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 u 7 "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 2 3 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." 3 1 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, 3 2 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 : 6 3 TALES OF MYSTERY I(;49S62( 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, 7 1 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 5 1 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. 2 33 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 ! " 2 37 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 2 39 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 2 45 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 ! 33 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 f anatico^ 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 39 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 3 11 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. 3 1 ? 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." 3 i8 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 3 2 3 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 3 2 4 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 3 2 S 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 3 2 7 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 3 2 9 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 ? " 33 1 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 " """"""