, yet, heaving the lead,
I found the ship in fifteen fathoms. The air now
became intolerably hot, and was loaded with spiral
exhalations similar to those arising from heated iron.
As night came on, every breath of wind died away,
and a more entire calm it is impossible to conceive.
The flame of a candle burned upon the poop without
the least perceptible motion, and a long hair, held
between the finger and thumb, hung without the possi-
218

MS. FOUND IN A BOTTLE

bility of detecting a vibration. However, as the
captain said he could perceive no indication of danger,
and as we were drifting in bodily to shore, he ordered
the sails to be furled, and the anchor let go. No watch
was set, and the crew, consisting principally of Malays,
stretched themselves deliberately upon deck. I went
below — not without a full presentiment of evil.
Indeed, every appearance warranted me in apprehend
ing a Simoon. I told the captain of my fears ; but he
paid no attention to what I said, and left me without
deigning to give a reply. My uneasiness, however,
prevented me from sleeping, and about midnight I
went upon deck. As I placed my foot upon the upper
step of the companion-ladder, I was startled by a loud,
humming noise, like that occasioned by the rapid
revolution of a mill-wheel, and before I could ascertain
its meaning, I found the ship quivering to its centre.
In the next instant a wilderness of foam hurled us
upon our beam-ends, and, rushing over us fore and aft,
swept the entire decks from stem to stern.

The extreme fury of the blast proved, in a great
measure, the salvation of the ship. Although com
pletely water-logged, yet, as her masts had gone by the
board, she rose, after a minute, heavily from the sea,
and, staggering awhile beneath the immense pressure
of the tempest, finally righted.

By what miracle I escaped destruction it is impos
sible to say. Stunned by the shock of the water, I
found myself, upon recovery, jammed in between the
stern-post and rudder. With great difficulty I regained
my feet, and looking dizzily around, was at first struck
with the idea of our being among breakers ; so terrific,
beyond the wildest imagination, was the whirlpool of
mountainous and foaming ocean within which we were

219

TALES OF MYSTERY

engulfed. After a while I heard the voice of an old
Swede, who had shipped with us at the moment of
leaving port. I hallooed to him with all my strength,
and presently he came reeling aft. We soon dis
covered that we were the sole survivors of the accident.
All on deck, with the exception of ourselves, had been
swept overboard ; the captain and mates must have
perished while they slept, for the cabins were deluged
with water. Without assistance we could expect to
do little for the security of the ship, and our exertions
were at first paralysed by the momentary expectation
of going down. Our cable had, of course, parted like
pack-thread, at the first breath of the hurricane, or we
should have been instantaneously overwhelmed. We
scudded with frightful velocity before the sea, and the
water made clear breaches over us. The framework of
our stern was shattered excessively, and, in almost every
respect, we had received considerable injury ; but to
our extreme joy we found the pumps unchoked, and
that we had made no great shifting of our ballast. The
main fury of the blast had already blown over, and we
apprehended little danger from the violence of the
wind ; but we looked forward to its total cessation
with dismay ; well believing, that in our shattered
condition, we should inevitably perish in the tremendous
swell which would ensue. But this very just appre
hension seemed by no means likely to be soon verified.
For five entire days and nights — during which our only
subsistence was a small quantity of jaggeree, procured
with great difficulty from the forecastle — the hulk flew
at a rate defying computation, before rapidly succeeding
flaws of wind, which, without equalling the first
violence of the Simoon, were still more terrific than
any tempest I had before encountered. Our course

220

MS. FOUND IN A BOTTLE

for the first four days was, with trifling variations, S.E.
and by S. ; and we must have run down the coast of
New Holland. On the fifth day the cold became
extreme, although the wind had hauled round a point
more to the northward. The sun arose with a sickly
yellow lustre, and clambered a very few degrees above
the horizon — emitting no decisive light. There were
no clouds apparent, yet the wind was upon the increase,
and blew with a fitful and unsteady fury. About noon,
as nearly as we could guess, our attention was again
arrested by the appearance of the sun. It gave out
no light properly so called, but a dull and sullen glow
without reflection, as if all its rays were polarised.
Just before sinking within the turgid sea, its central
fires suddenly went out, as if hurriedly extinguished
by some unaccountable power. It was a dim, silver-
like rim, alone, as it rushed down the unfathomable
ocean.

We waited in vain for the arrival of the sixth day
— that day to me has not yet arrived — to the Swede
never did arrive. Thenceforward we were enshrouded
in pitchy darkness, so that we could not have seen an
object at twenty paces from the ship. Eternal night
continued to envelope us, all unrelieved by the phos
phoric sea-brilliancy to which we had been accustomed
in the tropics. We observed, too, that, although the
tempest continued to rage with unabated violence, there
was no longer to be discovered the usual appearance of
surf, or foam, which had hitherto attended us. All
around were horror, and thick gloom, and a black
sweltering desert of ebony. Superstitious terror crept
by degrees into the spirit of the old Swede, and my
own soul was wrapt in silent wonder. We neglected
all care of the ship as worse than useless, and securing

221

TALES OF MYSTERY

ourselves as well as possible, to the stump of the mizzen-
mast, looked out bitterly into the world of ocean. We
had no means of calculating time, nor could we form
any guess of our situation. We were, however, well
aware of having made farther to the southward than
any previous navigators, and felt great amazement at
not meeting with the usual impediments of ice. In
the meantime every moment threatened to be our last
— every mountainous billow hurried to overwhelm us.
The swell surpassed anything I had imagined possible,
and that we were not instantly buried is a miracle.
My companion spoke of the lightness of our cargo, and
reminded me of the excellent qualities of our ship ;
but I could not help feeling the utter hopelessness of
hope itself, and prepared myself gloomily for that
death which I thought nothing could defer beyond an
hour, as, with every knot of way the ship made, the
swelling of the black stupendous seas became more
dismally appalling. At times we gasped for breath at
an elevation beyond the albatross — at times became
dizzy with the velocity of our descent into some watery
hell, where the air grew stagnant, and no sound dis
turbed the slumbers of the kraken.

We were at the bottom of one of these abysses,
when a quick scream from my companion broke fear
fully upon the night. " See ! see ! " cried he, shrieking
in my ears, " Almighty God ! see ! see ! As he spoke
I became aware of a dull sullen glare of red light
which streamed down the sides of the vast chasm
where we lay, and threw a fitful brilliancy upon our
deck. Casting my eyes upwards, I beheld a spectacle
which froze the current of my blood. At a terrific
height directly above us, and upon the very verge of
the precipitous descent, hovered a gigantic ship, of
222

MS. FOUND IN A BOTTLE

perhaps four thousand tons. Although upreared upon
the summit of a wave more than a hundred times her
own altitude, her apparent size still exceeded that or
any ship of the line or East Indiaman in existence.
Her huge hull was of a deep dingy black; unrelieved
by any of the customary carvings of a ship. A single
row of brass cannon protruded from her open ports,
and dashed in from the polished surfaces the fires of innu
merable battle-lanterns which swung to and fro about
her rigging. But what mainly inspired us with horror
and astonishment was that she bore up under a press of
sail in the very teeth of that supernatural sea, and of
that ungovernable hurricane. When we first discovered
her, her bows were alone to be seen, as she rose slowly
from the dim and horrible gulf beyond her. For a
moment of intense terror she paused upon the giddy
pinnacle as if in contemplation of her own sublimity,
then trembled, and tottered, and — came down.

At this instant, I know not what sudden self-
possession came over my spirit. Staggering as far aft as I
could, I awaited fearlessly the ruin that was to over
whelm. Our own vessel was at length ceasing from
her struggles, and sinking with her head to the sea.
The shock of the descending mass struck her, con
sequently, in that portion of her frame which was
nearly under water, and the inevitable result was to
hurl me, with irresistible violence, upon the rigging of
the stranger.

As I fell, the ship hove in stays, and went about ;
and to the confusion ensuing I attributed my escape
from the notice of the crew. With little difficulty I
made my way, unperceived, to the main hatchway,
which was partially open, and soon found an oppor
tunity of secreting myself in the hold. Why I did so

223

TALES OF MYSTERY

I can hardly tell. An indefinite sense of awe, which
at first sight of the navigators of the ship had taken
hold of my mind, was perhaps the principle of my
concealment. I was unwilling to trust myself with
a race of people who had offered, to the cursory glance
I had taken, so many points of vague novelty, doubt,
and apprehension. I therefore thought proper to
contrive a hiding-place in the hold. This I did by
removing a small portion of the shifting-boards, in
such a manner as to afford me a convenient retreat
between the huge timbers of the ship.

I had scarcely completed my work, when a footstep
in the hold forced me to make use of it. A man
passed by my place of concealment with a feeble and
unsteady gait. I could not see his face, but had an
opportunity of observing his general appearance.
There was about it an evidence of great age and infir
mity. His knees tottered beneath a load of years, and
his entire frame quivered under the burthen. He
muttered to himself, in a low broken tone, some words
of a language which I could not understand, and groped
in a corner among a pile of singular-looking instru
ments, and decayed charts of navigation. His manner
was a wild mixture of the peevishness of second child
hood, and the solemn dignity of a god. He at length
went on deck, and I saw him no more.

*****

A feeling, for which I have no name, has taken
possession of my soul — a sensation which will admit of
no analysis, to which the lessons of bygone time are
inadequate, and for which I fear futurity itself will
offer me no key. To a mind constituted like my own,
the latter consideration is an evil. I shall never — I
know that I shall never — be satisfied with regard to
224

MS. FOUND IN A BOTTLE

the nature of my conceptions. Yet it is not wonderful
that these conceptions are indefinite, since they have
their origin in sources so utterly novel. A new sense —
a new entity is added to my soul.

3& jfe Ife 3f£ $jf

It is long since I first trod the deck of this terrible
ship, and the rays of my destiny are, I think, gathering
to a focus. Incomprehensible men ! Wrapped up in
meditations of a kind which I cannot divine, they pass
me by unnoticed. Concealment is utter folly on my
part, for the people will not see. It is but just now
that I passed directly before the eyes of the mate ; it
was no long while ago, that I ventured into the
captain's own private cabin, and took thence the
materials with which I write, and have written. I
shall from time to time continue this journal. It is
true that I may not find an opportunity of transmitting
it to the world, but I will not fail to make the endea
vour. At the last moment I will enclose the MS. in a
bottle, and cast it within the sea.

9J£ Tjfc $j£ 7ff <fi

An incident has occurred which has given me new
room for meditation. Are such things the operation
of ungoverned chance ? I had ventured upon deck
and thrown myself down, without attracting any
notice, among a pile of ratlin-stufF and old sails, in the
bottom of the yawl. While musing upon the singu
larity of my fate, I unwittingly daubed with a tar
brush the edges of a neatly-folded studding-sail which
lay near me on a barrel. The studding-sail is now
bent upon the ship, and the thoughtless touches of
the brush are spread out into the word DISCOVERY.

I have made my observations lately upon the
structure of the vessel. Although well armed, she

p 225

TALES OF MYSTERY

is not, I think, a ship of war. Her rigging, build,
and general equipment, all negative a supposition of
this kind. What she is not, I can easily perceive ;
what she is, I fear it is impossible to say. I know not
how it is, but in scrutinising her strange model and
singular cast of spars, her huge size and overgrown
suits of canvas, her severely simple bow and antiquated
stern, there will occasionally flash across my mind a
sensation of familiar things, and there is always mixed
up with such indistinct shadows of recollection, an
unaccountable memory of old foreign chronicles and
ages long ago. . . .

I have been looking at the timbers of the ship.
She is built of a material to which I am a stranger.
There is a peculiar character about the wood which
strikes me as rendering it unfit for the purpose to
which it has been applied. I mean its extreme
porousness, considered independently of the worm-eaten
condition which is a consequence of navigation in these
seas, and apart from the rottenness attendant upon age.
It will appear perhaps an observation somewhat over-
curious, but this would have every characteristic of
Spanish oak, if Spanish oak were distended by any
unnatural means.

In reading the above sentence, a curious apothegm of
an old weather-beaten Dutch navigator comes full upon
my recollection. " It is as sure," he was wont to say,
when any doubt was entertained of his veracity, " as
sure as there is a sea where the ship itself will grow in
bulk like the living body of the seaman." . . .

About an hour ago, I made bold to trust myself
among a group of the crew. They paid me no manner
of attention, and, although I stood in the very midst of
them all, seemed utterly unconscious of my presence.
226

MS. FOUND IN A BOTTLE

Like the one I had at first seen in the hold, they all
bore about them the marks of a hoary old age. Their
knees trembled with infirmity ; their shoulders were
bent double with decrepitude ; their shrivelled skins
rattled in the wind ; their voices were low, tremulous,
and broken ; their eyes glistened with the rheum of
years ; and their grey hairs streamed terribly in the
tempest. Around them, on every part of the deck, lay
scattered mathematical instruments of the most quaint
and obsolete construction. . . .

I mentioned, some time ago, the bending of a
studding-sail. From that period, the ship, being
thrown dead off the wind, has continued her terrific
course due south, with every rag of canvas packed upon
her, from her truck to her lower-studding-sail booms,
and rolling every moment her top-gallant yard-arms
into the most appalling hell of water which it can enter
into the mind of man to imagine. I have just left the
deck, where I found it impossible to maintain a footing,
although the crew seem to experience little incon
venience. It appears to me a miracle of miracles that
our enormous bulk is not swallowed up at once and for
ever. We are surely doomed to hover continually upon
the brink of eternity, without taking a final plunge into
the abyss. From billows a thousand times more stupen
dous than any I have ever seen, we glide away with the
facility of the arrowy sea-gull ; and the colossal waters
rear their heads above us like demons of the deep, but
like demons confined to simple threats, and forbidden
to destroy. I am led to attribute these frequent escapes
to the only natural cause which can account for such
effect. I must suppose the ship to be within the
influence of some strong current, or impetuous
undertow. . . .

227

TALES OF MYSTERY

I have seen the captain face to face, and in his own
cabin — but, as I expected, he paid me no attention.
Although in his appearance there is, to a casual
observer, nothing which might bespeak him more or
less than man, still, a feeling of irrepressible reverence
and awe mingled with the sensation of wonder with
which I regarded him. In stature, he is nearly my own
height ; that is, about five feet eight inches. He is of
a well-knit and compact frame of body, neither robust
nor remarkable otherwise. But it is the singularity of
the expression which reigns upon the face — it is the
intense, the wonderful, the thrilling evidence of old age
so utter, so extreme, which excites within my spirit a
sense — a sentiment ineffable. His forehead, although
little wrinkled, seems to bear upon it the stamp of a
myriad of years. His grey hairs are records of the past,
and his greyer eyes are sybils of the future. The cabin
floor was thickly strewn with strange, iron-clasped
folios, and mouldering instruments of science, and
obsolete long-forgotten charts. His head was bowed
down upon his hands, and he pored, with a fiery,
unquiet eye, over a paper which I took to be a
commission, and which, at all events, bore the
signature of a monarch. He murmured to himself —
as did the first seaman whom I saw in the hold — some
low peevish syllables of a foreign tongue ; and although
the speaker was close at my elbow, his voice seemed to
reach my ears from the distance of a mile. . . .

The ship and all in it are imbued with the spirit of
Eld. The crew glide to and fro like the ghosts of
buried centuries ; their eyes have an eager and uneasy
meaning ; and when their figures fall athwart my path in
the wild glare of the battle-lanterns, I feel as I have never
felt before, although I have been all my life a dealer in
228

MS. FOUND IN A BOTTLE

antiquities, and have imbibed the shadows of fallen
columns at Balbec, and Tadmor, and Persepolis, until
my very soul has become a ruin. . . .

When I look around me, I feel ashamed of my
former apprehension. If I trembled at the blast which
has hitherto attended us, shall I not stand aghast at a
warring of wind and ocean, to convey any idea of
which, the words tornado and simoon are trivial and
ineffective ? All in the immediate vicinity of the ship
is the blackness of eternal night, and a chaos of foamless
water ; but, about a league on either side of us, may be
seen, indistinctly and at intervals, stupendous ramparts
of ice, towering away into the desolate sky, and looking
like the walls of the universe. . . .

As I imagined, the ship proves to be in a current —
if that appellation can properly be given to a tide
which, howling and shrieking by the white ice,
thunders on to the southward with a velocity like the
headlong dashing of a cataract. . . .

To conceive the horror of my sensations is, I pre
sume, utterly impossible ; yet a curiosity to penetrate
the mysteries of these awful regions predominates even
over my despair, and will reconcile me to the most
hideous aspect of death. It is evident that we are
hurrying onward to some exciting knowledge — some
never-to-be-imparted secret, whose attainment is
destruction. Perhaps this current leads us to the
southern pole itself. It must be confessed that a
supposition apparently so wild has every probability in
its favour. . . .

The crew pace the deck with unquiet and tremulous
step ; but there is upon their countenance an expres
sion more of the eagerness of hope than the apathy of
despair.

229

TALES OF MYSTERY

In the meantime the wind is still in our poop, and,
as we carry a crowd of canvas, the ship is at times
lifted bodily from out the sea ! Oh, horror upon
horror ! — the ice opens suddenly to the right, and to
the left, and we are whirling dizzily, in immense
concentric circles, round and round the borders of a
gigantic amphitheatre, the summit of whose walls is
lost in the darkness and the distance. But little time
will be left me to ponder upon my destiny ! The
circles rapidly grow small — we are plunging madly
within the grasp of the whirlpool — and amid a
roaring, and bellowing, and thundering of ocean and

tempest, the ship is quivering — oh God ! and

going down !

NOTE

The "MS. Found in a Bottle" was originally published in 1831,
and it was not until many years afterwards that I became acquainted
with the maps of Mercator, in which the ocean is represented as
rushing, by four mouths, into the (northern) Polar Gulf, to be
absorbed into the bowels of the earth ; the Pole itself being repre
sented by a black rock, towering to a prodigious height,

230

THE FACTS IN THE CASE
OF M. VALDEMAR

OF course I shall not pretend to consider it any
matter for wonder, that the extraordinary
case of M. Valdemar has excited discussion.
It would have been a miracle had it not —
especially under the circumstances. Through the
desire of all parties concerned, to keep the affair from
the public, at least for the present, or until we had
farther opportunities for investigation — through our
endeavours to effect this — a garbled or exaggerated
account made its way into society, and became the
source of many unpleasant misrepresentations, and, very
naturally, of a great deal of disbelief.

It is now rendered necessary that I give the facts —
as far as I comprehend them myself. They are, suc
cinctly, these :

My attention, for the last three years, had been
repeatedly drawn to the subject of Mesmerism ; and
about nine months ago, it occurred to me, quite
suddenly, that in the series of experiments made
hitherto, there had been a very remarkable and most
unaccountable omission : — no person had as yet been
mesmerised in articulo mortis. It remained to be seen,
first, whether, in such condition, there existed in the
patient any susceptibility to the magnetic influence ;
secondly, whether, if any existed, it was impaired or
increased by the condition ; thirdly, to what extent, or
for how long a period, the encroachments of Death
might be arrested by the process. There were other
points to be ascertained, but these most excited my
curiosity — the last in especial, from the immensely
important character of its consequences.

231

TALES OF MYSTERY

In looking around me for some subject by whose
means I might test these particulars, I was brought to
think of my friend, M. Ernest Valdemar, the well-known
compiler of the "Bibliotheca Forensica," and author
(under the nom de plume of Issachar Marx) of the Polish
versions of "Wallenstein" and "Gargantua." M. Valde
mar, who has resided principally at Harlem, N.Y., since
the year 1839, is (or was) particularly noticeable for
the extreme spareness of his person — his lower limbs
much resembling those of John Randolph ; and, also,
for the whiteness of his whiskers, in violent contrast to
the blackness of his hair — the latter, in consequence,
being very generally mistaken for a wig. His tem
perament was markedly nervous, and rendered him a
good subject for mesmeric experiment. On two or
three occasions I had put him to sleep with little
difficulty, but was disappointed in other results which
his peculiar constitution had naturally led me to
anticipate. His will was at no period positively, or
thoroughly, under my control, and in regard to clair-
voyance^ I could accomplish with him nothing to be
relied upon. I always attributed my failure at these
points to the disordered state of his health. For some
months previous to my becoming acquainted with him,
his physicians had declared him in a confirmed phthisis.
It was his custom, indeed, to speak calmly of his
approaching dissolution, as of a matter neither to be
avoided nor regretted.

When the ideas to which I have alluded first
occurred to me, it was of course very natural that I
should think of M. Valdemar. I knew the steady
philosophy of the man too well to apprehend any
scruples from him ; and he had no relatives in America
who would be likely to interfere. I spoke to him
232

THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR

frankly upon the subject ; and, to my surprise, his
interest seemed vividly excited. I say to my surprise ;
for, although he had always yielded his person freely to
my experiments, he had never before given me any
tokens of sympathy with what I did. His disease was
of that character which would admit of exact calcula
tion in respect to the epoch of its termination in death ;
and it was finally arranged between us that he would
send for me about twenty-four hours before the period
announced by his physicians as that of his decease.

