Chapter 6
CHAPTER VI. THE CASK OF AMONTIADO The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I 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 revenged. This was a
point definitively settled, but the very definitiveness 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 won't, 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 gemmary, 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 skillful 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. He had on a tight-fitting party-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 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 a Montiado, and I have my doubts.' "'How?' said he. "'A Montiado? 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 Amontiado price without consulting you in the matter. You were not to be found, and I was fearful of losing a bargain.' "'A Montiado?' I have my doubts.'
"'A Montiado?' "'And I must satisfy them.' "'A Montiado?' "'As you are engaged, I am on my way to Lucchese. If any one has a critical turn at his he, he will tell me. Lucchese cannot tell a Montiado 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. "'Lucchese, I have no engagement. Come.' "'My friend, no, it is not the engagement, but the severe cold with which I perceive you are afflicted. The vaults are insufferably damp, they are encrusted with niter. Let us go, nevertheless, the cold is nothing. Amontiado!
You have been imposed upon, and as for Lucchese he cannot distinguish Sherry from Amontiado.' Thus speaking, Fortunato possessed himself of my arm. Putting on a mask of black silk, and drawing a roclair 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 morning, and had given them explicit orders
not to stir from the house. These orders were sufficient, I well knew, to ensure their immediate disappearance one and all as soon as my back was turned. I took from their sconces to Flambeau, 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 on the damp ground
of the catacombs of the Montresor. The gate 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 room of
intoxication. Niter? he asked at length. Niter, I replied. How long have you had that cough? 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 I once 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 Lucchese. 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 medock 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 berage 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-door in a field azure. The foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are embedded in the heel. And the motto?
N'eum o me impune l'accessit. Good, he said. The wine sparkled in his eyes, and the bells jingled. My own fancy grew warm with the medock. We had passed through walls of piled bones, with casks and punchens intermingling, into
the inmost recesses of the catacombs. I paused again, and this time I made bold decease for Chinato. I made bold decease for Chinato by an arm above the elbow. The niter, 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 medock. I broke and reached him a flagon of de grav.
He emptied it at a breath. His eyes flashed with a fierce light. He laughed and threw the bottle upwards with a desticulation 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. It is this, I answered, producing a trowel from beneath the folds of my roclair. 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 him 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 flambeau 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 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 recess, in depth about four feet, in width three, in height six or seven. It seemed to have been constructed for no especial use in itself, but formed merely the interval between two of the colossal supports of the roof of the catacombs,
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 depths of the recess. Its termination the feeble light did not enable us to see. Proceed, I said. Herein is the Amontillado. As for Lucchese—
He is an ignoramus, interrupted my friend, as he stepped unsteadily forward, while I followed immediately at his heels. In an instant he had reached the 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 depended a
short chain, from the other a padlock. Throwing the links about his waist, it was but the work of a few seconds to secure it. He was much too astounded to resist. Withdrawing the key, I stepped back from the recess. Pass your hand, I said, over the wall. You cannot help feeling the niter. 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 spoken before.
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 tear of my 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 tear, 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 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 tear. The wall was now nearly upon a level with my breast. I again paused, and holding the flambeau 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 clamour grew still. It was now midnight, and my task was drawing to a close. I had completed the eighth, the ninth, and the tenth tear. 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— A very good joke indeed! An excellent jest! We will have many a rich laugh about it at the palazzo.
Over our wine! The Amontillado, I said. The Amontillado, I said. Yes, the Amontillado. 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 on account of the dampness of the catacombs. 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, Rechiescat. End of The Cask of Amontillado.