It is now rather more than seven months since I
received, from M. Valdemar himself, the subjoined
note :

MY DEAR P

You may as well come now. D and F are agreed that I

cannot hold out beyond to-morrow midnight ; and I think they have
hit the time very nearly.

VALDEMAR

I received this note within half an hour after it was
written, and in fifteen minutes more I was in the dying
man's chamber. I had not seen him for ten days, and
was appalled by the fearful alteration which the brief
interval had wrought in him. His face wore a leaden
hue ; the eyes were utterly lustreless ; and the emacia
tion was so extreme that the skin had been broken
through by the cheek-bones. His expectoration was
excessive. The pulse was barely perceptible. He
retained, nevertheless, in a very remarkable manner,
both his mental power and a certain degree of physical
strength. He spoke with distinctness — took some
palliative medicines without aid — and, when I entered
the room, was occupied in pencilling memoranda in
a pocket-book. He was propped up in the bed by
pillows. Drs. D and F were in attendance.

233

TALES OF MYSTERY

After pressing Valdemar' s hand, I took these
gentlemen aside, and obtained from them a minute
account of the patient's condition. The left lung had
been for eighteen months in a semi-osseous or cartila
ginous state, and was, of course, entirely useless for
all purposes of vitality. The right, in its upper portion,
was also partially, if not thoroughly, ossified, while the
lower region was merely a mass of purulent tubercles,
running one into another. Several extensive perfora
tions existed ; and, at one point, permanent adhesion
to the ribs had taken place. These appearances in the
right lobe were of comparatively recent date. The
ossification had proceeded with very unusual rapidity ;
no sign of it had been discovered a month before, and
the adhesion had only been observed during the three
previous days. Independently of the phthisis, the
patient was suspected of aneurism of the aorta ; but on
this point the osseous symptoms rendered an exact
diagnosis impossible. It was the opinion of both physi
cians that M. Valdemar would die about midnight on
the morrow (Sunday). It was then seven o'clock on
Saturday evening.

On quitting the invalid's bedside to hold conversa
tion with myself, Doctors D and F had bidden

him a final farewell. It had not been their intention
to return ; but, at my request, they agreed to look in
upon the patient about ten the next night.

When they had gone, I spoke freely with M.
Valdemar on the subject of his approaching dissolution,
as well as, more particularly, of the experiment proposed.
He still professed himself quite willing and even anxious
to have it made, and urged me to commence it at
once. A male and a female nurse were in attendance ;
but I did not feel myself altogether at liberty to engage

234

THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR

in a task of this character with no more reliable wit
nesses than these people, in case of sudden accident,
might prove. I therefore postponed operations until
about eight the next night, when the arrival of a
medical student with whom I had some acquaintance

(Mr. Theodore L 1), relieved me from farther

embarrassment. It had been my design, originally, to
wait for the physicians ; but I was induced to proceed,
first, by the urgent entreaties of M. Valdemar, and
secondly, by my conviction that I had not a moment
to lose, as he was evidently sinking fast.

Mr. L 1 was so kind as to accede to my desire

that he would take notes of all that occurred ; and it
is from his memoranda that what I now have to relate
is, for the most part, either condensed or copied
verbatim.

It wanted about five minutes of eight when,
taking the patient's hand, I begged him to state, as

distinctly as he could, to Mr. L 1, whether he

(M. Valdemar) was entirely willing that I should make
the experiment of mesmerising him in his then
condition.

He replied feebly, yet quite audibly, " Yes, I wish
to be mesmerised " — adding immediately afterwards, " I
fear you have deferred it too long."

While he spoke thus, I commenced the passes
which I had already found most effectual in subduing
him. He was evidently influenced with the first
lateral stroke of my hand across his forehead ; but
although I exerted all my powers, no farther perceptible
effect was induced until some minutes after ten o'clock,

when Doctors D and F called, according to

appointment. I explained to them, in a few words,
what I designed, and as they opposed no objection,

235

TALES OF MYSTERY

saying that the patient was already in the death agony,
I proceeded without hesitation — exchanging, however,
the lateral passes for downward ones, and directing my
gaze entirely into the right eye of the sufferer.

By this time his pulse was imperceptible and his
breathing was stertorous, and at intervals of half a
minute.

This condition was nearly unaltered for a quarter of
an hour. At the expiration of this period, however, a
natural although a very deep sigh escaped the bosom
of the dying man, and the stertorous breathing ceased
— that is to say, its stertorousness was no longer
apparent ; the intervals were undiminished. The
patient's extremities were of an icy coldness.

At five minutes before eleven I perceived unequi
vocal signs of the mesmeric influence. The glassy roll
of the eye was changed for that expression of uneasy
inward examination which is never seen except in cases
of sleep-waking, and which it is quite impossible to
mistake. With a few rapid lateral passes I made the
lids quiver, as in incipient sleep, and with a few more
I closed them altogether. I was not satisfied, however,
with this, but continued the manipulations vigorously,
and with the fullest exertion of the will, until I had
completely stiffened the limbs of the slumberer, after
placing them in a seemingly easy position. The legs
were at full length ; the arms were nearly so, and
reposed on the bed at a moderate distance from the
loins. The head was very slightly elevated.

When I had accomplished this, it was fully mid
night, and I requested the gentlemen present to examine
M. Valdemar's condition. After a few experiments,
they admitted him to be in an unusually perfect state
of mesmeric trance. The curiosity of both the phy-
236

THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR

sicians was greatly excited. Dr. D resolved at

once to remain with the patient all night, while Dr.
F took leave with a promise to return at day
break. Mr. L 1 and the nurses remained.

We left M. Valdemar entirely undisturbed until
about three o'clock in the morning, when I approached
him and found him in precisely the same condition as

when Dr. F went away — that is to say, he lay in

the same position ; the pulse was imperceptible ; the
breathing was gentle (scarcely noticeable, unless through
the application of a mirror to the lips) ; the eyes were
closed naturally ; and the limbs were as rigid and as
cold as marble. Still, the general appearance was
certainly not that of death.

As I approached M. Valdemar I made a kind of
half effort to influence his right arm into pursuit of my
own, as I passed the latter gently to and fro above his
person. In such experiments with this patient I had
never perfectly succeeded before, and assuredly I had
little thought of succeeding now ; but to my astonish
ment, his arm very readily, although feebly, followed
every direction I assigned it with mine. I determined
to hazard a few words of conversation.

" M. Valdemar," I said, "are you asleep?" He
made no answer, but I perceived a tremor about the
lips, and was thus induced to repeat the question, again
and again. At its third repetition, his whole frame
was agitated by a very slight shivering ; the eyelids
unclosed themselves so far as to display a white line
of the ball ; the lips moved sluggishly, and from be
tween them, in a barely audible whisper, issued the
words :

" Yes ; — asleep now. Do not wake me ! — let me
die so ! "

237

TALES OF MYSTERY

I here felt the limbs and found them as rigid as
ever. The right arm, as before, obeyed the direction
of my hand. I questioned the sleep-waker again :

" Do you still feel pain in the breast, M.
Valdemar ? "

The answer now was immediate, but even less
audible than before :

" No pain — I am dying."

I did not think it advisable to disturb him farther
just then, and nothing more was said or done until the

arrival of Dr. F , who came a little before sunrise,

and expressed unbounded astonishment at finding the
patient still alive. After feeling the pulse and applying
a mirror to the lips, he requested me to speak to the
sleep-waker again. I did so, saying :

" M. Valdemar, do you still sleep ? "

As before, some minutes elapsed ere a reply was
made ; and during the interval the dying man seemed
to be collecting his energies to speak. At my fourth
repetition of the question, he said very faintly, almost
inaudibly :

" Yes ; still asleep — dying."

It was now the opinion, or rather the wish, of the
physicians, that M. Valdemar should be suffered to
remain undisturbed in his present apparently tranquil
condition, until death should supervene — and this, it
was generally agreed, must now take place within a few
minutes. I concluded, however, to speak to him once
more, and merely repeated my previous question.

While I spoke, there came a marked change over the
countenance of the sleep-waker. The eyes rolled them
selves slowly open, the pupils disappearing upwardly ;
the skin generally assumed a cadaverous hue, resembling
not so much parchment as white paper ; and the circular

233

THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR

hectic spots which, hitherto, had been strongly defined
in the centre of each cheek, went out at once. I use
this expression, because the suddenness of their departure
put me in mind of nothing so much as the extinguish
ment of a candle by a pufF of the breath. The upper
lip, at the same time, writhed itself away from the teeth,
which it had previously covered completely ; while
the lower jaw fell with an audible jerk, leaving the
mouth widely extended, and disclosing in full view the
swollen and blackened tongue. I presume that no
member of the party then present had been unaccus
tomed to death-bed horrors ; but so hideous beyond
conception was the appearance of M. Valdemar at this
moment, that there was a general shrinking back from
the region of the bed.

I now feel that I have reached a point of this narra
tive at which every reader will be startled into posi
tive disbelief. It is my business, however, simply to
proceed.

There was no longer the faintest sign of vitality in
M. Valdemar ; and concluding him to be dead, we
were consigning him to the charge of the nurses, when
a strong vibratory motion was observable in the tongue.
This continued for perhaps a minute. At the expiration
of this period, there issued from the distended and
motionless jaws a voice — such as it would be madness
in me to attempt describing. There are, indeed, two
or three epithets which might be considered as applic
able to it in parts ; I might say, for example, that the
sound was harsh, and broken, and hollow ; but the
hideous whole is indescribable, for the simple reason
that no similar sounds have ever jarred upon the ear
of humanity. There were two particulars, nevertheless,
which I thought then, and still think, might fairly be

239

TALES OF MYSTERY

stated as characteristic of the intonation — as well adapted
to convey some idea of its unearthly peculiarity. In
the first place, the voice seemed to reach our ears — at
least mine — from a vast distance, or from some deep
cavern within the earth. In the second place, it
impressed me (I fear, indeed, that it will be impossible
to make myself comprehended) as gelatinous or glutinous
matters impress the sense of touch.

I have spoken both of " sound " and of " voice."
I mean to say that the sound was one of distinct — of
even wonderfully, thrillingly distinct — syllabification.
M. Valdemar spoke — obviously in reply to the question
I had propounded to him a few minutes before. I had
asked him, it will be remembered, if he still slept.
He now said :

" Yes ; — no ; — I have been sleeping — and now — now
— / am dead"

No person present even affected to deny, or at
tempted to repress, the unutterable, shuddering horror
which these few words, thus uttered, were so well

calculated to convey. Mr. L 1 (the student)

swooned. The nurses immediately left the chamber,
and could not be induced to return. My own im
pressions I would not pretend to render intelligible to
the reader. For nearly an hour, we busied ourselves,
silently — without the utterance of a word — in en
deavours to revive Mr. L 1. When he came to

himself, we addressed ourselves again to an investigation
of M. Valdemar's condition.

It remained in all respects as I have last described
it, with the exception that the mirror no longer
afforded evidence of respiration. An attempt to draw
blood from the arm failed. I should mention, too,
that this limb was no farther subject to my will.
240

THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR

I endeavoured in vain to make it follow the direction
of my hand. The only real indication, indeed, of the
mesmeric influence, was now found in the vibratory
movement of the tongue, whenever I addressed M.
Valdemar a question. He seemed to be making an
effort to reply, but had no longer sufficient volition.
To queries put to him by any other person than myself
he seemed utterly insensible — although I endeavoured
to place each member of the company in mesmeric
rapport with him. I believe that I have now related
all that is necessary to an understanding of the sleep-
waker's state at this epoch. Other nurses were
procured ; and at ten o'clock I left the house in com
pany with the two physicians and Mr. L 1.

In the afternoon we all called again to see the
patient. His condition remained precisely the same.
We had now some discussion as to the propriety and
feasibility of awakening him ; but we had little diffi
culty in agreeing that no good purpose would be served
by so doing. It was evident that, so far, death (or
what is usually termed death) had been arrested by the
mesmeric process. It seemed clear to us all that to
awaken M. Valdemar would be merely to insure his
instant, or at least his speedy, dissolution.

From this period until the close of last week — an
interval of nearly seven months — we continued to make
daily calls at M. Valdemar's house, accompanied, now
and then, by medical and other friends. All this time
the sleep-waker remained exactly as I have last described
him. The nurses' attentions were continual.

It was on Friday last that we finally resolved to
make the experiment of awakening, or attempting
to awaken him ; and it is the (perhaps) unfortunate
result of this latter experiment which has given rise to

Q 241

TALES OF MYSTERY

so much discussion in private circles — to so much
of what I cannot help thinking unwarranted popular
feeling.

For the purpose of relieving M. Valdemar from the
mesmeric trance, I made use of the customary passes.
These, for a time, were unsuccessful. The first in
dication of revival was afforded by a partial descent
of the iris. It was observed, as especially remark
able, that this lowering of the pupil was accompanied
by the profuse out-flowing of a yellowish ichor (from
beneath the lids) of a pungent and highly offensive
odour.

It was now suggested that I should attempt to
influence the patient's arm, as heretofore. I made the

attempt and failed. Dr. F then intimated a desire

to have me put a question. I did so, as follows :

" M. Valdemar, can you explain to us what are
your feelings or wishes now ? "

There was an instant return of the hectic circles
on the cheeks ; the tongue quivered, or rather rolled
violently in the mouth (although the jaws and lips
remained rigid as before) ; and at length the same
hideous voice which I have already described, broke
forth :

" For God's sake ! — quick ! — quick ! — put me to
sleep — or, quick ! — waken me ! — quick ! — / say to you
that I am dead I"

I was thoroughly unnerved, and for an instant re
mained undecided what to do. At first I made an
endeavour to recompose the patient ; but, failing in
this through total abeyance of the will, I retraced my
steps and as earnestly struggled to awaken him. In this
attempt I soon saw that I should be successful — or at
least I soon fancied that my success would be complete
242

THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR

— and I am sure that all in the room were prepared to
see the patient awaken.

For what really occurred, however, it is quite
impossible that any human being could have been
prepared.

As I rapidly made the mesmeric passes, amid ejacu
lations of " dead ! dead ! " absolutely bursting from the
tongue and not from the lips of the sufferer, his whole
frame at once — within the space of a single minute, or
even less, shrunk — crumbled — absolutely rotted away
beneath my hands. Upon the bed, before that whole
company, there lay a nearly liquid mass of loathsome —
of detestable putridity.

Z43

RUE MORGUE

f • ^HE mental features discoursed of as the
analytical are, in themselves, but little sus
ceptible of analysis. We appreciate them
"^ only in their effects. We know of them,
among other things, that they are always to their
possessor, when inordinately possessed, a source of the
liveliest enjoyment. As the strong man exults in his
physical ability, delighting in such exercises as call his
muscles into action, so glories the analyst in that moral
activity which disentangles. He derives pleasure from
even the most trivial occupations bringing his talents
into play. He is fond of enigmas, of conundrums, of
hieroglyphics ; exhibiting in his solutions of each a
degree of acumen which appears to the ordinary appre
hension preternatural. His results, brought about by
the very soul and essence of method, have, in truth, the
whole air of intuition. The faculty of re-solution is
possibly much invigorated by mathematical study, and
especially by that highest branch of it which, unjustly,
and merely on account of its retrograde operations, has
been called, as if par excellence^ analysis. Yet to calcu
late is not in itself to analyse. A chess-player, for
example, does the one without effort at the other. It
follows that the game of chess, in its effects upon
mental character, is greatly misunderstood. I am not
now writing a treatise, but simply prefacing a some
what peculiar narrative by observations very much at
random ; I will, therefore, take occasion to assert that
the higher powers of the reflective intellect are more
decidedly and more usefully tasked by the unostenta
tious game of draughts than by all the elaborate

245

TALES OF MYSTERY

frivolity of chess. In this latter, where the pieces have
different and bizarre motions, with various and variable
values, what is only complex is mistaken (a not unusual
error) for what is profound. The attention is here called
powerfully into play. If it flag for an instant, an over
sight is committed, resulting in injury or defeat. The
possible moves being not only manifold but involute,
the chances of such oversights are multiplied ; and in
nine cases out of ten it is the more concentrative rather
than the more acute player who conquers. In draughts,
on the contrary, where the moves are unique and have
but little variation, the probabilities of inadvertence are
diminished, and the mere attention being left com
paratively unemployed, what advantages are obtained
by either party are obtained by superior acumen. To
be less abstract — Let us suppose a game of draughts
where the pieces are reduced to four kings, and where,
of course, no oversight is to be expected. It is
obvious that here the victory can be decided (the
players being at all equal) only by some recherche
movement, the result of some exertion of the intellect.
Deprived of ordinary resources, the analyst throws
himself into the spirit of his opponent, identifies him
self therewith, and not unfrequently sees thus, at a
glance, the sole methods (sometimes indeed absurdly
simple ones) by which he may seduce into error or
hurry into miscalculation.

Whist has long been noted for its influence upon
what is termed the calculating power ; and men of
the highest order of intellect have been known to take
an apparently unaccountable delight in it, while eschew
ing chess as frivolous. Beyond doubt there is nothing
of a similar nature so greatly tasking the faculty of
analysis. The best chess-player in Christendom may
246

THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE

be little more than the best player of chess ; but profi
ciency in whist implies capacity for success in all these
more important undertakings where mind struggles
with mind. When I say proficiency, I mean that
perfection in the game which includes a comprehension
of all the sources whence legitimate advantage may be
derived. These are not only manifold, but multiform,
and lie frequently among recesses of thought altogether
inaccessible to the ordinary understanding. To observe
attentively is to remember distinctly ; and, so far, the
concentrative chess-player will do very well at whist ;
while the rules of Hoyle (themselves based upon the
mere mechanism of the game) are sufficiently and
generally comprehensible. Thus to have a retentive
memory, and to proceed by " the book," are points
commonly regarded as the sum total of good playing.
But it is in matters beyond the limits of mere rule
that the skill of the analyst is evinced. He makes,
in silence, a host of observations and inferences. So,
perhaps, do his companions ; and the difference in the
extent of the information obtained, lies not so much in
the validity of the inference as in the quality of the
observation. The necessary knowledge is that of what
to observe. Our player confines himself not at all ;
nor, because the game is the object, does he reject
deductions from things external to the game. He
examines the countenance of his partner, comparing it
carefully with that of each of his opponents. He con
siders the mode of assorting the cards in each hand ;
often counting trump by trump, and honour by honour,
through the glances bestowed by their holders upon
each. He notes every variation of face as the play
progresses, gathering a fund of thought from the
differences in the expression of certainty, of surprise,

247

TALES OF MYSTERY

of triumph, or chagrin. From the manner of gathering
up a trick he judges whether the person taking it can
make another in the suit. He recognises what is
played through feint, by the air with which it is
thrown upon the table. A casual or inadvertent word;
the accidental dropping or turning of a card, with the
accompanying anxiety or carelessness in regard to its
concealment ; the counting of the tricks, with the
order of their arrangement ; embarrassment, hesita
tion, eagerness or trepidation — all afford, to his
apparently intuitive perception, indications of the true
state of affairs. The first two or three rounds having
been played, he is in full possession of the contents of
each hand, and thenceforward puts down his cards
with as absolute a precision of purpose as if the rest
of the party had turned outward the faces of their
own.

The analytical power should not be confounded
with simple ingenuity ; for while the analyst is neces
sarily ingenious, the ingenious man is often remarkably
incapable of analysis. The consecutive or combining
power, by which ingenuity is usually manifested, and
to which the phrenologists (I believe erroneously) have
assigned a separate organ, supposing it a primitive
faculty, has been so frequently seen in those whose
intellect bordered otherwise upon idiocy, as to have
attracted general observation among writers on morals.
Between ingenuity and the analytical ability there exists
a difference far greater, indeed, than that between the
fancy and the imagination, but of a character very
strictly analogous. It will be found, in fact, that the
ingenious are always fanciful, and the truly imaginative
never otherwise than analytic.

The narrative which follows will appear to the
248

THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE

reader somewhat in the light of a commentary upon
the propositions just advanced.

Residing in Paris during the spring and part of the
summer of 18 — , I there became acquainted with a
Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin. This young gentleman
was of an excellent — indeed of an illustrious family, but,
by a variety of untoward events, had been reduced to
such poverty that the energy of his character succumbed
beneath it, and he ceased to bestir himself in the world,
or to care for the retrieval of his fortunes. By courtesy
of his creditors, there still remained in his possession a
small remnant of his patrimony ; and, upon the income
arising from this, he managed, by means of a rigorous
economy, to procure the necessaries of life, without
troubling himself about its superfluities. Books, indeed,
were his sole luxuries, and in Paris these are easily
obtained.

Our first meeting was at an obscure library in the
Rue Montmartre, where the accident of our both being
in search of the same very rare and very remarkable
volume, brought us into closer communion. We saw
each other again and again. I was deeply interested in
the little family history which he detailed to me with
all that candour which a Frenchman indulges whenever
mere self is the theme. I was astonished, too, at the
vast extent of his reading ; and, above all, I felt my
soul enkindled within me by the wild fervour and the
vivid freshness of his imagination. Seeking in Paris
the objects I then sought, I felt that the society of such
a man would be to me a treasure beyond price ; and
this feeling I frankly confided to him. It was at length
arranged that we should live together during my stay
in the city ; and as my worldly circumstances were
somewhat less embarrassed than his own, I was permitted

249

TALES OF MYSTERY

to be at the expense of renting, and furnishing in a
style which suited the rather fantastic gloom of our
common temper, a time-eaten and grotesque mansion,
long deserted through superstitions into which we did
not inquire, and tottering to its fall in a retired and
desolate portion of the Faubourg St. Germain.

Had the routine of our life at this place been known
to the world, we should have been regarded as madmen
— although, perhaps, as madmen of a harmless nature.
Our seclusion was perfect. We admitted no visitors.
Indeed the locality of our retirement had been carefully
kept a secret from my own former associates ; and it
had been many years since Dupin had ceased to know
or be known in Paris. We existed within ourselves
alone.

It was a freak of fancy in my friend (for what else
shall I call it ?) to be enamoured of the Night for her
own sake ; and into this bizarrerie, as into all his others,
I quietly fell ; giving myself up to his wild whims
with a perfect abandon. The sable divinity would not
herself dwell with us always ; but we could counterfeit
her presence. At the first dawn of the morning we
closed all the massy shutters of our old building ; lighted
a couple of tapers which, strongly perfumed, threw out
only the ghastliest and feeblest of rays. By the aid of
these we then busied our souls in dreams — reading,
writing, or conversing, until warned by the clock of the
advent of the true Darkness. Then we sallied forth into
the streets, arm in arm, continuing the topics of the
day, or roaming far and wide until a late hour, seeking,
amid the wild lights and shadows of the populous city,
that infinity of mental excitement which quiet observa
tion can afford.

At such times I could not help remarking and
250

THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE

admiring (although from his rich ideality I had been
prepared to expect it) a peculiar analytic ability in
Dupin. He seemed, too, to take an eager delight in
its exercise — if not exactly in its display — and did not
hesitate to confess the pleasure thus derived. He
boasted to me, with a low chuckling laugh, that most
men, in respect to himself, wore windows in their
bosoms, and was wont to follow up such assertions by
direct and very startling proofs of his intimate know
ledge of my own. His manner at these moments was
frigid and abstract ; his eyes were vacant in expression ;
while his voice, usually a rich tenor, rose into a treble
which would have sounded petulantly but for the
deliberateness and entire distinctness of the enunciation.
Observing him in these moods, I often dwelt medita
tively upon the old philosophy of the Bi-Part Soul, and
amused myself with the fancy of a double Dupin — the
creative and the resolvent.

Let it not be supposed, from what I have just
said, that I am detailing any mystery, or penning any
romance. What I have described in the Frenchman,
was merely the result of an excited, or perhaps of a
diseased intelligence. But of the character of his
remarks at the periods in question an example will best
convey the idea.

We were strolling one night down a long dirty
street, in the vicinity of the Palais Royal. Being both,
apparently, occupied with thought, neither of us had
spoken a syllable for fifteen minutes at least. All at
once Dupin broke forth with these words :

" He is a very little fellow, that's true, and would do
better for the Theatre des Varietes"

" There can be no doubt of that," I replied un
wittingly, and not at first observing (so much had I

251

TALES OF MYSTERY

been absorbed in reflection) the extraordinary manner
in which the speaker had chimed in with my medita
tions. In an instant afterwards I recollected myself,
and my astonishment was profound.

" Dupin," said I, gravely, " this is beyond my com
prehension. I do not hesitate to say that I am amazed,
and can scarcely credit my senses. How was it possible

you should know I was thinking of ? ': Here I

paused, to ascertain beyond a doubt whether he really
knew of whom I thought.

" of Chantilly," said he, " why do you pause ?

You were remarking to yourself that his diminutive
figure unfitted him for tragedy."

This was precisely what had formed the subject of
my reflections. Chantilly was a quondam cobbler of
the Rue St. Denis, who, becoming stage-mad, had
attempted the role of Xerxes, in Crebillon's tragedy
so called, and been notoriously pasquinaded for his
pains.

" Tell me, for Heaven's sake," I exclaimed, " the
method — if method there is — by which you have been
enabled to fathom my soul in this matter." In fact I
was even more startled than I would have been willing
to express.

" It was the fruiterer," replied my friend, " who
brought you to the conclusion that the mender of soles
was not of sufficient height for Xerxes et id genus
omne."

" The fruiterer ! — you astonish me — I know no
fruiterer whomsoever."

" The man who ran up against you as we entered
the street — it may have been fifteen minutes ago."

I now remembered that, in fact, a fruiterer, carry
ing upon his head a large basket of apples, had nearly
252

THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE

thrown me down, by accident, as we passed from the

Rue C into the thoroughfare where we stood ; but

what this had to do with Chantilly I could not possibly
understand.

There was not a particle of charlatanerie about
Dupin. " I will explain," he said, " and that you may
comprehend all clearly, we will first retrace the course
of your meditations, from the moment in which I spoke
to you until that of the rencontre with the fruiterer in
question. The larger links of the chain run thus —
Chantilly, Orion, Dr. Nichols, Epicurus, Stereotomy,
the street stones, the fruiterer."

There are few persons who have not, at some period
of their lives, amused themselves in retracing the steps
by which particular conclusions of their own minds
have been attained. The occupation is often full of
interest ; and he who attempts it for the first time is
astonished by the apparently illimitable distance and
incoherence between the starting-point and the goal.
What, then, must have been my amazement when I
heard the Frenchman speak what he had just spoken,
and when I could not help acknowledging that he had
spoken the truth. He continued :

" We had been talking of horses, if I remember

aright, just before leaving the Rue C . This was

the last subject we discussed. As we crossed into this
street, a fruiterer, with a large basket upon his head,
brushing quickly past us, thrust you upon a pile of
paving-stones collected at a spot where the causeway
is undergoing repair. You stepped upon one of the
loose fragments, slipped, slightly strained your ankle,
appeared vexed or sulky, muttered a few words, turned
to look at the pile, and then proceeded in silence. I
was not particularly attentive to what you did ; but

253

TALES OF MYSTERY

observation has become with me, of late, a species of
necessity.

" You kept your eyes upon the ground — glancing,
with a petulant expression, at the holes and ruts in the
pavement (so that I saw you were still thinking of the
stones), until we reached the little alley called Lamar-
tine, which has been paved, by way of experiment,
with the overlapping and riveted blocks. Here your
countenance brightened up, and, perceiving your lips
move, I could not doubt that you murmured the word
4 stereotomy,' a term very affectedly applied to this
species of pavement. I knew that you could not say
to yourself ' stereotomy ' without being brought to
think of atomies, and thus of the theories of Epicurus ;
and since, when we discussed this subject not very long
ago, I mentioned to you how singularly, yet with how
little notice, the vague guesses of that noble Greek had
met with confirmation in the late nebular cosmogony,
I felt that you could not avoid casting your eyes up
wards to the great nebula in Orion, and I certainly
expected that you would do so. You did look up ;
and I was now assured that I had correctly followed
your steps. But in that bitter tirade upon Chantilly,
which appeared in yesterday's c Musee,' the satirist,
making some disgraceful allusions to the cobbler's
change of name upon assuming the buskin, quoted
a Latin line about which we have often conversed.
I mean the line

Perdidit antiquum litera prima sonum.

I had told you that this was in reference to Orion,
formerly written Urion ; and, from certain pungencies
connected with this explanation, I was aware that you
could not have forgotten it. It was clear, therefore,

254

THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE

that you would not fail to combine the two ideas of
Orion and Chantilly. That you did combine them I
saw by the character of the smile which passed over
your lips. You thought of the poor cobbler's immola
tion. So far, you had been stooping in your gait ; but
now I saw you draw yourself up to your full height.
I was then sure that you reflected upon the diminutive
figure of Chantilly. At this point I interrupted your
meditations to remark that as, in fact, he was a very
little fellow — that Chantilly — he would do better at
the Theatre des Varietes"

Not long after this, we were looking over an
evening edition of the Gazette des Tribunaux^ when the
following paragraphs arrested our attention.

" EXTRAORDINARY MURDERS. This morning, about
three o'clock, the inhabitants of the Quartier St. Roch
were aroused from sleep by a succession of terrific
shrieks, issuing, apparently, from the fourth story of a
house in the Rue Morgue, known to be in the sole
occupancy of one Madame L'Espanaye, and her
daughter, Mademoiselle Camille L'Espanaye. After
some delay, occasioned by a fruitless attempt to procure
admission in the usual manner, the gateway was broken
in with a crowbar, and eight or ten of the neighbours
entered, accompanied by two gendarmes. By this time
the cries had ceased; but, as the party rushed up the
first flight of stairs, two or more rough voices, in angry
contention, were distinguished, and seemed to proceed
from the upper part of the house. As the second
landing was reached, these sounds, also, had ceased, and
everything remained perfectly quiet. The party spread
themselves, and hurried from room to room. Upon
arriving at a large back chamber in the fourth story
(the door of which, being found locked, with the key

255

TALES OF MYSTERY

inside, was forced open), a spectacle presented itself
which struck every one present not less with horror
than with astonishment.

" The apartment was in the wildest disorder — the
furniture broken and thrown about in all directions.
There was only one bedstead ; and from this the bed
had been removed, and thrown into the middle of the
floor. On a chair lay a razor, besmeared with blood.
On the hearth were two or three long and thick tresses
of grey human hair, also dabbled in blood, and seeming
to have been pulled out by the roots. Upon the floor
were found four Napoleons, an ear-ring of topaz, three
large silver spoons, three smaller of metal d'Alger, and
two bags, containing nearly four thousand francs in
gold. The drawers of a bureau, which stood in one
corner, were open, and had been, apparently, rifled,
although many articles still remained in them. A
small iron safe was discovered under the bed (not under
the bedstead). It was open, with the key still in the
door. It had no contents beyond a few old letters,
and other papers of little consequence.

" Of Madame L'Espanaye no traces were here
seen ; but an unusual quantity of soot being observed
in the fireplace, a search was made in the chimney,
and (horrible to relate!) the corpse of the daughter,
head downwards, was dragged therefrom ; it having
been thus forced up the narrow aperture for a consider
able distance. The body was quite warm. Upon
examining it, many excoriations were perceived, no
doubt occasioned by the violence with which it had
been thrust up and disengaged. Upon the face were
many severe scratches, and, upon the throat, dark
bruises, and deep indentations of finger-nails, as if the
deceased had been throttled to death.
256

THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE

"After a thorough investigation of every portion of
the house without further discovery, the party made its
way into a small paved yard in the rear of the building,
where lay the corpse of the old lady, with her throat so
entirely cut that, upon an attempt to raise her, the head
fell off. The body, as well as the head, was fearfully
mutilated — the former so much so as scarcely to retain
any semblance of humanity.

" To this horrible mystery there is not as yet, we
believe, the slightest clue."

The next day's paper had these additional par
ticulars :

" The Tragedy in the Rue Morgue. Many individuals
have been examined in relation to this most extra
ordinary and frightful affair " (the word " affaire " has
not yet, in France, that levity of import which it con
veys with us), " but nothing whatever has transpired to
throw light upon it. We give below all the material
testimony elicited.

" Pauline Dubourg, laundress, deposes that she has
known both the deceased for three years, having washed
for them during that period. The old lady and her
daughter seemed on good terms — very affectionate
towards each other. They were excellent pay. Could
not speak in regard to their mode or means of living.
Believed that Madame L. told fortunes for a living.
Was reputed to have money put by. Never met any
persons in the house when she called for the clothes or
took them home. Was sure that they had no servant
in employ. There appeared to be no furniture in any
part of the building except in the fourth story

" Pierre Moreau^ tobacconist, deposes that he has been
in the habit of selling small quantities of tobacco and
snuff to Madame L'Espanaye for nearly four years.

R 257

TALES OF MYSTERY

Was born in the neighbourhood, and has always resided
there. The deceased and her daughter had occupied
the house in which the corpses were found, for more
than six years. It was formerly occupied by a jeweller,
who under-let the upper rooms to various persons.
The house was the property of Madame L. She
became dissatisfied with the abuse of the premises by
her tenant, and moved into them herself, refusing to
let any portion. The old lady was childish. Witness
had seen the daughter some five or six times during
the six years. The two lived an exceedingly retired
life — were reputed to have money. Had heard it said
among the neighbours that Madame L. told fortunes —
did not believe it. Had never seen any person enter
the door except the old lady and her daughter, a
porter once or twice, and a physician some eight or
ten times.

" Many other persons, neighbours, gave evidence to
the same effect. No one was spoken of as frequenting
the house. It was not known whether there were any
living connections of Madame L. and her daughter.
The shutters of the front windows were seldom opened.
Those in the rear were always closed, with the excep
tion of the large back room, fourth story. The house
was a good house — not very old.

" Isidore Muset, gendarme^ deposes that he was called
to the house about three o'clock in the morning, and
found some twenty or thirty persons at the gateway,
endeavouring to gain admittance. Forced it open, at
length, with a bayonet — not with a crowbar. Had
but little difficulty in getting it open, on account of its
being a double or folding gate, and bolted neither at
bottom nor top. The shrieks were continued until the
gate was forced — and then suddenly ceased. They

258

THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE

seemed to be screams of some person (or persons) in
great agony — were loud and drawn out, not short and
quick. Witness led the way upstairs. Upon reaching
the first landing, heard two voices in loud and angry
contention — the one a gruff voice, the other much
shriller — a very strange voice. Could distinguish some
words of the former, which was that of a Frenchman.
Was positive that it was not a woman's voice. Could
distinguish the words c sacre' and ' diable' The shrill
voice was that of a foreigner. Could not be sure
whether it was the voice of a man or of a woman.
Could not make out what was said, but believed the
language to be Spanish. The state of the room and
of the bodies was described by this witness as we
described them yesterday.

" Henri Duval^ a neighbour, and by trade a silver
smith, deposes that he was one of the party who first
entered the house. Corroborates the testimony of
Muset in general. As soon as they forced an entrance,
they reclosed the door, to keep out the crowd, which
collected very fast, notwithstanding the lateness of the
hour. The shrill voice, the witness thinks, was that of
an Italian. Was certain it was not French. Could
not be sure that it was a man's voice. It might have
been a woman's. Was not acquainted with the Italian
language. Could not distinguish the words, but was
convinced by the intonation that the speaker was an
Italian. Knew Madame L. and her daughter. Had
conversed with both frequently. Was sure that the
shrill voice was not that of either of the deceased.

" Odenheimer^ restaurateur. This witness volun
teered his testimony. Not speaking French, was
examined through an interpreter. Is a native of
Amsterdam. Was passing the house at the time of the

259

TALES OF MYSTERY

shrieks. They lasted for several minutes — probably ten.
They were long and loud — very awful and distressing.
Was one of those who entered the building. Corro
borated the previous evidence in every respect but
one. Was sure that the shrill voice was that of a
man — of a Frenchman. Could not distinguish the
words uttered. They were loud and quick — unequal-
spoken apparently in fear as well as in anger. The voice
was harsh — not so much shrill as harsh. Could not
call it a shrill voice. The gruff voice said repeatedly
' sacrej ' diable^ and once ' mon Dieu*

" yules Mignaud, banker, of the firm of Mignaud et
Fils, Rue Deloraine. Is the elder Mignaud. Madame
L'Espanaye had some property. Had opened an account

with his banking house in the spring of the year

(eight years previously). Made frequent deposits in
small sums. Had checked for nothing until the third
day before her death, when she took out in person the
sum of 4000 francs. This sum was paid in gold, and a
clerk sent home with the money.

" Adolphe Le Bon, clerk to Mignaud et Fils, deposes
that on the day in question, about noon, he accompanied
Madame L'Espanaye to her residence with the 4000
francs, put up in two bags. Upon the door being
opened, Mademoiselle L. appeared and took from his
hands one of the bags, while the old lady relieved him
of the other. He then bowed and departed. Did not
see any person in the street at the time. It is a bye-
street — very lonely.

" William Bird, tailor, deposes that he was one of the
party who entered the house. Is an Englishman. Has
lived in Paris two years. Was one of the first to ascend
the stairs. Heard the voices in contention. The gruff
voice was that of a Frenchman. Could make out
260

THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE

several words, but cannot now remember all. Heard
distinctly l sacre" and c mon Dieu' There was a sound
at the moment as if of several persons struggling — a
scraping and scuffling sound. The shrill voice was very
loud — louder than the gruff one. Is sure that it was not
the voice of an Englishman. Appeared to be that of a
German. Might have been a woman's voice. Does
not understand German.

" Four of the above-named witnesses, being recalled,
deposed that the door of the chamber in which was
found the body of Mademoiselle L. was locked on the
inside when the party reached it. Everything was
perfectly silent — no groans or noises of any kind. Upon
forcing the door no person was seen. The windows,
both of the back and front room, were down and firmly
fastened from within. A door between the two rooms
was closed, but not locked. The door leading from the
front room into the passage was locked, with the key
on the inside. A small room in the front of the house,
on the fourth story, at the head of the passage, was
open, the door being ajar. This room was crowded
with old beds, boxes, and so forth. These were care
fully removed and searched. There was not an inch
of any portion of the house which was not carefully
searched. Sweeps were sent up and down the chimneys.
The house was a four-story one, with garrets (mansardes}.
A trap-door on the roof was nailed down very securely
— did not appear to have been opened for years. The
time elapsing between the hearing of the voices in con
tention and the breaking open of the room door, was
variously stated by the witnesses. Some made it as
short as three minutes — some as long as five. The door
was opened with difficulty.

" Alfonzo Carcio, undertaker, deposes that he resides

261

TALES OF MYSTERY

in the Rue Morgue. Is a native of Spain. Was one
of the party who entered the house. Did not proceed
upstairs. Is nervous, and was apprehensive of the
consequences of agitation. Heard the voices in con
tention. The gruff voice was that of a Frenchman.
Could not distinguish what was said. The shrill voice
was that of an Englishman — is sure of this. Does not
understand the English language, but judges by the
intonation.

" Alberto Montani, confectioner, deposes that he
was among the first to ascend the stairs. Heard the
voices in question. The gruff voice was that of a
Frenchman. Distinguished several words. The
speaker appeared to be expostulating. Could not
make out the words of the shrill voice. Spoke quick
and unevenly. Thinks it the voice of a Russian.
Corroborates the general testimony. Is an Italian.
Never conversed with a native of Russia.

" Several witnesses, recalled, here testified that the
chimneys of all the rooms on the fourth story were too
narrow to admit the passage of a human being. By
' sweeps ' were meant cylindrical sweeping-brushes, such
as are employed by those who clean chimneys. These
brushes were passed up and down every flue in the
house. There is no back passage by which any one
could have descended while the party proceeded upstairs.
The body of Mademoiselle L'Espanaye was so firmly
wedged in the chimney that it could not be got down
until four or five of the party united their strength.

" Paul Dumas, physician, deposes that he was
called to view the bodies about daybreak. They were
both then lying on the sacking of the bedstead
in the chamber where Mademoiselle L. was found.
The corpse of the young lady was much bruised and
262

THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE

excoriated. The fact that it had been thrust up the
chimney would sufficiently account for these appearances.
The throat was greatly chafed. There were several
deep scratches just below the chin, together with a
series of livid spots which were evidently the impres
sion of fingers. The face was fearfully discoloured, and
the eyeballs protruded. The tongue had been partially
bitten through. A large bruise was discovered upon
the pit of the stomach, produced, apparently, by the
pressure of a knee. In the opinion of M. Dumas,
Mademoiselle L'Espanaye had been throttled to death
by some person or persons unknown. The corpse ot
the mother was horribly mutilated. All the bones of
the right leg and arm were more or less shattered. The
left tibia much splintered, as well as all the ribs of the left
side. Whole body dreadfully bruised and discoloured.
It was not possible to say how the injuries had been
inflicted. A heavy club of wood, or a broad bar of iron
— a chair — any large, heavy, and obtuse weapon would
have produced such results, if wielded by the hands of
a very powerful man. No woman could have inflicted
the blows with any weapon. The head of the deceased,
when seen by witness, was entirely separated from the
body, and was also greatly shattered. The throat had
evidently been cut with some very sharp instrument —
probably with a razor.

" Alexandre Etienne, surgeon, was called with M.
Dumas to view the bodies. Corroborated the testimony,
and the opinions of M. Dumas.

" Nothing farther of importance was elicited, al
though several other persons were examined. A murder
so mysterious, and so perplexing in all its particulars,
was never before committed in Paris — if indeed a
murder has been committed at all. The police are

263

TALES OF MYSTERY

entirely at fault — an unusual occurrence in affairs of
this nature. There is not, however, the shadow of a
clue apparent."

The evening edition of the paper stated that the
greatest excitement still continued in the Quartier St.
Roch — that the premises in question had been carefully
re-searched, and fresh examinations of witnesses insti
tuted, but all to no purpose. A postcript, however,
mentioned that Adolphe Le Bon had been arrested and
imprisoned — although nothing appeared to criminate
him, beyond the facts already detailed.

Dupin seemed singularly interested in the progress
of this affair — at least so I judged from his manner, for
he made no comments. It was only after the announce
ment that Le Bon had been imprisoned, that he asked
me my opinion respecting the murders.

I could merely agree with all Paris in considering
them an insoluble mystery. I saw no means by which
it would be possible to trace the murderer.

" We must not judge of the means," said Dupin,
" by this shell of an examination. The Parisian police,
so much extolled for acumen, are cunning, but no more.
There is no method in their proceedings, beyond the
method of the moment. They make a vast parade of
measures ; but, not unfrequently, these are so ill adapted
to the objects proposed, as to put us in mind of Mon
sieur Jourdain's calling for his robe-de-chambre — pour
mleux entendre la musique. The results attained by them
are not unfrequently surprising, but, for the most part,
are brought about by simple diligence and activity.
When these qualities are unavailing, their schemes fail.
Vidocq, for example, was a good guesser, and a perse
vering man. But, without educated thought, he erred
continually by the very intensity of his investigations.
264

THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE

He impaired his vision by holding the object too close.
He might see, perhaps, one or two points with unusual
clearness, but in so doing he, necessarily, lost sight of
the matter as a whole. Thus there is such a thing as
being too profound. Truth is not always in a well.
In fact, as regards the more important knowledge, I do
believe that she is invariably superficial. The depth
lies in the valleys where we seek her, and not upon the
mountain-tops where she is found. The modes and
sources of this kind of error are well typified in the con
templation of the heavenly bodies. To look at a star
by glances — to view it in a side-long way, by turning
towards it the exterior portions of the retina (more
susceptible of feeble impressions of light than the
interior), is to behold the star distinctly — is to have
the best appreciation of its lustre — a lustre which grows
dim just in proportion as we turn our vision fu//y upon
it. A greater number of rays actually fall upon the eye
in the latter case, but, in the former, there is the more
refined capacity for comprehension. By undue pro
fundity we perplex and enfeeble thought ; and it is
possible to make even Venus herself vanish from the
firmament by a scrutiny too sustained, too concentrated,
or too direct.

" As for these murders, let us enter into some
examinations for ourselves before we make up an
opinion respecting them. An inquiry will afford us
amusement " (I thought this an odd term, so applied,
but said nothing), "and, besides, Le Bon once rendered
me a service for which I am not ungrateful. We will
go and see the premises with our own eyes. I know

G , the Prefect of Police, and shall have no difficulty

in obtaining the necessary permission."

The permission was obtained, and we proceeded

265

TALES OF MYSTERY

at once to the Rue Morgue. This is one of those
miserable thoroughfares which intervene between the
Rue Richelieu and the Rue St. Roch. It was late in
the afternoon when we reached it, as this quarter is at
a great distance from that in which we resided. The
house was readily found, for there were still many
persons gazing up at the closed shutters with an object
less curiosity, from the opposite side of the way. It
was an ordinary Parisian house, with a gateway, on one
side of which was a glazed watch-box, with a sliding
panel in the window, indicating a loge de concierge.
Before going in we walked up the street, turned down
an alley, and then, again turning, passed in the rear of
the building — Dupin, meanwhile, examining the whole
neighbourhood, as well as the house, with a minuteness
of attention for which I could see no possible object.

Retracing our steps, we came again to the front ot
the dwelling, rang, and, having shown our credentials,
were admitted by the agents in charge. We went
upstairs — into the chamber where the body ot
Mademoiselle L'Espanaye had been found, and where
both the deceased still lay. The disorders of the room
had, as usual, been suffered to exist. I saw nothing
beyond what had been stated in the Gazette des
Tribunaux, Dupin scrutinised everything — not except
ing the bodies of the victims. We then went into the
other rooms, and into the yard, a gendarme accompanying
us throughout. The examination occupied us until
dark, when we took our departure. On our way home
my companion stepped in for a moment at the office of
one of the daily papers.

I have said that the whims of my friend were
manifold, and that Je les menageais : — for this phrase
there is no English equivalent. It was his humour,
266

THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE

now, to decline all conversation on the subject of the
murder until about noon the next day. He then asked
me suddenly if I had observed anything peculiar at the
scene of the atrocity.

There was something in his manner of emphasising
the word " peculiar," which caused me to shudder,
without knowing why.

" No, nothing peculiar" I said ; " nothing more, at
least, than we both saw stated in the paper."

" The Gazette" he replied, " has not entered, I fear,
into the unusual horror of the thing. But dismiss the
idle opinions of this print. It appears to me that this
mystery is considered insoluble, for the very reason
which should cause it to be regarded as easy of solution
— I mean for the outre character of its features. The
police are confounded by the seeming absence of motive
— not for the murder itself — but for the atrocity of the
murder. They are puzzled, too, by the seeming im
possibility of reconciling the voices heard in contention,
with the facts that no one was discovered upstairs but
the assassinated Mademoiselle L'Espanaye, and that
there were no means of egress without the notice of the
party ascending. The wild disorder of the room ; the
corpse thrust, with the head downwards, up the
chimney ; the frightful mutilation of the body of
the old lady; these considerations, with those just
mentioned, and others which I need not mention,
have sufficed to paralyse the powers, by putting com
pletely at fault the boasted acumen, of the government
agents. They have fallen into the gross but common
error of confounding the unusual with the abstruse.
But it is by these deviations from the plane of the
ordinary, that reason feels its way, if at all, in its search
for the true. In investigations such as we are now

267

TALES OF MYSTERY

pursuing, it should not be so much asked c what has
occurred,' as c what has occurred that has never occurred
before.' In fact, the facility with which I shall arrive,
or have arrived, at the solution of this mystery, is in
the direct ratio of its apparent insolubility in the eyes
of the police."

I stared at the speaker in mute astonishment.

" I am now awaiting," continued he, looking
towards the door of our apartment — " I am now
awaiting a person who, although perhaps not the per
petrator of these butcheries, must have been in some
measure implicated in their perpetration. Of the
worst portion of the crimes committed, it is probable
that he is innocent. I hope that I am right in this
supposition ; for upon it I build my expectation of
reading the entire riddle. I look for the man here
in this room — every moment. It is true that he may
not arrive ; but the probability is that he will. Should
he come, it will be necessary to detain him. Here are
pistols ; and we both know how to use them when
occasion demands their use."

I took the pistols, scarcely knowing what I did, or
believing what I heard, while Dupin went on, very
much as if in a soliloquy. I have already spoken of
his abstract manner at such times. His discourse was
addressed to myself ; but his voice, although by no
means loud, had that intonation which is commonly
employed in speaking to some one at a great distance.
His eyes, vacant in expression, regarded only the wall.

" That the voices heard in contention," he said, " by
the party upon the stairs, were not the voices of the
women themselves, was fully proved by the evidence.
This relieves us of all doubt upon the question whether
the old lady could have first destroyed the daughter, and
268

THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE

afterward have committed suicide. I speak of this
point chiefly for the sake of method ; for the strength
of Madame L'Espanaye would have been utterly un
equal to the task of thrusting her daughter's corpse up
the chimney as it was found ; and the nature of the
wounds upon her own person entirely preclude the idea
of self-destruction. Murder, then, has been committed
by some third party ; and the voices of this third party
were those heard in contention. Let me now advert —
not to the whole testimony respecting these voices — but
to what was peculiar in that testimony. Did you
observe any thing peculiar about it ? "

I remarked that, while all the witnesses agreed in
supposing the gruff voice to be that of a Frenchman,
there was much disagreement in regard to the shrill, or,
as one individual termed it, the harsh voice.

" That was the evidence itself," said Dupin, " but it
was not the peculiarity of the evidence. You have
observed nothing distinctive. Yet there was something
to be observed. The witnesses, as you remark, agreed
about the gruff voice ; they were here unanimous.
But in regard to the shrill voice, the peculiarity is—
not that they disagreed — but that, while an Italian, an
Englishman, a Spaniard, a Hollander, and a Frenchman
attempted to describe it, each one spoke of it as that of
a foreigner. Each is sure that it was not the voice
of one of his own countrymen. Each likens it — not to
the voice of an individual of any nation with whose
language he is conversant — but the converse. The
Frenchman supposes it the voice of a Spaniard, and
c might have distinguished some words had he been
acquainted with the Spanish? The Dutchman maintains
it to have been that of a Frenchman ; but we find it
stated that ' not understanding French this witness was

269

TALES OF MYSTERY

examined through an interpreter? The Englishman
thinks it the voice of a German, and ' does not understand
German' The Spaniard ' is sure ' that it was that of an
Englishman, but 'judges by the intonation ' altogether,
' as he has no knowledge of the English.' The Italian
believes it the voice of a Russian, but ' has never con
versed <with a native of Russia' A second Frenchman
differs, moreover, with the first, and is positive that the
voice was that of an Italian, but, not being cognisant of
that tongue^ is, like the Spaniard, convinced by the
intonation. Now, how strangely unusual must that
voice have really been, about which such testimony as
this could have been elicited ! — in whose tones^ even,
denizens of the five great divisions of Europe could
recognise nothing familiar ! You will say that it
might have been the voice of an Asiatic — of an African.
Neither Asiatics nor Africans abound in Paris ; but,
without denying the inference, I will now merely call
your attention to three points. The voice is termed
by one witness ' harsh rather than shrill/ It is repre
sented by two others to have been ' quick and unequal'
No words — no sounds resembling words — were by any
witness mentioned as distinguishable.

" I know not," continued Dupin, " what impres
sion I may have made, so far, upon your own under
standing ; but I do not hesitate to say that legitimate
deductions even from this portion of the testimony —
the portion respecting the gruff and shrill voices — are
in themselves sufficient to engender a suspicion which
should give direction to all farther progress in the
investigation of the mystery. I said 'legitimate de
ductions ; ' but my meaning is not thus fully expressed.
I designed to imply that the deductions are the sole
proper ones, and that the suspicion arises inevitably from
270

THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE

them as the single result. What the suspicion is,
however, I will not say just yet. I merely wish you to
bear in mind that, with myself, it was sufficiently
forcible to give a definite form — a certain tendency —
to my inquiries in the chamber.

" Let us now transport ourselves, in fancy, to this
chamber. What shall we first seek here ? The means
of egress employed by the murderers. It is not too
much to say that neither of us believe in preternatural
events. Madame and Mademoiselle L'Espanaye were
not destroyed by spirits. The doers of the deed were
material, and escaped materially. Then how ? Fortu
nately, there is but one mode of reasoning upon the
point, and that mode must lead us to a definite decision.
— Let us examine, each by each, the possible means of
egress. It is clear that the assassins were in the room
where Mademoiselle L'Espanaye was found, or at least
in the room adjoining, when the party ascended the
stairs. It is then only from these two apartments that
we have to seek issues. The police have laid bare the
floors, the ceilings, and the masonry of the walls, in
every direction. No secret issues could have escaped
their vigilance. But not trusting to their eyes, I
examined with my own. There were, then, no secret
issues. Both doors leading from the rooms into the
passage were securely locked, with the keys inside.
Let us turn to the chimneys. These, although of
ordinary width for some eight or ten feet above the
hearths, will not admit, throughout their extent, the
body of a large cat. The impossibility of egress, by
means already stated, being thus absolute, we are reduced
to the windows. Through those of the front room no
one could have escaped without notice from the crowd
in the street. The murderers must have passed, then,

271

TALES OF MYSTERY

through those of the back room. Now, brought to
this conclusion in so unequivocal a manner as we are,
it is not our part, as reasoners, to reject it on account of
apparent impossibilities. It is only for us to prove
that these apparent ' impossibilities ' are, in reality, not
such.

" There are two windows in the chamber. One
of them is unobstructed by furniture and is wholly
visible. The lower portion of the other is hidden
from view by the head of the unwieldy bedstead which
is thrust close up against it. The former was found
securely fastened from within. It resisted the utmost
force of those who endeavoured to raise it. A large
gimlet-hole had been pierced in its frame to the left,
and a very stout nail was found fitted therein, nearly
to the head. Upon examining the other window, a
similar nail was seen similarly fitted in it ; and a
vigorous attempt to raise this sash, failed also. The
police were now entirely satisfied that egress had not
been in these directions. And, therefore^ it was thought
a matter of supererogation to withdraw the nails and
open the windows.

" My own examination was somewhat more par
ticular, and was so for the reason I have just given —
because here it was, I knew, that all apparent impossi
bilities must be proved to be not such in reality.

" I proceeded to think thus — a posteriori. The
murderers did escape from one of these windows. This
being so, they could not have re-fastened the sashes
from the inside, as they were found fastened; — the
consideration which put a stop, through its obvious
ness, to the scrutiny of the police in this quarter. Yet
the sashes 'were fastened. They tnusf, then, have the
power of fastening themselves. There was no escape
272

THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE

from this conclusion. I stepped to the unobstructed
casement, withdrew the nail with some difficulty, and
attempted to raise the sash. It resisted all my efforts,
as I had anticipated. A concealed spring must, I now
knew, exist ; and this corroboration of my idea con
vinced me that my premises, at least, were correct,
however mysterious still appeared the circumstances
attending the nails. A careful search soon brought to
light the hidden spring. I pressed it, and, satisfied
with the discovery, forbore to upraise the sash.

" I now replaced the nail and regarded it atten
tively. A person passing out through this window
might have reclosed it, and the spring would have
caught — but the nail could not have been replaced.
The conclusion was plain, and again narrowed in the
field of my investigations. The assassins must have
escaped through the other window. Supposing, then,
the springs upon each sash to be the same, as was
probable, there must be found a difference between the
nails, or at least between the modes of their fixture.
Getting upon the sacking of the bedstead, I looked
over the head-board minutely at the second casement.
Passing my hand down behind the board, I readily
discovered and pressed the spring, which was, as I had
supposed, identical in character with its neighbour. I
now looked at the nail. It was as stout as the other,
and apparently fitted in the same manner — driven in
nearly up to the head.

" You will say that I was puzzled ; but, if you
think so, you must have misunderstood the nature of
the inductions. To use a sporting phrase, I had not
been once 4 at fault.' The scent had never for an in
stant been lost. There was no flaw in any link of the
chain. I had traced the secret to its ultimate result —

s 273

TALES OF MYSTERY

and that result was the nail. It had, I say, in every
respect, the appearance of its fellow in the other
window ; but this fact was an absolute nullity (conclu
sive as it might seem to be) when compared with the
consideration that here, at this point, terminated the
clue. 4 There must be something wrong,' I said, c about
the nail.* I touched it; and the head, with about a
quarter of an inch of the shank, came off in my
fingers. The rest of the shank was in the gimlet-hole,
where it had been broken off. The fracture was an
old one (for its edges were incrusted with rust), and
had apparently been accomplished by the blow of a
hammer, which had partially imbedded, in the top of
the bottom sash, the head portion of the nail. I now
carefully replaced this head portion in the indentation
whence I had taken it, and the resemblance to a perfect
nail was complete — the fissure was invisible. Pressing
the spring, I gently raised the sash for a few inches ;
the head went up with it, remaining firm in its bed.
I closed the window, and the semblance of the whole
nail was again perfect.

" The riddle, so far, was now unriddled. The
assassin had escaped through the window which looked
upon the bed. Dropping of its own accord upon his
exit (or perhaps purposely closed), it had become
fastened by the spring ; and it was the retention of
this spring which had been mistaken by the police for
that of the nail — farther inquiry being thus considered
unnecessary.

" The next question is that of the mode of descent.
Upon this point I had been satisfied in my walk with
you around the building. About five feet and a half
from the casement in question there runs a lightning-
rod. From this rod it would have been impossible for
274

THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE

any one to reach the window itself, to say nothing of
entering it. I observed, however, that the shutters of
the fourth story were of the peculiar kind called by
Parisian carpenters ferrades — a kind rarely employed at
the present day, but frequently seen upon very old
mansions at Lyons and Bordeaux. They are in the
form of ar, ordinary door (a single, not a folding door),
except that the upper half is latticed or worked in open
trellis — thus affording an excellent hold for the hands.
In the present instance these shutters are fully three
feet and a half broad. When we saw them from the
rear of the house, they were both about half open —
that is to say, they stood off at right-angles from the
wall. It is probable that the police, as well as myself,
examined the back of the tenement ; but, if so, in
looking at these ferrades in the line of their breadth
(as they must have done), they did not perceive this
great breadth itself, or, at all events, failed to take it
into due consideration. In fact, having once satisfied
themselves that no egress could have been made in this
quarter, they would naturally bestow here a very
cursory examination. It was clear to me, however,
that the shutter belonging to the window at the head
of the bed, would, if swung fully back to the wall,
reach to within two feet of the lightning-rod. It was
also evident that, by exertion of a very unusual degree
of activity and courage, an entrance into the window,
from the rod, might have been thus effected. — By
reaching to the distance of two feet and a half (we now
suppose the shutter open to its whole extent) a robber
might have taken a firm grasp upon the trellis-work.
Letting go, then, his hold upon the rod, placing his feet
securely against the wall, and springing boldly from it,
he might have swung the shutter so as to close it, and,

275

TALES OF MYSTERY

if we imagine the window open at the time, might
even have swung himself into the room.

" I wish you to bear especially in mind that I have
spoken of a very unusual degree of activity as requisite
to success in so hazardous and so difficult a feat. It is
my design to show you, first, that the thing might
possibly have been accomplished : — but, secondly and
chiefly, I wish to impress upon your understanding the
very extraordinary — the almost preternatural character
of that agility which could have accomplished it.

" You will say, no doubt, using the language of the
law, that ' to make out my case,' I should rather under
value, than insist upon a full estimation of the activity
required in this matter. This may be the practice in
law, but it is not the usage of reason. My ultimate
object is only the truth. My immediate purpose is to
lead you to place in juxtaposition that very unusual
activity of which I have just spoken, with that very
peculiar shrill (or harsh) and unequal voice, about whose
nationality no two persons could be found to agree,
and in whose utterance no syllabification could be
detected."

At these words a vague and half-formed conception
of the meaning of Dupin flitted over my mind. I
seemed to be upon the verge of comprehension, without
power to comprehend — as men, at times, find them
selves upon the brink of remembrance, without being
able, in the end, to remember. My friend went on
with his discourse.

" You will see," he said, " that I have shifted the
question from the mode of egress to that of ingress. It
was my design to suggest that both were effected in the
same manner, at the same point. Let us now revert to
the interior of the room. Let us survey the appearances
276

THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE

here. The drawers of the bureau, it is said, had been
rifled, although many articles of apparel still remained
within them. The conclusion here is absurd. It is a
mere guess — a very silly one — and no more. How are
we to know that the articles found in the drawers
were not all these drawers had originally contained ?
Madame L'Espanaye and her daughter lived an exceed
ingly retired life — saw no company — seldom went out
— had little use for numerous changes of habiliment.
Those found were at least of as good quality as any
likely to be possessed by these ladies. If a thief had
taken any, why did he not take the best — why did he
not take all ? In a word, why did he abandon four
thousand francs in gold to encumber himself with a
bundle of linen ? The gold was abandoned. Nearly
the whole sum mentioned by Monsieur Mignaud, the
banker, was discovered, in bags, upon the floor. I wish
you, therefore, to discard from your thoughts the
blundering idea of motive, engendered in the brains ot
the police by that portion of the evidence which
speaks of money delivered at the door of the house.
Coincidences ten times as remarkable as this (the
delivery of the money, and murder committed within
three days upon the party receiving it), happen to all
of us every hour of our lives, without attracting even
momentary notice. Coincidences, in general, are great
stumbling-blocks in the way of that class of thinkers
who have been educated to know nothing of the theory
of probabilities — that theory to which the most glorious
objects of human research are indebted for the most
glorious of illustration. In the present instance, had
the gold been gone, the fact of its delivery three days
before would have formed something more tnan a
coincidence. It would have been corroborative of this

277

TALES OF MYSTERY

idea of motive. But, under the real circumstances of
the case, if we are to suppose gold the motive of this
outrage, we must also imagine the perpetrator so
vacillating an idiot as to have abandoned his gold and
his motive together.

" Keeping now steadily in mind the points to which
I have drawn your attention — that peculiar voice, that
unusual agility, and that startling absence of motive in
a murder so singularly atrocious as this — let us glance
at the butchery itself. Here is a woman strangled to
death by manual strength, and thrust up a chimney,
head downwards. Ordinary assassins employ no such
modes of murder as this. Least of all, do they thus
dispose of the murdered. In the manner of thrusting
the corpse up the chimney, you will admit that there was
something excessively outre — something altogether irre
concilable with our common notions of human action,
even when we suppose the actors the most depraved of
men. Think, too, how great must have been that
strength which could have thrust the body up such
an aperture so forcibly that the united vigour of
several persons was found barely sufficient to drag it
down !

" Turn now, to other indications of the employment
of a vigour most marvellous. On the hearth were
thick tresses — very thick tresses — of grey human hair.
These had been torn out by the roots. You are aware
of the great force in tearing thus from the head even
twenty or thirty hairs together. You saw the locks in
question as well as myself. Their roots (a hideous sight !)
were clotted with fragments of the flesh of the scalp —
sure token of the prodigious power which had been
exerted in uprooting perhaps half a million of hairs at a
time. The throat of the old lady was not merely cut,
278

THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE

but the head absolutely severed from the body ; the
instrument was a mere razor. I wish you also to look
at the brutal ferocity of these deeds. Of the bruises
upon the body of Madame L'Espanaye I do not speak.
Monsieur Dumas and his worthy coadjutor Monsieur
Etienne, have pronounced that they were inflicted by
some obtuse instrument; and so far these gentlemen
are very correct. The obtuse instrument was clearly
the stone pavement in the yard, upon which the victim
had fallen from the window which looked in upon the
bed. This idea, however simple it may now seem,
escaped the police for the same reason that the breadth
of the shutters escaped them — because, by the affair of
the nails, their perceptions had been hermetically sealed
against the possibility of the windows having ever been
opened at all.

" If now, in addition to all these things, you have
properly reflected upon the odd disorder of the chamber,
we have gone so far as to combine the ideas of an agility
astounding, a strength superhuman, a ferocity brutal, a
butchery without motive, a grotesquerie in horror abso
lutely alien from humanity, and a voice foreign in tone
to the ears of men of many nations, and devoid of all
distinct or intelligible syllabification. What result, then,
has ensued ? What impression have I made upon your
fancy ? "

I felt a creeping of the flesh as Dupin asked me the
question. " A madman," I said, " has done this deed —
some raving maniac, escaped from a neighbouring
Maison de Sante"

" In some respects," he replied, " your idea is not
irrelevant. But the voices of madmen, even in their
wildest paroxysms, are never found to tally with that
peculiar voice heard upon the stairs. Madmen are of

279

TALES OF MYSTERY

some nation, and their language, however incoherent
in its words, has always the coherence of syllabification.
Besides, the hair of a madman is not such as I now hold
in my hand. I disentangled this little tuft from the
rigidly clutched ringers of Madame L'Espanaye. Tell
me what you can make of it."

" Dupin ! " I said, completely unnerved; " this hair
is most unusual — this is no human hair."

" I have not asserted that it is,'* said he ; " but, be
fore we decide this point, I wish you to glance at the
little sketch I have here traced upon this paper. It is
a fac-simile drawing of what has been described in one
portion of the testimony as ' dark bruises and deep
indentations of finger-nails,' upon the throat of Ma
demoiselle L'Espanaye, and in another (by Messrs.
Dumas and Etienne), as a ' series of livid spots, evidently
the impression of fingers.'

" You will perceive," continued my friend, spread
ing out the paper upon the table before us, " that this
drawing gives the idea of a firm and fixed hold. There
is no slipping apparent. Each finger has retained —
possibly until the death of the victim — the fearful grasp
by which it originally imbedded itself. Attempt, now,
to place all your fingers, at the same time, in the re
spective impressions as you see them."

I made the attempt in vain.

" We are possibly not giving this matter a fair
trial," he said. "The paper is spread out upon a plane
surface ; but the human throat is cylindrical. Here is
a billet of wood, the circumference of which is about
that of the throat. Wrap the drawing round it, and
try the experiment again."

I did so ; but the difficulty was even more obvious
than before.
280

THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE

" This," I said, " is the mark of no human hand."

" Read now," replied Dupin, " this passage from
Cuvier."

It was a minute anatomical and generally descrip
tive account of the large fulvous Ourang-Outang of the
East Indian Islands. The gigantic stature, the pro
digious strength and activity, the wild ferocity and the
imitative propensities of these mammalia are sufficiently
well known to all. I understood the full horrors of
the murder at once.

"The description of the digits," said I, as I made
an end of reading, " is in exact accordance with this
drawing. I see that no animal but an Ourang-Outang
of the species here mentioned, could have impressed the
indentations as you have traced them. This tuft of
tawny hair, too, is identical with that of the beast of
Cuvier. But I cannot possibly comprehend the parti
culars of this frightful mystery. Besides, there were
two voices heard in contention, and one of them was
unquestionably the voice of a Frenchman."

"True; and you will remember an expression attri
buted almost unanimously, by the evidence, to this
voice — the expression, ' Mon Dieu ! ' This, under the
circumstances, has been justly characterised by one of
the witnesses (Montani, the confectioner), as an expres
sion of remonstrance or expostulation. Upon these two
words, therefore, I have mainly built my hopes of a
full solution of the riddle. A Frenchman was cognisant
of the murder. It is possible — indeed it is far more
than probable — that he was innocent of all participation
in the bloody transactions which took place. The
Ourang-Outang may have escaped from him. He may
have traced it to the chamber ; but, under the agitat
ing circumstances which ensued, he could never have

281

TALES OF MYSTERY

recaptured it. It is still at large. I will not pursue
these guesses — for I have no right to call them more —
since the shades of reflection upon which they are
based are scarcely of sufficient depth to be appreciable
by my own intellect, and since I could not pretend to
make them intelligible to the understanding of another.
We will call them guesses then, and speak of them as
such. If the Frenchman in question is indeed, as I
suppose, innocent of this atrocity, this advertisement,
which I left last night, upon our return home, at the
office of Le Monde (a paper devoted to the shipping
interest, and much sought by sailors), will bring him to
our residence."

He handed me a paper, and I read thus :

CAUGHT. In the Eon de Boulogne^ early In the morning of the

inst. (the morning of the murder), a very large, tawny Ourang-Outang of
the Bornese species. The owner (who is ascertained to be a sailor, belonging
to a Maltese vessel] may have the animal again, upon identifying it satisfac
torily and paying a few charges arising from its capture and keeping. Call
at No. , Rue , Faubourg St. Germain — au troisieme.

" How was it possible," I asked, " that you should
know the man to be a sailor, and belonging to a
Maltese vessel ? "

" I do not know it," said Dupin. " I am not sure
of it. Here, however, is a small piece of ribbon,
which from its form, and from its greasy appearance,
has evidently been used in tying the hair in one of
those long queues of which sailors are so fond. More
over, this knot is one which few besides sailors can tie,
and is peculiar to the Maltese. I picked the ribbon up
at the foot of the lightning-rod. It could not have
belonged to either of the deceased. Now, if, after all,
I am wrong in my induction from this ribbon, that the
Frenchman was a sailor belonging to a Maltese vessel,
282

THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE

still I can have done no harm in saying what I did in
the advertisement. If I am in error, he will merely
suppose that I have been misled by some circumstance
into which he will not take the trouble to inquire.
But if I am right, a great point is gained. Cognisant
although innocent of the murder, the Frenchman will
naturally hesitate about replying to the advertisement
— about demanding the Ourang-Outang. He will reason
thus : — c I am innocent ; I am poor ; my Ourang-
Outang is of great value — to one in my circumstances
a fortune of itself — why should I lose it through idle
apprehensions of danger ? Here it is, within my grasp.
It was found in the Bois de Boulogne — at a vast dis
tance from the scene of that butchery. How can it
ever be suspected that a brute beast should have done
the deed ? The police are at fault — they have failed
to procure the slightest clue. Should they even trace
the animal, it would be impossible to prove me cogni
sant of the murder, or to implicate me in guilt on
account of that cognisance. Above all, / am known.
The advertiser designates me as the possessor of the
beast. I am not sure to what limit his knowledge may
extend. Should I avoid claiming a property of so great
value, which it is known that I possess, I will render
the animal, at least, liable to suspicion. It is not my
policy to attract attention either to myself or to the
beast. I will answer the advertisement, get the Ourang-
Outang, and keep it close until this matter has blown

over."

At this moment we heard a step upon the stairs.

" Be ready," said Dupin, " with your pistols, but
neither use them nor show them until at a signal from
myself."

The front door of the house had been left open, and

283

TALES OF MYSTERY

the visitor had entered, without ringing, and advanced
several steps upon the staircase. Now, however, he
seemed to hesitate. Presently we heard him descend
ing. Dupin was moving quickly to the door, when we
again heard him coming up. He did not turn back a
second time, but stepped up with decision and rapped
at the door of our chamber.

" Come in," said Dupin, in a cheerful and hearty
tone.

A man entered. He was a sailor, evidently — a
tall, stout, and muscular-looking person, with a certain
dare-devil expression of countenance, not altogether
unprepossessing. His face, greatly sunburnt, was more
than half hidden by whisker and mustachlo. He had
with him a huge oaken cudgel, but appeared to be
otherwise unarmed. He bowed awkwardly, and bade
us "good evening," in French accents, which, although
somewhat Neufchatelish, were still sufficiently indica
tive of a Parisian origin.

" Sit down, my friend," said Dupin. " I suppose
you have called about the Ourang-Outang. Upon my
word, I almost envy you the possession of him; a
remarkably fine, and no doubt a very valuable animal.
How old do you suppose him to be ? "

The sailor drew a long breath, with the air of a
man relieved of some intolerable burthen, and then
replied, in an assured tone :

" I have no way of telling — but he can't be more
than four or five years old Have you got him
here ? "

" Oh no; we had no conveniences for keeping him
here. He is at a livery stable in the Rue Dubourg,
just by. You can get him in the morning. Of course
you are prepared to identify the property ? "
284

THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE

" To be sure I am, sir."

" I shall be very sorry to part with him," said
Dupin.

" I don't mean that you should be at all this trouble
for nothing, sir," said the man. Couldn't expect it.
Am very willing to pay a reward for the finding of the
animal — that is to say, anything in reason."

" Well," replied my friend, " that is all very fair,
to be sure. Let me think ! — what should I have ?
Oh ! I will tell you. My reward shall be this. You
shall give me all the information in your power about
these murders in the Rue Morgue."

Dupin said the last words in a very low tone, and
very quietly. Just as quietly, too, he walked toward
the door, locked it, and put the key in his pocket. He
then drew a pistol from his bosom and placed it, with
out the least flurry, upon the table.

The sailor's face flushed up as if he were struggling
with suffocation. He started to his feet and grasped
his cudgel; but the next moment he fell back into his
seat, trembling violently, and with the countenance of
death itself. He spoke not a word. I pitied him from
the bottom of my heart.

" My friend," said Dupin, in a kind tone, " you are
alarming yourself unnecessarily — you are indeed. We
mean you no harm whatever. I pledge you the honour
of a gentleman, and of a Frenchman, that we intend
you no injury. I perfectly well know that you are
innocent of the atrocities in the Rue Morgue. It will
not do, however, to deny that you are in some measure
implicated in them. From what I have already said,
you must know that I have had means of information
about this matter — means of which you could never
have dreamed. Now the thing stands thus. You have

285

TALES OF MYSTERY

done nothing which you could have avoided — nothing,
certainly, which renders you culpable. You were not
even guilty of robbery, when you might have robbed
with impunity. You have nothing to conceal. You
have no reason for concealment. On the other hand,
you are bound by every principle of honour to confess
all you know. An innocent man is now imprisoned,
charged with that crime of which you can point out
the perpetrator."

The sailor had recovered his presence of mind, in
a great measure, while Dupin uttered these words ; but
his original boldness of bearing was gone.

" So help me God," said he, after a brief pause, " I
will tell you all I know about this affair ; — but I do not
expect you to believe one half I say — I would be a fool
indeed if I did. Still, I am innocent, and I will make a
clean breast if I die for it."

What he stated was, in substance, this. He had
lately made a voyage to the Indian Archipelago. A
party, of which he formed one, landed at Borneo, and
passed into the interior on an excursion of pleasure.
Himself and a companion had captured the Ourang-
Outang. This companion dying, the animal fell into
his own exclusive possession. After great trouble,
occasioned by the intractable ferocity of his captive
during the home voyage, he at length succeeded in
lodging it safely at his own residence in Paris, where,
not to attract toward himself the unpleasant curiosity
of his neighbours, he kept it carefully secluded, until
such time as it should recover from a wound in the foot,
received from a splinter on board ship. His ultimate
design was to sell it.

Returning home from some sailor's frolic on the
night, or rather in the morning of the murder, he found
286

THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE

the beast occupying his own bedroom, into which it
had broken from a closet adjoining, where it had been,
as was thought, securely confined. Razor in hand, and
fully lathered, it was sitting before a looking-glass,
attempting the operation of shaving, in which it had
no doubt previously watched its master through the
keyhole of the closet. Terrified at the sight of so
dangerous a weapon in the possession of an animal so
ferocious, and so well able to use it, the man, for some
moments, was at a loss what to do. He had been
accustomed, however, to quiet the creature, even in
its fiercest moods, by the use of a whip, and to this he
now resorted. Upon sight of it, the Ourang-Outang
sprang at once through the door of the chamber, down
the stairs, and thence, through a window, unfortunately
open, into the street.

The Frenchman followed in despair ; the ape, razor
still in hand, occasionally stopping to look back and
gesticulate at its pursuer, until the latter had nearly
come up with it. It then again made off. In this
manner the chase continued for a long time. The
streets were profoundly quiet, as it was nearly three
o'clock in the morning. In passing down an alley in
the rear of the Rue Morgue, the fugitive's attention
was arrested by the light gleaming from the open
window of Madame L'Espanaye's chamber, in the
fourth story of her house. Rushing to the building,
it perceived the lightning-rod, clambered up it with
inconceivable agility, grasped the shutter, which was
thrown fully back against the wall, and, by its means,
swung itself directly upon the head-board of the bed.
The whole feat did not occupy a minute. The shutter
was kicked open again by the Ourang-Outang as it
entered the room.

287

TALES OF MYSTERY

The sailor, in the meantime, was both rejoiced and
perplexed. He had strong hopes of now recapturing
the brute, as it could scarcely escape from the trap into
which it had ventured, except by the rod, where it
might be intercepted as it came down. On the other
hand, there was much cause for anxiety as to what it
might do in the house. This latter reflection urged the
man still to follow the fugitive. A lightning-rod is
ascended without difficulty, especially by a sailor ; but,
when he had arrived as high as the window, which lay
far to his left, his career was stopped ; the most that
he could accomplish was to reach over so as to obtain a
glimpse of the interior of the room. At this glimpse he
nearly fell from his hold through excess of horror. Now
it was that those hideous shrieks arose upon the night,
which had startled from slumber the inmates of the
Rue Morgue. Madame L'Espanaye and her daughter,
habited in their night clothes, had apparently been
arranging some papers in the iron chest already men
tioned, which had been wheeled into the middle of the
room. It was open, and its contents lay beside it on
the floor. The victims must have been sitting with
their backs toward the window ; and, from the time
elapsing between the ingress of the beast and the
screams, it seems probable that it was not immediately
perceived. The flapping-to of the shutter would
naturally have been attributed to the wind.
{-•«•' As the sailor looked in, the gigantic animal had
seized Madame L'Espanaye by the hair (which was
loose, as she had been combing it), and was flourishing
the razor about her face, in imitation of the motions of
a barber. The daughter lay prostrate and motionless ;
she had swooned. The screams and struggles of the old
lady (during which the hair was torn from her head)
288

THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE

had the effect of changing the probably pacific purposes
of the Ourang-Outang into those of wrath. With one
determined sweep of its muscular arm it nearly severed
her head from her body. The sight of blood inflamed
its anger into frenzy. Gnashing its teeth and flashing
fire from its eyes, it flew upon the body of the girl, and
embedded its fearful talons in her throat, retaining its
grasp until she expired. Its wandering and wild
glances fell at this moment upon the head of the bed,
over which the face of its master, rigid with horror, was
just discernible. The fury of the beast, who no doubt
bore still in mind the dreaded whip, was instantly con
verted into fear. Conscious of having deserved punish
ment, it seemed desirous of concealing its bloody deeds,
and skipped about the chamber in an agony of nervous
agitation ; throwing down and breaking the furniture
as it moved, and dragging the bed from the bedstead.
In conclusion, it seized first the corpse of the daughter,
and thrust it up the chimney, as it was found ; then
that of the old lady, which it immediately hurled
through the window headlong.

As the ape approached the casement with its muti
lated burthen, the sailor shrank aghast to the rod, and,
rather gliding than clambering down it, hurried at
once home — dreading the consequences of the butchery,
and gladly abandoning, in his terror, all solicitude
about the fate of the Ourang-Outang. The words
heard by the party upon the staircase were the French
man's exclamations of horror and affright, commingled
with the fiendish jabberings of the brute.

I have scarcely anything to add. The Ourang-
Outang must have escaped from the chamber by the
rod, just before the breaking of the door. It must
have closed the window as it passed through it. It

T 289

TALES OF MYSTERY

was subsequently caught by the owner himself, who
obtained for it a very large sum at the *Jardin des
Plantes. Le Bon was instantly released, upon our
narration of the circumstances (with some comments
from Dupin) at the bureau of the Prefect of Police.
This functionary, however well disposed to my friend,
could not altogether conceal his chagrin at the turn
which affairs had taken, and was fain to indulge in a
sarcasm or two, about the propriety of every person
minding his own business.

" Let him talk," said Dupin, who had not thought
it necessary to reply. " Let him discourse; it will ease
his conscience. I am satisfied with having defeated
him in his own castle. Nevertheless, that he failed in
the solution of this mystery is by no means that matter
for wonder which he supposes it; for in truth, our
friend the Prefect is somewhat too cunning to be pro
found. In his wisdom is no stamen. It is all head and
no body, like the pictures of the Goddess Laverna — or,
at best, all head and shoulders, like a codfish. But he
is a good creature after all. I like him especially for
one master-stroke of cant, by which he has attained
his reputation for ingenuity. I mean the way he has
' de nier ce qui est^ et d'expliquer ce qui nest pas' " *

* Rousseau, Nouvttte Helo'ise.

290

THE BLACK CAT

FOR the most wild yet most homely narrative
which I am about to pen I neither expect nor
solicit belief. Mad indeed would I be to
expect it in a case where my very senses reject
their own evidence. Yet, mad am I not : and very
surely do I not dream. But to-morrow I die, and to
day I would unburden my soul. My immediate
purpose is to place before the world, plainly, succinctly,
and without comment, a series of mere household
events. In their consequences, those events have terri
fied — have tortured — have destroyed me. Yet I will
not attempt to expound them. To me, they have
presented little but Horror ; to many they will seem
less terrible than baroques. Hereafter, perhaps, some
intellect may be found which will reduce my phantasm
to the commonplace ; some intellect more calm, more
logical, and far less excitable than my own, which will
perceive, in the circumstances I detail with awe, nothing
more than an ordinary succession of very natural causes
and effects.

From my infancy I was noted for the docility and
humanity of my disposition. My tenderness of heart
was even so conspicuous as to make me the jest of my
companions. I was especially fond of animals, and was
indulged by my parents with a great variety of pets.
With these I spent most of my time, and never was so
happy as when feeding and caressing them. This
peculiarity of character grew with my growth, and in
my manhood I derived from it one of my principal
sources of pleasure. To those who have cherished an
affection for a faithful and sagacious dog, I need hardly
be at the trouble of explaining the nature or the
intensity of the gratification thus derivable. There is

291

TALES OF MYSTERY

something in the unselfish and self-sacrificing love of a
brute which goes directly to the heart of him who has
had frequent occasion to test the paltry friendship and
gossamer fidelity of mere Man.

I married early, and was happy to find in my wife
a disposition not uncongenial with my own. Observing
my partiality for domestic pets, she lost no opportunity
of procuring those of the most agreeable kind. We had
birds, goldfish, a fine dog, rabbits, a small monkey, and
a cat.

This latter was a remarkably large and beautiful
animal, entirely black, and sagacious to an astonishing
degree. In speaking of his intelligence, my wife, who
at heart was not a little tinctured with superstition, made
frequent allusion to the ancient popular notion which
regarded all black cats as witches in disguise. Not
that she was ever serious upon this point — and I mention
the matter at all for no better reason than that it
happens, just now, to be remembered.

Pluto — this was the cat's name — was my favourite
pet and playmate. I alone fed him, and he attended
me wherever I went about the house. It was even
with difficulty that I could prevent him from following
me through the streets.

Our friendship lasted in this manner for several
years, during which my general temperament and
character, through the instrumentality of the fiend
Intemperance, had (I blush to confess it) experienced a
radical alteration for the worse. I grew, day by day,
more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the
feelings of others. I suffered myself to use intemperate
language to my wife. At length, I even offered her
personal violence. My pets, of course, were made to
feel the change in my disposition. I not only neglected
292

THE BLACK CAT

but ill-used them. For Pluto, however, I still retained
sufficient regard to restrain me from maltreating him,
as I made no scruple of maltreating the rabbits, the
monkey, or even the dog, when by accident, or through
affection, they came in my way. But my disease grew
upon me — for what disease is like alcohol ? — and at
length even Pluto, who was now becoming old, and
consequently somewhat peevish — even Pluto began to
experience the effects of my ill-temper.

One night, returning home much intoxicated from
one of my haunts about town, I fancied that the cat
avoided my presence. I seized him ; when, in his
fright at my violence, he inflicted a slight wound upon
my hand with his teeth. The fury of a demon instantly
possessed me. I knew myself no longer. My original
soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from my body ;
and a more than fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured,
thrilled every fibre of my frame. I took from my
waistcoat pocket a pen-knife, opened it, grasped the
poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its
eyes from the socket ! I blush, I burn, I shudder,
while I pen the damnable atrocity.

When reason returned with the morning — when I
had slept off the fumes of the night's debauch — I
experienced a sentiment half of horror, half of remorse,
for the crime of which I had been guilty ; but it was,
at best, a feeble and equivocal feeling, and the soul
remained untouched. I again plunged into excess, and
soon drowned in wine all memory of the deed.

In the meantime the cat slowly recovered. The
socket of the lost eye presented, it is true, a frightful
appearance, but he no longer appeared to suffer any
pain. He went about the house as usual, but, as might
be expected, fled in extreme terror at my approach. I

293

TALES OF MYSTERY

had so much of my old heart left, as to be at first
grieved by this evident dislike on the part of a creature
which had once so loved me. But this feeling soon
gave place to irritation. And then came, as if to my
final and irrevocable overthrow, the spirit of PERVERSE-
NESS. Of this spirit philosophy takes no account. Yet
I am not more sure that my soul lives than I am that
perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the
human heart : one of the indivisible primary faculties,
or sentiments, which give direction to the character of
man. Who has not, a hundred times, found himself
committing a vile or a silly action, for no other reason
than because he knows he should not? Have we not
a perpetual inclination, in the teeth of our best judg
ment, to violate that which is /aw, merely because we
understand it to be such ? This spirit of perverseness,
I say, came to my final overthrow. It was this un
fathomable longing of the soul to 'vex itself- — to offer
violence to its own nature — to do wrong for the
wrong's sake only — that urged me to continue and
finally to consummate the injury I had inflicted upon
the unoffending brute. One morning, in cool blood,
I slipped a noose about its neck and hung it to the limb
of a tree ; hung it with the tears streaming from my
eyes, and with the bitterest remorse at my heart ; hung
it because I knew that it had loved me, and because I
felt it had given me no reason of offence ; hung it
because I knew that in so doing I was committing a
sin — a deadly sin that would so jeopardise my immortal
soul as to place it — if such a thing were possible — even
beyond the reach of the infinite mercy of the Most
Merciful and Most Terrible God.

On the night of the day on which this cruel deed
was done, I was aroused from sleep by the cry of fire.
294

THE BLACK CAT

The curtains of my bed were in flames. The whole
house was blazing. It was with great difficulty that my
wife, a servant, and myself, made our escape from the
conflagration. The destruction was complete. My
entire worldly wealth was swallowed up, and I resigned
myself thenceforward to despair.

I am above the weakness of seeking to establish a
sequence of cause and effect, between the disaster and
the atrocity. But I am detailing a chain of facts, and
wish not to leave even a possible link imperfect. On
the day succeeding the fire, I visited the ruins. The
walls, with one exception, had fallen in. This exception
was found in a compartment wall, not very thick,
which stood about the middle of the house, and against
which had rested the head of my bed. The plastering
had here, in great measure, resisted the action of the
fire — a fact which I attributed to its having been
recently spread. About this wall a dense crowd were
collected, and many persons seemed to be examining a
particular portion of it with very minute and eager
attention. The words " strange ! " " singular ! " and
other similar expressions, excited my curiosity. I
approached and suw, as if graven in bas relief upon the
white surface, the figure of a gigantic cat. The
impression was given with an accuracy truly marvellous.
There was a rope about the animal's neck.

When I first beheld this apparition — for I could
scarcely regard it as less — my wonder and my terror
were extreme. But at length reflection came to my
aid. The cat, I remembered, had been hung in a
garden adjacent to the house. Upon the alarm of fire,
this garden had been immediately filled by the crowd —
by some one of whom the animal must have been cut
from the tree and thrown, through an open window,

295

TALES OF MYSTERY

into my chamber. This had probably been done with
the view of arousing me from sleep. The falling of
other walls had compressed the victim of my cruelty
into the substance of the freshly-spread plaster ; the
lime of which, with the flames, and the ammonia from
the carcass, had then accomplished the portraiture as I
saw it.

Although I thus readily accounted to my reason, if
not altogether to my conscience, for the startling fact
just detailed, it did not the less fail to make a deep
impression upon my fancy. For months I could not
rid myself of the phantasm of the cat ; and during this
period there came back into my spirit a half-sentiment
that seemed, but was not, remorse. I went so far as to
regret the loss of the animal, and to look about me,
among the vile haunts which I now habitually fre
quented, for another pet of the same species, and of
somewhat similar appearance, with which to supply its
place.

One night as I sat, half-stupefied, in a den of more
than infamy, my attention was suddenly drawn to some
black object, reposing upon the head of one of the
immense hogsheads of gin, or of rum, which constituted
the chief furniture of the apartment. I had been look
ing steadily at the top of this hogshead for some minutes,
and what now caused me surprise was the fact that I
had not sooner perceived the object thereupon. I
approached it, and touched it with my hand. It was a
black cat — a very large one — fully as large as Pluto,
and closely resembling him in every respect but one.
Pluto had not a white hair upon any portion of his
body ; but this cat had a large, although indefinite
splotch of white, nearly covering the whole region t of
the breast.
296

THE BLACK CAT

Upon my touching him, he immediately arose,
purred loudly, rubbed against my hand, and appeared
delighted with my notice. This, then, was the very
creature of which I was in search. 1 at once offered
to purchase it of the landlord ; but this person made
no claim to it — knew nothing of it — had never seen it
before.

I continued my caresses, and, when I prepared to go
home, the animal evinced a disposition to accompany
me. I permitted it to do so ; occasionally stooping and
patting it as I proceeded. When it reached the house,
it domesticated itself at once, and became immediately
a great favourite with my wife.

For my own part, I soon found a dislike to it
arising within me. This was just the reverse of what
I had anticipated; but — I know not how or why it
was — its evident fondness for myself rather disgusted
and annoyed. By slow degrees, these feelings of disgust
and annoyance rose into the bitterness of hatred. I
avoided the creature; a certain sense of shame, and the
remembrance of my former deed of cruelty, prevented
me from physically abusing it. I did not, for some
weeks, strike or otherwise violently ill use it; but
gradually — very gradually — I came to look upon it
with unutterable loathing, and to flee silently from its
odious presence, as from the breath of a pestilence.

What added, no doubt, to my hatred of the beast,
was the discovery, on the morning after I brought it
home, that, like Pluto, it had also been deprived of
one of its eyes. This circumstance, however, only en
deared it to my wife, who, as I have already said,
possessed in a high degree, that humanity of feeling
which had once been my distinguishing trait, and the
source of many of my simplest and purest pleasures^ -\

297

TALES OF MYSTERY

With my aversion to this cat, however, its partiality
for myself seemed to increase. It followed my foot
steps with a pertinacity which it would be difficult to
make the reader comprehend. Whenever I sat, it
would crouch beneath my chair, or spring upon my
knees, covering me with its loathsome caresses. If I
arose to walk, it would get between my feet and thus
nearly throw me down, or, fastening its long and sharp
claws in my dress, clamber, in this manner, to my
breast. At such times, although I longed to destroy
it with a blow, I was yet withheld from so doing,
partly by a memory of my former crime, but chiefly —
let me confess it at once — by absolute dread of the
beast.

This dread was not exactly a dread of physical evil
— and yet I should be at a loss how otherwise to define
it. I am almost ashamed to own — yes, even in this
felon's cell, I am almost ashamed to own — that the
terror and horror with which the animal inspired me,
had been heightened by one of the merest chimeras it
would be possible to conceive. My wife had called my
attention, more than once, to the character of the mark
of white hair, of which I have spoken, and which con
stituted the sole visible difference between the strange
beast and the one I had destroyed. The reader will
remember that this mark, although large, had been
originally very indefinite ; but, by slow degrees — de
grees nearly imperceptible, and which for a long time
my reason struggled to reject as fanciful — it had, at
length, assumed a rigorous distinctness of outline. It
was now the representation of an object that I shudder
to name ; and for this, above all, I loathed, and dreaded,
and would have rid myself of the monster had I dared ;
it was now, I say, the image of a hideous — of a ghastly
298

THE BLACK CAT

thing — of the GALLOWS ! — oh, mournful and terrible
engine of Horror and of Crime — of Agony and of Death !

And now was I indeed wretched, beyond the
wretchedness of mere humanity. And a brute beast —
whose fellow I had contemptuously destroyed — a brute
beast to work out for me — for me, a man, fashioned in
the image of the High God — so much of insufferable
woe ! Alas ! neither by day nor by night knew I the
blessing of rest any more ! During the former the
creature left me no moment alone ; and, in the latter,
I started, hourly, from dreams of unutterable fear, to
find the hot breath of the thing upon my face, and its
vast weight — an incarnate nightmare that I had no
power to shake off — incumbent eternally upon my
heart !

Beneath the pressure of torments such as these, the
feeble remnant of the good within me succumbed. Evil
thoughts became my sole intimates — the darkest and
most evil of thoughts. The moodiness of my usual
temper increased to hatred of all things and of all man
kind ; while, from the sudden, frequent, and ungovern
able outbursts of a fury to which I now blindly
abandoned myself, my uncomplaining wife, alas ! was
the most usual and the most patient of sufferers.

One day she accompanied me, upon some household
errand, into the cellar of the old building which our
poverty compelled us to inhabit. The cat followed me
down the steep stairs, and, nearly throwing me head
long, exasperated me to madness. Uplifting an axe,
and forgetting, in my wrath, the childish dread which
had hitherto stayed my hand, I aimed a blow at the
animal which, of course, would have proved instantly
fatal had it descended as I wished. But this blow was
arrested by the hand of my wife. Goaded, by the

299

TALES OF MYSTERY

interference, into a rage more than demoniacal, I
withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the axe
in her brain. She fell dead upon the spot, without a
groan.

This hideous murder accomplished, I set myself
forthwith, and with entire deliberation, to the task of
concealing the body. I knew that I could not remove
it from the house, either by day or night, without the
risk of being observed by the neighbours. Many pro
jects entered my mind. At one period I thought of
cutting the corpse into minute fragments, and destroying
them by fire. At another, I resolved to dig a grave
for it in the floor of the cellar. Again, I deliberated
about casting it in the well in the yard — about pack
ing it in a box, as if merchandise, with the usual
arrangements, and so getting a porter to take it
from the house. Finally I hit upon what I considered
a far better expedient than either of these. I deter
mined to wall it up in the cellar — as the monks of
the middle ages are recorded to have walled up their
victims.

For a purpose such as this the cellar was well adapted.
Its walls were loosely constructed, and had lately been
plastered throughout with a rough plaster, which the
dampness of the atmosphere had prevented from
hardening. Moreover, in one of the walls was a pro
jection, caused by a false chimney, or fireplace, that had
been filled up, and made to resemble the rest of the
cellar. I made no doubt that I could readily displace
the bricks at this point, insert the corpse, and wall the
whole up as before, so that no eye could detect anything
suspicious.

And in this calculation I was not deceived. By
means of a crowbar I easily dislodged the bricks, and
300

THE BLACK CAT

having carefully deposited the body against the inner
wall, I propped it in that position, while, with little
trouble, I relaid the whole structure as it originally
stood. Having procured mortar, sand, and hair, with
every possible precaution, I prepared a plaster which
could not be distinguished from the old, and with this
I very carefully went over the new brickwork. When
I had finished, I felt satisfied that all was right. The
wall did not present the slightest appearance of having
been disturbed. The rubbish on the floor was picked
up with the minutest care. I looked around trium
phantly, and said to myself, " Here at least, then, my
labour has not been in vain."

My next step was to look for the beast which had
been the cause of so much wretchedness ; for I had,
at length, firmly resolved to put it to death. Had I
been able to meet with it, at the moment, there could
have been no doubt of its fate ; but it appeared that
the crafty animal had been alarmed at the violence of
my previous anger, and forbore to present itself in
my present mood. It is impossible to describe, or to
imagine, the deep, the blissful sense of relief which
the absence of the detested creature occasioned in my
bosom. It did not make its appearance during the
night — and thus for one night at least, since its introduc
tion into the house, I soundly and tranquilly slept ; ay,
slept even with the burden of murder upon my soul !

The second and the third day passed, and still my
tormentor came not. Once again I breathed as a free
man. The monster, in terror, had fled the premises for
ever ! I should behold it no more ! My happiness
was supreme ! The guilt of my dark deed disturbed
me but little. Some few inquiries had been made, but
these had been readily answered. Even a search had

301

TALES OF MYSTERY

been instituted — but of course nothing was to be dis
covered. I looked upon my future felicity as secured.

Upon the fourth day of the assassination, a party of
the police came unexpectedly into the house, and pro
ceeded again to make rigorous investigation of the
premises. Secure, however, in the inscrutability of my
place of concealment, I felt no embarrassment whatever.
The officers bade me accompany them in their search.
They left no nook or corner unexplored. At length,
for the third or fourth time, they descended into the
cellar. I quivered not in a muscle. My heart beat
calmly as that of one who slumbers in innocence. I
walked the cellar from end to end. I folded my arms
upon my bosom, and roamed easily to and fro. The
police were thoroughly satisfied and prepared to depart.
The glee at my heart was too strong to be restrained.
I burned to say if but one word, by way of triumph,
and to render doubly sure their assurance of my guilt
lessness.

" Gentlemen," I said at last, as the party ascended
the steps, " I delight to have allayed your suspicions. I
wish you all health, and a little more courtesy. By-
the-bye, gentlemen, this — this is a very well-constructed
house." (In the rabid desire to say something easily, I
scarcely knew what I uttered at all.) " I may say an
excellently well-constructed house. These walls — are
you going, gentlemen ? — these walls are solidly put
together ; " and here, through the mere phrensy of
bravado, I rapped heavily, with a cane which I held in
my hand, upon that very portion of the brickwork
behind which stood the corpse of the wife of my
bosom.

But may God shield and deliver me from the fangs
of the Arch-Fiend ! No sooner had the reverberation
302

THE BLACK CAT

of my blows sunk into silence, than I was answered by
a voice from within the tomb ! — by a cry, at first
muffled and broken, like the sobbing of a child, and
then 'quickly swelling into one long, loud, and con
tinuous scream, utterly anomalous and inhuman — a howl
— a wailing shriek, half of horror and half of triumph,
such as might have arisen only out of hell, conjointly
from the throats of the damned in their agony and of the
demons that exult in the damnation.

Of my own thoughts it is folly to speak. Swooning,
I staggered to the opposite wall. For one instant the
party upon the stairs remained motionless, through
extremity of terror and of awe. In the next, a dozen
stout arms were toiling at the wall. It fell bodily.
The corpse, although greatly decayed and clotted with
gore, stood erect before the eyes of the spectators.
Upon its head, with red extended mouth and solitary
eye of fire, sat the hideous beast whose craft had seduced
me into murder, and whose informing voice had con
signed me to the hangman. I had walled the monster
up within the tomb !

3°3

THE SPECTACLES

MANY years ago, it was the fashion to ridi
cule the idea of " love at first sight ; " but
those who think, not less than those who
feel deeply, have always advocated its exist
ence. Modern discoveries, indeed, in what may be
termed ethical magnetism or magneto-aesthetics, render
it probable that the most natural, and, consequently, the
truest and most intense of the human affections are those
which arise in the heart as if by electric sympathy — in
a word, that the brightest and most enduring of the
psychal fetters are those which are riveted by a glance.
The confession I am about to make will add another to
the already almost innumerable instances of the truth of
the position.

My story requires that I should be somewhat
minute. I am still a very young man — not yet twenty-
two years of age. My name, at present, is a very
usual and rather plebeian one — Simpson. I say " at
present ; " for it is only lately that I have been so called
— having legislatively adopted this surname within the
last year, in order to receive a large inheritance left me
by a distant male relative, Adolphus Simpson, Esq. The
bequest was conditioned upon my taking the name of
the testator — the family, not the Christian name ; my
Christian name is Napoleon Bonaparte — or, more pro
perly, these are my first and middle appellations.

I assumed the name, Simpson, with some reluctance,
as in my true patronym, Froissart, I felt a very pardon
able pride — believing I could trace a descent from the
immortal author of the Chronicles. While on the subject
of names, by-the-by, I may mention a singular coin
cidence of sound attending the names of some of my
immediate predecessors. My father was a Monsieur

u 305

TALES OF MYSTERY

Froissart, of Paris. His wife — my mother, whom he
married at fifteen — was a Mademoiselle Croissart, eldest
daughter of Croissart the banker ; whose wife, again,
being only sixteen when married, was the eldest daughter
of one Victor Voissart. Monsieur Voissart, very singu
larly, had married a lady of similar name — a Made
moiselle Moissart. She, too, was quite a child when
married ; and her mother, also, Madame Moissart, was
only fourteen when led to the altar. These early mar
riages are usual in France. Here, however, are Moissart,
Voissart, Croissart, and Froissart, all in the direct line of
descent. My own name, though, as I say, became
Simpson, by act of Legislature, and with so much
repugnance on my part, that, at one period, I actually
hesitated about accepting the legacy with the useless
and annoying proviso attached.

As to personal endowments, I am by no means
deficient. On the contrary, I believe that I am well
made, and possess what nine-tenths of the world would
call a handsome face. In height I am five feet eleven.
My hair is black and curling. My nose is sufficiently
good. My eyes are large and gray ; and although, in
fact, they are weak to a very inconvenient degree, still
no defect in this regard would be suspected from their
appearance. The weakness itself, however, has always
much annoyed me, and I have resorted to every remedy
— short of wearing glasses. Being youthful and good-
looking, I naturally dislike these, and have absolutely
refused to employ them. I know nothing, indeed, which
so disfigures the countenance of a young person, or so
impresses every feature with an air of demureness, if not
altogether of sanctimoniousness and of age. An eye
glass, on the other hand, has a savour of downright
foppery and affectation. I have hitherto managed as
306

THE SPECTACLES

well as I could without either. But something too
much of these merely personal details, which, after all,
are of little importance. I will content myself with
saying, in addition, that my temperament is sanguine,
rash, ardent, enthusiastic — and that all my life I have
been a devoted admirer of the women.

One night last winter I entered a box at the P

Theatre, in company with a friend, 'Mr. Talbot. It
was an opera night, and the bills presented a very rare
attraction, so that the house was excessively crowded.
We were in time, however, to obtain the front seats
which had been reserved for us, and into which, with
some little difficulty, we elbowed our way.

For two hours my companion, who was a musical
fanatico^ gave his undivided attention to the stage; and,
in the meantime, I amused myself by observing the
audience, which consisted, in chief part, of the very
elite of the city. Having satisfied myself upon this
point, I was about turning my eyes to the prlma donna^
when they were arrested and riveted by a figure in one
of the private boxes which had escaped my observation.

If I live a thousand years I can never forget the
intense emotion with which I regarded this figure. It
was that of a female, the most exquisite I had ever
beheld. The face was so far turned toward the stage
that, for some minutes, I could not obtain a view of it —
but the form was divine ; no other word can sufficiently
express its magnificent proportion — and even the term
" divine " seems ridiculously feeble as I write it.

The magic of a lovely form in woman — the necro
mancy of female gracefulness — was always a power
which I had found it impossible to resist; but here was
grace personified, incarnate, the beau ideal of my wildest
and most enthusiastic visions. The figure, almost all

307

TALES OF MYSTERY

of which the construction of the box permitted to be
seen, was somewhat above the medium height, and
nearly approached, without positively reaching, the
majestic. Its perfect fulness and tournure were delicious.
The head, of which only the back was visible, rivalled
in outline that of the Greek Psyche, and was rather
displayed than concealed by an elegant cap of gaze
derienne, which put me in mind of the iientum textilem
of Apuleius. The right arm hung over the balustrade
of the box, and thrilled every nerve of my frame
with its exquisite symmetry. Its upper portion was
draperied by one of the loose open sleeves now in
fashion. This extended but little below the elbow.
Beneath it was worn an under one of some frail material,
close-fitting, and terminated by a cuff of rich lace,
which fell gracefully over the top of the hand revealing
only the delicate fingers, upon one of which sparkled a
diamond ring, which I at once saw was of extraordinary
value. The admirable roundness of the wrist was well
set off by a bracelet which encircled it, and which also
was ornamented and clasped by a magnificent aigrette
of jewels — telling, in words that could not be mis
taken, at once of the wealth and fastidious taste of the
wearer.

I gazed at this queenly apparition for at least half
an hour, as if I had been suddenly converted to stone;
and, during this period, I felt the full force and truth
of all that has been said or sung concerning " love at
first sight." My feelings were totally different from
any which I had hitherto experienced, in the presence
of even the most celebrated specimens of female loveli
ness. An unaccountable, and what I am compelled to
consider a magnetic, sympathy of soul for soul, seemed
to rivet, not only my vision, but my whole powers of

THE SPECTACLES

thought and feeling, upon the admirable object before
me. I saw — I felt — I knew that I was deeply, madly,
irrevocably in love — and this even before seeing the
face of the person beloved. So intense, indeed, was the
passion that consumed me, that I really believed it
would have received little if any abatement had the
features, yet unseen, proved of merely ordinary cha
racter ; so anomalous is the nature of the only true love
— of the love at first sight — and so little really dependent
is it upon the external conditions which only seem to
create and control it.

While I was thus wrapped in admiration of this
lovely vision, a sudden disturbance among the audience
caused her to turn her head partially toward me, so
that I beheld the entire profile of the face. Its beauty
even exceeded my anticipations — and yet there was
something about it which disappointed me without
my being able to tell exactly what it was. I said
"disappointed," but this is not altogether the word.
My sentiments were at once quieted and exalted. They
partook less of transport and more of calm enthusiasm
— of enthusiastic repose. This state of feeling arose,
perhaps, from the Madonna-like and matronly air of
the face ; and yet I at once understood that it could not
have arisen entirely from this. There was something
else — some mystery which I could not develop — some
expression about the countenance which slightly dis
turbed me while it greatly heightened my interest. In
fact, I was just in that condition of mind which pre
pares a young and susceptible man for any act of
extravagance. Had the lady been alone, I should
undoubtedly have entered her box and accosted her at
all hazards ; but, fortunately, she was attended by two
companions — a gentleman, and a strikingly beautiful

3°9

TALES OF MYSTERY

woman, to all appearance a few years younger than
herself.

I revolved in my mind a thousand schemes by
which I might obtain, hereafter, an introduction to the
elder lady, or, for the present, at all events, a more
distinct view of her beauty. I would have removed
my position to one nearer her own, but the crowded
state of the theatre rendered this impossible ; and the
stern decrees of Fashion had, of late, imperatively
prohibited the use of the opera-glass, in a case such as
this, even had I been so fortunate as to have one with
me — but I had not — and was thus in despair.

At length I bethought me of applying to my com
panion.

" Talbot," I said, "you have an opera-glass. Let me
have it."

" An opera-glass ! — no ! — what do you suppose 1
would be doing with an opera-glass ? " Here he turned
impatiently toward the stage.

" But, Talbot," I continued, pulling him by the
shoulder, " listen to me, will you ? Do you see the
stage-box ? — there ! — no, the next. — Did you ever
behold as lovely a woman ? "

" She is very beautiful, no doubt," he said.

" I wonder who she can be ? "

" Why, in the name of all that is angelic, don't you
know who she is ? c Not to know her argues yourself
unknown.' She is the celebrated Madame Lalande —
the beauty of the day par excellence^ and the talk of the
whole town. Immensely wealthy too — a widow — and
a great match — has just arrived from Paris."

" Do you know her ? "

" Yes — I have the honour."

" Will you introduce me ? "
310

THE SPECTACLES

" Assuredly — with the greatest pleasure ; when
shall it be ? "

" To-morrow, at one, I will call upon you at
B V

" Very good ; and now do hold your tongue, if
you can."

In this latter respect I was forced to take Talbot's
advice ; for he remained obstinately deaf to every
further question or suggestion, and occupied himself
exclusively for the rest of the evening with what was
transacting upon the stage.

In the meantime I kept my eyes riveted on Madame
Lalande, and at length had the good fortune to obtain a
full front view of her face. It was exquisitely lovely :
this, of course, my heart had told me before, even had
not Talbot fully satisfied me upon the point — but still
the unintelligible something disturbed me. I finally
concluded that my senses were impressed by a certain
air of gravity, sadness, or, still more properly, of weari
ness, which took something from the youth and freshness
of the countenance, only to endow it with a seraphic
tenderness and majesty, and thus, of course, to my
enthusiastic and romantic temperament, with an interest
tenfold.

While I thus feasted my eyes, I perceived, at last,
to my great trepidation, by an almost imperceptible
start on the part of the lady, that she had become
suddenly aware of the intensity of my gaze. Still, I
was absolutely fascinated, and could not withdraw it,
even for an instant. She turned aside her face, and
again I saw only the chiselled contour of the back
portion of the head. After some minutes, as if urged
by curiosity to see if I was still looking, she gradually
brought her face again around and again encountered

311

TALES OF MYSTERY

my burning gaze. Her large dark eyes fell instantly,
and a deep blush mantled her cheek. But what was my
astonishment at perceiving that she not only did not a
second time avert her head, but that she actually took
from her girdle a double eye-glass — elevated it — adjusted
it — and then regarded me through it, intently and
deliberately, for the space of several minutes.

Had a thunderbolt fallen at my feet I could not
have been more thoroughly astounded — astounded only
— not offended or disgusted in the slightest degree ;
although an action so bold in any other woman would
have been likely to offend or disgust. But the whole
thing was done with so much quietude — so much non
chalance — so much repose — with so evident an air ot
the highest breeding, in short — that nothing of mere
effrontery was perceptible, and my sole sentiments were
those of admiration and surprise.

I observed that, upon her first elevation of the glass,
she had seemed satisfied with a momentary inspection
of my person, and was withdrawing the instrument,
when, as if struck by a second thought, she resumed it,
and so continued to regard me with fixed attention for
the space of several minutes — for five minutes, at the
very least, I am sure.

This action, so remarkable in an American theatre,
attracted very general observation, and gave rise to an
indefinite movement, or buzz, among the audience,
which, for a moment, filled me with confusion, but
produced no visible effect upon the countenance of
Madame Lalande.

Having satisfied her curiosity — if such it was — she
dropped the glass, and quietly gave her attention again
to the stage ; her profile now being turned toward
myself, as before. I continued to watch her unremit-
312

THE SPECTACLES

tingly, although I was fully conscious of my rudeness
in so doing. Presently I saw the head slowly and
slightly change its position ; and soon I became con
vinced that the lady, while pretending to look at the
stage was, in fact, attentively regarding myself. It is
needless to say what effect this conduct, on the part of
so fascinating a woman, had upon my excitable mind.

Having thus scrutinised me for perhaps a quarter of
an hour, the fair object of my passion addressed the
gentleman who attended her, and, while she spoke, I
saw distinctly, by the glances of both, that the conversa
tion had reference to myself.

Upon its conclusion, Madame Lalande again turned
toward the stage, and, for a few minutes, seemed
absorbed in the performances. At the expiration of this
period, however, I was thrown into an extremity of
agitation by seeing her unfold, for the second time,
the eye-glass which hung at her side, fully confront me
as before, and, disregarding the renewed buzz of the
audience, survey me, from head to foot, with the same
miraculous composure which had previously so de
lighted and confounded my soul.

This extraordinary behaviour, by throwing me into
a perfect fever of excitement — into an absolute delirium
of love — served rather to embolden than to disconcert me.
In the mad intensity of my devotion, I forgot every
thing but the presence and the majestic loveliness of
the vision which confronted my gaze. Watching my
opportunity, when I thought the audience were fully
engaged with the opera, I at length caught the eyes of
Madame Lalande, and, upon the instant, made a slight
but unmistakable bow.

She blushed very deeply — then averted her eyes —
then slowly and cautiously looked around, apparently to

3*3

TALES OF MYSTERY

see if my rash action had been noticed — then leaned
over toward the gentleman who sat by her side.

I now felt a burning sense of the impropriety I
had committed, and expected nothing less than instant
exposure ; while a vision of pistols upon the morrow
floated rapidly and uncomfortably through my brain.
I was greatly and immediately relieved, however, when
I saw the lady merely hand the gentleman a play-bill,
without speaking ; but the reader may form some feeble
conception of my astonishment — of my profound amaze
ment — my delirious bewilderment of heart and soul —
when, instantly afterward, having again glanced fur
tively around, she allowed her bright eyes to set fully
and steadily upon my own, and then, with a faint smile,
disclosing a bright line of her pearly teeth, made two
distinct, pointed, and unequivocal affirmative inclina
tions of the head.

It is useless, of course, to dwell upon my joy — upon
my transport — upon my illimitable ecstasy of heart.
If ever man was mad with excess of happiness, it was
myself at that moment. I loved. This was my first
love — so I felt it to be. It was love supreme — inde
scribable. It was " love at first sight ; " and at first
sight, too, it had been appreciated and returned.

Yes, returned. How and why should I doubt it
for an instant ? What other construction could I
possibly put upon such conduct, on the part of a lady
so beautiful — so wealthy — evidently so accomplished —
of so high breeding — of so lofty a position in society —
in every regard so entirely respectable as I felt assured
was Madame Lalande ? Yes, she loved me — she
returned the enthusiasm of my love, with an enthusiasm
as blind — as uncompromising — as uncalculating — as
abandoned — and as utterly unbounded as my own !

3H

THE SPECTACLES

These delicious fancies and reflections, however, were
now interrupted by the falling of the drop-curtain.
The audience arose ; and the usual tumult immediately
supervened. Quitting Talbot abruptly, I made every
effort to force my way into closer proximity with
Madame Lalande. Having failed in this, on account of
the crowd, I at length gave up the chase, and bent my
steps homeward ; consoling myself for my disappoint
ment in not having been able to touch even the hem of
her robe, by the reflection that I should be introduced
by Talbot, in due form, upon the morrow.

This morrow at last came ; that is to say, a day
finally dawned upon a long and weary night of im
patience ; and then the hours until " one " were snail-
paced, dreary, and innumerable. But even Stamboul,
it is said, shall have an end, and there came an end to
this long delay. The clock struck. As the last echo
ceased, I stepped into B 's and inquired for Talbot.

" Out," said the footman — Talbot's own.

" Out ! " I replied, staggering back half a dozen
paces — " let me tell you, my fine fellow, that this
thing is thoroughly impossible and impracticable ; Mr.
Talbot is not out. What do you mean ? "

" Nothing, sir ; only Mr. Talbot is not in. That's
all. He rode over to S , immediately after break
fast, and left word that he would not be in town again
for a week."

I stood petrified with horror and rage. I en
deavoured to reply, but my tongue refused its office.
At length I turned on my heel, livid with wrath, and
inwardly consigning the whole tribe of the Talbots to
the innermost regions of Erebus. It was evident that
my considerate friend, il fanatic o^ had quite forgotten
his appointment with myself — had forgotten it as soon

3'5

TALES OF MYSTERY

as it was made. At no time was he a very scrupulous
man of his word. There was no help for it ; so
smothering my vexation as well as I could, I strolled
moodily up the street, propounding futile inquiries
about Madame Lalande to every male acquaintance I
met. By report she was known, I found, to all — to
many by sight — but she had been in town only a few
weeks, and there were very few, therefore, who claimed
her personal acquaintance. These few, being still com
paratively strangers, could not, or would not, take the
liberty of introducing me through the formality of a
morning call. While I stood thus, in despair, conversing
with a trio of friends upon the all-absorbing subject of my
heart, it so happened that the subject itself passed by.

" As I live, there she is ! " cried one.

" Surprisingly beautiful ! " exclaimed a second.

" An angel upon earth ! " ejaculated a third.

I looked ; and in an open carriage which approached
us, passing slowly down the street, sat the enchanting
vision of the opera, accompanied by the younger lady
who had occupied a portion of her box.

" Her companion also wears remarkably well," said
the one of my trio who had spoken first.

" Astonishingly," said the second ; " still quite a
brilliant air ; but art will do wonders. Upon my word,
she looks better than she did at Paris five years ago. A
beautiful woman still ; — don't you think so, Froissart ?
— Simpson, I mean."

" Still ! " said I, " and why shouldn't she be ? But
compared with her friend she is as a rushlight to the
evening star — a glow-worm to Antares."

" Ha ! ha ! ha ! — why, Simpson, you have an astonish
ing tact at making discoveries — original ones, I mean."
And here we separated, while one of the trio began
316

THE SPECTACLES

humming a gay vaudeville, of which I caught only the
lines :

Ninon, Ninon, Ninon a has —
A has Ninon de L'Enclos !

During this little scene, however, one thing had
served greatly to console me, although it fed the passion
by which I was consumed. As the carriage of Madame
Lalande rolled by our group, I had observed that she
recognised me ; and more than this, she had blessed me,
by the most seraphic of all imaginable smiles, with no
equivocal mark of the recognition.

As for an introduction, I was obliged to abandon
all hope of it until such time as Talbot should think
proper to return from the country. In the meantime
I perseveringly frequented every reputable place of
public amusement ; and, at length, at the theatre, where
I first saw her, I had the supreme bliss of meeting her,
and of exchanging glances with her once again. This
did not occur, however, until the lapse of a fortnight.
Every day, in the interim, I had inquired for Talbot at
his hotel, and every day had been thrown into a
spasm of wrath by the everlasting " Not come home
yet " of his footman.

Upon the evening in question, therefore, I was in a
condition little short of madness. Madame Lalande, I
had been told, was a Parisian — had lately arrived from
Paris — might she not suddenly return ? — return before
Talbot came back — and might she not be thus lost to
me for ever ? The thought was too terrible to bear.
Since my future happiness was at issue, I resolved to act
with a manly decision. In a word, upon the breaking up
of the play, I traced the lady to her residence, noted
the address, and the next morning sent her a full and
elaborate letter, in which I poured out my whole heart.

31?

TALES OF MYSTERY

I spoke boldly, freely — in a word, I spoke with
passion. I concealed nothing — not even of my weak
ness. I alluded to the romantic circumstances of our
first meeting — even to the glances which had passed
between us. I went so far as to say that I felt assured
of her love ; while I offered this assurance, and my own
intensity of devotion, as two excuses for my otherwise
unpardonable conduct. As a third, I spoke of my fear
that she might quit the city before I could have the
opportunity of a formal introduction. I concluded the
most wildly enthusiastic epistle ever penned, with a
frank declaration of my worldly circumstances — of my
affluence — and with an offer of my heart and of my
hand.

In an agony of expectation I awaited the reply.
After what seemed the lapse of a century it came.

Yes, actually came. Romantic as all this may appear,
I really received a letter from Madame Lalande — the
beautiful, the wealthy, the idolised Madame Lalande.
Her eyes — her magnificent eyes had not belied her
noble heart. Like a true Frenchwoman, as she was,
she had obeyed the frank dictates of her reason — the
generous impulses of her nature — despising the con
ventional pruderies of the world. She had not scorned
my proposals. She had not sheltered herself in silence.
She had not returned my letter unopened. She had
even sent me, in reply, one penned by her own
exquisite fingers. It ran thus :

" Monsieur Simpson vill pardonne me for not compose de butefulle
tong of his contre"e so veil as might. It is only de late dat I am arrive,
and not yet ave de opportunity for to — I'e'tudier.

" Vid dis apologia for the maniere, I vill now say dat, helas ! —
Monsieur Simpson ave guess but de too true. Need I say de more ?
Helas ! am I not ready speak de too moshe ?

" EUGENIE LALANDE."

3i8

THE SPECTACLES

This noble-spirited note I kissed a million times,
and committed, no doubt, on its account, a thousand
other extravagances that have now escaped my memory.
Still Talbot 'would not return. Alas ! could he have
formed the even vaguest idea of the suffering his
absence had occasioned his friend, would not his sym
pathising nature have flown immediately to my relief ?
Still, however, he came not. I wrote. He replied.
He was detained by urgent business — but would shortly
return. He begged me not to be impatient — to
moderate my transports — to read soothing books — to
drink nothing stronger than Hock — and to bring the
consolations of philosophy in my aid. The fool ! if he
could not come himself, why, in the name of every
thing rational, could he not have enclosed me a letter
of presentation ? I wrote him again, entreating him
to forward one forthwith. My letter was returned by
that footman, with the following endorsement in pencil.
The scoundrel had joined his master in the country :

" Left S yesterday, for parts unknown — did not say where — or

when be back — so thought best to return letter, knowing your hand
writing, and as how you is always, more or less, in a hurry.

" Yours sincerely, STUBBS."

After this, it is needless to say, that I devoted to the
infernal deities both master and valet ; — but there was
little use in anger, and no consolation at all in com
plaint.

But I had yet a resource left, in my constitutional
audacity. Hitherto it had served me well, and I now
resolved to make it avail me to the end. Besides, after
the correspondence which had passed between us, what
act of mere informality could I commit, within bounds,
that ought to be regarded as indecorous by Madame
Lalande ? Since the affair of the letter, I had been in

3*9

TALES OF MYSTERY

the habit of watching her house, aud thus discovered
that, about twilight, it was her custom to promenade,
attended only by a negro in livery, in a public square
overlooked by her windows. Here, amid the luxuriant
and shadowing groves, in the gray gloom of a sweet
midsummer evening, I observed my opportunity and
accosted her.

The better to deceive the servant in attendance, I
did this with the assured air of an old and familiar
acquaintance, With a presence of mind truly Parisian,
she took the cue at once, and to greet me, held out the
most bewitchingly little hands. The valet at once
fell into the rear, and now, with hearts full to over
flowing, we discoursed long and unreservedly of our
love.

As Madame Lalande spoke English even less fluently
than she wrote it, our conversation was necessarily in
French. In this sweet tongue, so adapted to passion,
I gave loose to the impetuous enthusiasm of my nature,
and, with all the eloquence I could command, besought
her to consent to an immediate marriage.

At this impatience she smiled. She urged the old
story of decorum — that bug-bear which deters so many
from bliss until the opportunity for bliss has for ever
gone by. I had most imprudently made it known
among my friends, she observed, that I desired her
acquaintance — thus that I did not possess it — thus,
again, there was no possibility of concealing the date
of our first knowledge of each other. And then she
adverted, with a blush, to the extreme recency of this
date. To wed immediately would be improper —
would be indecorous — would be outre. All this she
said with a charming air of naivete which enraptured
while it grieved and convinced me. She went even so
320

THE SPECTACLES

far as to accuse me, laughingly, of rashness — of im
prudence. She bade me remember that I really even
knew not who she was — what were her prospects, her
connections, her standing in society. She begged me,
but with a sigh, to reconsider my proposal, and termed
my love an infatuation — a will o' the wisp — a fancy or
fantasy of the moment, a baseless and unstable creation
rather of the imagination than of the heart. These
things she uttered as the shadows of the sweet twilight
gathered darkly and more darkly around us — and then,
with a gentle pressure of her fairy-like hand, overthrew
in a single sweet instant, all the argumentative fabric
she had reared.

I replied as best I could — as only a true lover can.
I spoke at length, and perseveringly of my devotion, of
my passion — of her exceeding beauty, and of my own
enthusiastic admiration. In conclusion, I dwelt, with
a convincing energy, upon the perils that encompass
the course of love — that course of true love that never
did run smooth — and thus deduced the manifest danger
of rendering that course unnecessarily long.

This latter argument seemed finally to soften the
rigour of her determination. She relented ; but there
was yet an obstacle, she said, which she felt assured I
had not properly considered. This was a delicate point
— for a woman to urge, especially so ; in mentioning
it, she saw that she must make a sacrifice of her feel
ings ; still, for me, every sacrifice should be made. She
alluded to the topic of age. Was I aware — was I fully
aware of this discrepancy between us ? That the age
of the husband should surpass by a few years — even by
fifteen or twenty — the age of the wife, was regarded by
the world as admissible, and indeed, as even proper : but
she had always entertained the belief that the years of

x 321

TALES OF MYSTERY

the wife should never exceed in number those of the
husband. A discrepancy of this unnatural kind gave
rise, too frequently, alas ! to a life of unhappiness. Now
she was aware that my own age did not exceed two and
twenty ; and I, on the contrary, perhaps was not aware
that the years of my Eugenie extended very considerably
beyond that number.

About all this there was a nobility of soul — a
dignity of candour — which delighted — which enchanted
me — which eternally riveted my chains. I could
scarcely restrain the excessive transport which possessed
me.

"My sweetest Eugenie," I cried, "what is all this
about which you are discoursing ? Your years surpass
in some measure my own. But what then ? The cus
toms of the world are so many conventional follies. To
those who love as ourselves, in what respect differs a
year from an hour ? I am twenty-two, you say ;
granted : indeed, you may as well call me, at once,
twenty-three. Now you yourself, my dearest Eugenie,
can have numbered no more than — can have numbered
no more than — no more than — than — than — than "

Here I paused for an instant, in the expectation
that Madame Lalande would interrupt me by supplying
her true age. But a Frenchwoman is seldom direct,
and has always by way of answering to an embarrassing
query, some little practical reply of her own. In the
present instance, Eugenie, who for a few moments past
had seemed to be searching for something in her bosom,
at length let fall upon the grass a miniature, which I
immediately picked up and presented to her.

" Keep it ! " she said, with one of her most ravish
ing smiles. " Keep it for my sake — for the sake of her
whom it too flatteringly represents. Besides, upon the
322

THE SPECTACLES

back of the trinket you may discover, perhaps, the very
information you seem to desire. It is now, to be sure,
growing rather dark — but you can examine it at your
leisure in the morning. In the meantime you shall
be my escort home to-night. My friends are about
holding a little musical levee. I can promise you, too
some good singing. We French are not nearly so
punctilious as you Americans, and I shall have no
difficulty in smuggling you in, in the character of an
old acquaintance."

With this, she took my arm, and I attended her
home. The mansion was quite a fine one, and, I be
lieve, furnished in good taste. Of this latter point,
however, I am scarcely qualified to judge ; for it was
just dark as we arrived ; and in American mansions of
the better sort lights seldom, during the heat of sum
mer, make their appearance at this, the most pleasant
period of the day. In about an hour after my arrival,
to be sure, a single shaded solar lamp was lit in the
principal drawing-room ; and this apartment, I could
thus see, was arranged with unusual good taste and even
splendour ; but two other rooms of the suite, and in
which the company chiefly assembled, remained, during
the whole evening, in a very agreeable shadow. This
is a well-conceived custom, giving the party at least a
choice of light or shade, and one which our friends over
the water could not do better than immediately adopt.

The evening thus spent was unquestionably the most
delicious of my life. Madame Lalande had not over
rated the musical abilities of her friends ; and the
singing I here heard I had never heard excelled in any
private circle out of Vienna. The instrumental per
formers were many and of superior talents. The
vocalists were chiefly ladies, and no individual sang less

323

TALES OF MYSTERY

than well. At length, upon a peremptory call for
" Madame Lalande," she arose at once, without affecta
tion or demur, from the chaise longue upon which she
had sat by my side, and, accompanied by one or two
gentlemen and her female friend of the opera, repaired
to the piano in the main drawing-room. I would have
escorted her myself, but felt that, under the circum
stances of my introduction to the house, I had better
remain unobserved where I was. I was thus deprived of
the pleasure of seeing, although not of hearing her sing.
The impression she produced upon the company
seemed electrical — but the effect upon myself was some
thing even more. I know not how adequately to de
scribe it. It arose in part, no doubt, from the sentiment
of love with which I was imbued ; but chiefly from my
conviction of the extreme sensibility of the singer. It
is beyond the reach of art to endow either air or
recitative with more impassioned expression than was
hers. Her utterance of the romance in Otello — the
tone with which she gave the words " Sul mio sasso" in
the Capuletti — is ringing in my memory yet. Her
lower tones were absolutely miraculous. Her voice
embraced three complete octaves, extending from the
contralto D to the D upper soprano, and, though suffi
ciently powerful to have filled the San Carlos, executed
with the minutest precision, every difficulty of vocal
composition — ascending and descending scales, cadences,
or Jiorituri. In the finale of the Sonnambula, she
brought about a most remarkable effect at the words :

Ah ! non guinge uman pensiero
Al contento ond 'io son plena.

Here, in imitation of Malibran, she modified the
original phrase of Bellini, so as to let her voice descend

324

THE SPECTACLES

to the tenor G, when, by a rapid transition, she struck
the G above the treble stave, springing over an interval
of two octaves.

Upon rising from the piano after these miracles of
vocal execution, she resumed her seat by my side ; when
I expressed to her, in terms of the deepest enthusiasm,
my delight at her performance. Of my surprise I said
nothing, and yet was I most unfeignedly surprised ; for
a certain feebleness, or rather a certain tremulous inde
cision of voice in ordinary conversation, had prepared
me to anticipate that, in singing, she would not acquit
herself with any remarkable ability.

Our conversation was now long, earnest, uninter
rupted, and totally unreserved. She made me relate
many of the earlier passages of my life, and listened with
breathless attention to every word of the narrative. I
concealed nothing — felt that I had a right to conceal
nothing — from her confiding affection. Encouraged
by her candour upon the delicate point of her age, I
entered, with perfect frankness, not only into a detail of
my many minor vices, but made full confession of those
moral and even of those physical infirmities, the dis
closure of which, in demanding so much higher a
degree of courage, is so much surer an evidence of love.
I touched upon my college indiscretions — upon my
extravagances — upon my carousals — upon my debts —
upon my flirtations. I even went so far as to speak of
a slightly hectic cough with which, at one time, I had
been troubled — of a chronic rheumatism — of a twinge
of hereditary gout — and, in conclusion, of the disagree
able and inconvenient, but hitherto carefully concealed,
weakness of my eyes.

" Upon this latter point," said Madame Lalande,
laughingly, " you have been surely injudicious in coming

32S

TALES OF MYSTERY

to confession ; for, without the confession, I take it for
granted that no one would have accused you of the
crime. By-the-by," she continued, " have you any
recollection — " and here I fancied that a blush, even
through the gloom of the apartment, became distinctly
visible upon her cheek — " have you any recollection,
mon cher ami, of this little ocular assistant which now
depends from my neck ? "

As she spoke, she twirled in her fingers the identical
double eye-glass, which had so overwhelmed me with
confusion at the opera.

" Full well — alas ! do I remember it," I exclaimed,
pressing passionately the delicate hand which offered
the glasses for my inspection. They formed a complex
and magnificent toy, richly chased and filigreed, and
gleaming with jewels which, even in the deficient light,
I could not help perceiving were of high value.

" Eh bien ! mon ami" she resumed with a certain
empressement of manner that rather surprised me — " Eh
bien ! mon ami, you have earnestly besought of me a
favour which you have been pleased to denominate
priceless. You have demanded of me my hand upon
the morrow. Should I yield to your entreaties — and, I
may add, to the pleadings of my own bosom — would I
not be entitled to demand of you a very — a very little
boon in return ? "

" Name it ! " I exclaimed with an energy that had
nearly drawn upon us the observation of the company,
and restrained by their presence alone from throwing
myself impetuously at her feet. " Name it, my beloved,
my Eugenie, my own ! — name it ! — but, alas ! it is
already yielded ere named.'*

" You shall conquer, then, mon ami" said she, " for
the sake of the Eugenie whom you love, this little weak-
326

THE SPECTACLES

ness which you have at last confessed — this weakness
more moral than physical — and which, let me assure
you, is so unbecoming the nobility of your real nature
— so inconsistent with the candour of your usual
character — and which, if permitted further control, will
assuredly involve you, sooner or later, in some very
disagreeable scrape. You shall conquer, for my sake,
this affectation which leads you, as you yourself
acknowledge, to the tacit or implied denial of your
infirmity of vision. For this infirmity you virtually
deny in refusing to employ the customary means for its
relief. You will understand me to say, then, that I
wish you to wear spectacles : — ah, hush ! — you have
already consented to wear them, for my sake. You shall
accept the little toy which I now hold in my hand, and
which, though admirable as an aid to vision, is really of
no very immense value as a gem. You perceive that,
by a trifling modification thus — or thus — it can be
adapted to the eyes in the form of spectacles, or worn
in the waistcoat pocket as an eye-glass. It is in the
former mode, however, and habitually, that you have
already consented to wear it for my sake."

This request — must I confess it ? — confused me in
no little degree. But the condition with which it
was coupled rendered hesitation, of course, a matter
altogether out of the question.

" It is done ! " I cried, with all the enthusiasm that
I could muster at the moment. " It is done — it is most
cheerfully agreed. I sacrifice every feeling for your
sake. To-night I wear this dear eye-glass, as an eye
glass, and upon my heart ; but with the earliest dawn
of that morning which gives me the pleasure of calling
you wife, I will place it upon my — upon my nose — and
there wear it ever afterward, in the less romantic, and

327

TALES OF MYSTERY

less fashionable, but certainly in the more serviceable
form, which you desire."

Our conversation now turned upon the details of
our arrangements for the morrow. Talbot, I learned
from my betrothed, had just arrived in town. I was to
see him at once, and procure a carriage. The soiree
would scarcely break up before two ; and by this hour
the vehicle was to be at the door ; when, in the con
fusion occasioned by the departure of the company,
Madam L. could easily enter it unobserved. We
were then to call at the house of a clergyman who
would be in waiting ; there be married, drop Talbot,
and proceed on a short tour to the East ; leaving the
fashionable world at home to make whatever comments
upon the matter it thought best.

Having planned all this, I immediately took leave,
and went in search of Talbot, but, on the way, I could
not refrain from stepping into a hotel for the purpose
of inspecting the miniature ; and this I did by the
powerful aid of the glasses. The countenance was a
surpassingly beautiful one ! Those large luminous eyes !
— that proud, Grecian nose ! — those dark luxuriant
curls ! — " Ah ! " said I, exultingly to myself, " this is
indeed the speaking image of my beloved ! >! I turned
the reverse, and discovered the words — " Eugenie
Lalande — aged twenty-seven years and seven months."

I found Talbot at home, and proceeded at once to
acquaint him with my good fortune. He professed
excessive astonishment, of course, but congratulated me
most cordially, and proffered every assistance in his
power. In a word, we carried out our arrangement to
the letter ; and at two in the morning, just ten minutes
after the ceremony, I found myself in a close carriage
with Madame Lalande — with Mrs. Simpson, I should
328

THE SPECTACLES

say — and driving at a great rate out of town, in a
direction north-east by north, half north.

It had been determined for us by Talbot, that, as we
were to be up all night, we should make our first stop

at C , a village about twenty miles from the city,

and there get an early breakfast and some repose, before
proceeding upon our route. At four precisely, there
fore, the carnage drew up at the door of the principal
inn. I handed my adored wife out, and ordered break
fast forthwith. In the meantime we were shown into
a small parlour, and sat down.

It was now nearly if not altogether daylight ; and,
as I gazed enraptured at the angel by my side, the
singular idea came, all at once, into my head, that this
was really the very first moment since my acquaintance
with the celebrated loveliness of Madame Lalande, that
I had enjoyed a near inspection of that loveliness by
daylight at all.

" And now, mon ami" said she, taking my hand, and
so interrupting this train of reflection, " and now, mon
c/jfr ami, since we are indissolubly one — since I have
yielded to your passionate entreaties, and performed my
portion of our agreement — I presume you have not
forgotten that you also have a little favour to bestow —
a little promise which it is your intention to keep.
Ah ! let me see ! Let me remember ! Yes ; full
easily do I call to mind the precise words of the dear
promise you made to Eugenie last night. Listen ! You
spoke thus : c It is done ! — it is most cheerfully agreed !
I sacrifice every feeling for your sake. To-night I wear
this dear eye-glass as an eye-glass, and upon my heart ;
but with the earliest dawn of that morning which gives
me the privilege of calling you wife, I will place it
upon my — upon my nose — and there wear it ever

329

TALES OF MYSTERY

afterward, in the less romantic, and less fashionable, but
certainly in the more serviceable form which you
desire.' These were the exact words, my beloved
husband, were they not ? "

" They were," I said ; " you have an excellent
memory ; and assuredly, my beautiful Eugenie, there
is no disposition on my part to evade the performance
of the trivial promise they imply. See ! Behold ?
They are becoming — rather — are they not ? " And
here, having arranged the glasses in the ordinary form
of spectacles, I applied them gingerly in their proper
position ; while Madame Simpson, adjusting her cap,
and folding her arms, sat bolt upright in her chair, in
a somewhat stiff and prim, and indeed, in a somewhat
undignified position.

" Goodness gracious me ! " I exclaimed, almost at
the very instant that the rim of the spectacles had
settled upon my nose — " My ! goodness gracious me ! —
why what can be the matter with these glasses ? " And
taking them quickly off, I wiped them carefully with a
silk handkerchief, and adjusted them again.

But if, in the first instance, there had occurred some
thing which occasioned me surprise, in the second, this
surprise became elevated into astonishment ; and this
astonishment was profound — was extreme — indeed I
may say it was horrific. What, in the name of every
thing hideous, did this mean ? Could I believe my
eyes ? — could I ? — that was the question. Was that —
was that — was that rouge ? And were those — and were
those — were those wrinkles, upon the visage of Eugenie
Lalande ? And oh ! Jupiter, and every one of the gods
and goddesses, little and big ! — what — what — what —
what had become of her teeth ? I dashed the spectacles
violently to the ground, and, leaping to my feet, stood

33°

THE SPECTACLES

erect in the middle of the floor, confronting Mrs.
Simpson, with my arms set akimbo, and grinning and
foaming, but, at the same time, utterly speechless with
terror and with rage.

Now I have already said that Madame Eugenie
Lalande — that is to say, Simpson — spoke the English
language but very little better than she wrote it ; and
for this reason she very properly never attempted to
speak it upon ordinary occasions. But rage will carry
a lady to any extreme ; and in the present case it carried
Mrs. Simpson to the very extraordinary extreme of
attempting to hold a conversation in a tongue that she
did not altogether understand.

" Veil, monsieur," said she, after surveying me, in
great apparent astonishment, for some moments—
" Veil, monsieur ! — and vat den ? — vat de matter now ?
It is de dance of de Saint Vitusse datyou ave ? If not
like me, vat for vy buy de pig in de poke ? "

" You wretch !" said I, catching my breath — " you
— you — you villainous old hag!"

" Ag ? — ole ? — me not so ver ole, after all ! me not
one single day more dan de eighty-doo."

" Eighty-two ! >: I ejaculated, staggering to the
wall — " Eighty-two hundred thousand baboons ! The
miniature said twenty-seven years and seven months !"

" To be sure ! — dat is so ! — ver true ! but den de
portraite has been take for dese fifty-five year. Ven I
go marry my segonde usbande, Monsieur Lalande,
at dat time I had de portrait take for my daughter by
my first usbande, Monsieur Moissart ! "

" Moissart ! " said I.

" Yes, Moissart," said she, mimicking my pronun
ciation, which, to speak the truth, was none of the best ;
" and vat den ? Vat you know about de Moissart ? "

331

TALES OF MYSTERY

" Nothing, you old fright — I know nothing about
him at all ; only I had an ancestor of that name, once
upon a time."

" Dat name ! and vat you ave for say to dat name ?
'Tis ver goof name ; and so is Voissart — dat is ver goot
name too. My daughter, Mademoiselle Moissart, she
marry von Monsieur Voissart ; and de name is both ver
respectaable name."

" Moissart ? ': I exclaimed, " and Voissart ! why,
what is it you mean ? "

" Vat I mean ? — I mean Moissart and Voissart ; and
for de matter of dat, I mean Croissart and Froissart, too,
if I only tink proper to mean it. My daughter's
daughter, Mademoiselle Voissart, she marry von Mon
sieur Croissart, and den agin, my daughter's grande-
daughter, Mademoiselle Croissart, she marry von
Monsieur Froissart ; and I suppose you say dat dat
is not von ver respectable name."

" Froissart ! " said I, beginning to faint, " why
surely you don't say Moissart, and Voissart, and Croissart,
and Froissart ? "

" Yes," she replied, leaning fully back in her chair,
and stretching out her lower limbs at great length ;
" yes, Moissart, and Voissart, andCroissart, and Froissart.
But Monsieur Froissart, he vas von ver big vat you call
fool — he vas von ver great big donee like yourself — for
he lef la belle France for come to dis stupide Amerique
— and ven he get here he vent and ave von ver stupide,
von ver, ver stupide sonn, so I hear, dough I not yet av
ad de plaisir to meet vid him — neither me nor my com
panion, de Madame Stephanie Lalande. He is name
de Napoleon Bonaparte Froissart, and I suppose you say
dat dat^ too, is not von ver respectaable name."

Either the length or the nature of this speech, had
332

THE SPECTACLES

the effect of working up Mrs. Simpson into a very
extraordinary passion indeed : and as she made an end
of it, with great labour, she jumped up from her chair
like somebody bewitched, dropping upon the floor an
entire universe of bustle as she jumped. Once upon
her feet, she gnashed her gums, brandished her arms,
rolled up her sleeves, shook her fist in my face, and
concluded the performance by tearing the cap from her
head, and with it an immense wig of the most valuable
and beautiful black hair, the whole of which she
dashed upon the ground with a yell, and there trampled
and danced a fandango upon it, in an absolute ecstasy
and agony of rage.

Meantime I sank aghast into the chair which she
had vacated. " Moissart and Voissart ! ' I repeated
thoughtfully, as she cut one of her pigeon-wings, " and
Croissart and Froissart ! " as she completed another —
" Moissart and Voissart and Croissart and Napoleon
Bonaparte Froissart ! — why, you ineffable old serpent,
that's me — that's me — d'ye hear? — that's me " — here I
screamed at the top of my voice — " that's me-e-e ! I
am Napoleon Bonaparte Froissart ! and if I haven't
married my great-great-grandmother, I wish I may
be everlastingly confounded ! "

Madame Eugenie Lalande, quasi Simpson — formerly
Moissart — was, in sober fact, my great-great-grand
mother. In her youth she had been beautiful, and
even at eighty-two, retained the majestic height, the
sculptural contour of head, the fine eyes and the Grecian
nose of her girlhood. By the aid of these, of pearl-
powder, of rouge, of false hair, false teeth, and false
tournure^ as well as of the most skilful modistes of Paris,
she contrived to hold a respectable footing among the
beauties un pen passees of the French metropolis. • In

333

TALES OF MYSTERY

this respect, indeed, she might have been regarded as
little less than the equal of the celebrated Ninon De
L'Enclos.

She was immensely wealthy, and being left, for the
second time, a widow without children, she bethought
herself of my existence in America, and for the pur
poses of making me her heir, paid a visit to the
United States, in company with a distant and exceed
ingly lovely relative of her second husband's — a Madame
Stephanie Lalande.

At the opera, my great-great-grandmother's atten
tion was arrested by my notice; and, upon surveying
me through her eye-glass, she was struck with a certain
family resemblance to herself. Thus interested, and
knowing that the heir she sought was actually in the
city, she made inquiries of her party respecting me.
The gentleman who attended her knew my person,
and told her who I was. The information thus ob
tained induced her to renew her scrutiny ; and this
scrutiny it was which so emboldened me that I behaved
in the absurd manner already detailed. She returned
my bow, however, under the impression that, by some
odd accident, I had discovered her identity. When,
deceived by my weakness of vision, and the arts of the
toilet, in respect to the age and charms of the strange
lady, I demanded so enthusiastically of Talbot who she
was, he concluded that I meant the younger beauty, as
a matter of course, and so informed me, with perfect
truth, that she was " the celebrated widow, Madame
Lalande."

In the street, next morning, my great-great-grand
mother encountered Talbot, an old Parisian acquaint
ance ; and the conversation, very naturally, turned upon
myself. My deficiencies of vision were then explained;

334

THE SPECTACLES

for these were notorious, although I was entirely
ignorant of their notoriety ; and my good old relative
discovered, much to her chagrin, that she had been
deceived in supposing me aware of her identity, and
that I had been merely making a fool of myself in
making open love, in a theatre, to an old woman un
known. By way of punishing me for this imprudence,
she concocted with Talbot a plot. He purposely kept
out of my way to avoid giving me the introduction.
My street inquiries about " the lovely widow, Madame
Lalande," were supposed to refer to the younger lady,
of course ; and thus the conversation with the three
gentlemen whom I encountered shortly after leaving
Talbot's hotel will be easily explained, as also their
allusion to Ninon De L'Enclos. I had no opportunity
of seeing Madame Lalande closely during daylight,
and, at her musical soiree, my silly weakness in refusing
the aid of glasses effectually prevented me from making
a discovery of her age. When " Madame Lalande "
was called upon to sing, the younger lady was intended ;
and it was she who arose to obey the call ; my great-
great-grandmother, to further the deception, arising at
the same moment and accompanying her to the piano
in the main drawing-room. Had I decided upon
escorting her thither, it had been her design to suggest
the propriety of my remaining where I was; but my
own prudential views rendered this unnecessary. The
songs which I so much admired, and which so con
firmed my impression of the youth of my mistress,
were executed by Madame Stephanie Lalande. The
eye-glass was presented by way of adding a reproof to
the hoax — a sting to the epigram of the deception.
Its presentation afforded an opportunity for the lecture
upon affectation with which I was so especially edified.

335

TALES OF MYSTERY

It is almost superfluous to add that the glasses of the
instrument, as worn by the old lady, had been ex
changed by her for a pair better adapted to my years.
They suited me, in fact, to a T.

The clergyman, who merely pretended to tie the
fatal knot, was a boon companion of Talbot's, and no
priest. He was an excellent " whip," however ; and,
having doffed his cassock to put on a greatcoat, he
drove the hack which conveyed the " happy couple "
out of town. Talbot took a seat at his side. The two
scoundrels were thus " in at the death," and through a
half open window of the back parlour of the inn,
amused themselves in grinning at the denouement of the
drama. I believe I shall be forced to call them both
out.

Nevertheless, I am not the husband of my great-
great-grandmother ; and this is a reflection which
affords me infinite relief; but I am the husband of
Madame Lalande — of Madame Stephanie Lalande —
with whom my good old relative, besides making me
her sole heir when she dies — if ever she does — has been
at the trouble of concocting me a match. In conclu
sion : I am done for ever with billets doux^ and am never
to be met without SPECTACLES.

Printed by BALLANTYNE & Co. LIMITED
Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, London

Univeraity ol
SOUTHERN REOiONAL

405 »%s»£

from which It wMborrowe

A 000 T A "'""""""