menu_book Chapter 12

by edgar allan poe section twelve the pit and the pendulum impia tortorum longos sanguinis inocliae non satiata aluit sos pite non patria facto non funeris antro moris ubi vera fruit vita saluscee quart composed for the gates of a market to be erected upon the site of the jacobin club-house at paris 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 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 fantasy 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 traced 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 rise with a delicate 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 and 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 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 there stole into my fancy like a rich musical note the thought of what sweet rest there must be in the grave the thought came gently and steadily 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 blackness of darkness supervened all sensations appeared swallowed up in a mad rushing descent as of the soul into hades then silence and stillness night were universal i had swooned but still will not say that all of consciousness was lost what of it there 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 the 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 impressions 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 not he who beholds floating in mid-air the sad visions that 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 rested his attention amid frequent and thoughtful endeavors to remember 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 have conjured up remembrances which the lucid reason of a later epoch assures me could have had reference only to that condition of seeming unconsciousness these shadows of memory tell indistinctly of tall figures that lifted and bore me in silence down down still down till a hideous dizziness suppressed me at the mere idea of the interminableness of the descent they tell also of a vague horror of 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 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 the 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 thought and shuddering terror an earnest endeavor 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 endeavor 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 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 in my 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 staff and one of those had been held on the very night of the 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 not 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 hope of catching some faint red 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 onward 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 darkness 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 characters of my judges to doubt the mode and the hour were all that occupied or distracted me 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 had set out without being aware of the fact so perfectly uniform seemed the wall i therefore sought the knife which had been in my pocket which 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 nevertheless 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 with 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 overtook me as i lay upon awakening 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 resumed my tour around the prison and with much toil came at last upon the fragment of the surge up to the period when i fell i had counted fifty-two paces 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 circuit i had met however with many angles in the walls and thus i could form no guess at the shape of the vault for a vault i could not help supposing it to be i had little object certainly no hope in these researches but a vague curiosity prompted me to continue them

quitting the wall i resolved to cross the area of the enclosure at first i proceeded with extreme 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 endeavoring to cross in as straight 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 immediately 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 less elevation than the chin touched nothing at the same time i forehead seemed bathed in a clammy vapor and a 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 ascertaining 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 seconds i hearkened to its reverberations as it dashed against the sides of the chasm in its descent at length there was a sullen plunge in 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 respecting 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 while 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 i found upon 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 dungeon but my soul took 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 have then been within a pace or two of the fragment of surge in fact i had nearly performed the circuit of the vault i then slept and upon awaking i must have returned upon my steps thus supposing the circuit nearly double what it actually was my confusion of mind prevented me from observing that i had begun my tour with the wall to the left and ended it 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 arousing from lethargy or sleep

the angles were simply 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 a depression the entire surface of this metallic enclosure was rudely daubed in all the hideous and impulsive devices to which the charnel superstition of the monks has given rise figures of fiends and aspects of menace with skeleton forms and other more really fearful images overspread and disfigured the walls i observed that the outlines of these monstrosities were sufficiently distinct but that the colour 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

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 an 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 panels a very singular figure riveted my whole attention 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 suppose 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 afterward 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 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 pendulum had increased in extent by nearly a yard as 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

like a razor also it seemed massy and heavy tapered 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 and torture my cognizance 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 fool of all their punishments the plunge into this pit i had avoided by the merest of accidents i knew that surprise or entrapment into torture 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 alternative a different and 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 vibrations 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 past 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 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 know 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 ho inexpressibly sick and weak as if through long in a nation 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 i 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 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 surge of my robe it would return and repeat its operations again and again notwithstanding terrifically why it sweeps some thirty feet or more and the hissing vigor of its descent sufficient to sunder the 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 attention 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 upon a peculiar thrilling sensation which the friction of cloth produces on the nerves i pondered upon 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 was the stealthy pace of the tiger i alternately laughed and howled as one or the other idea drew predominant down certainly relentlessly down it vibrated within three inches of my bosom i struggled violently 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 further 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 shrank convulsively at its every sweep

my eyes followed its outward or upward whirls with the eagerness of the most unmeaning despair they closed themselves spasmodically 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 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 track of the pendulum dreading to find my faint and as it seemed 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 half-formed idea of deliverance to which i had previously alluded and of which a moiety only floated indeterminately 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 a nervous energy of despair to attempt its execution for many hours the immediate vincity of the low framework upon which i lay had been literally swarming 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 what food i thought have they been accustomed in the well

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 a 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 veracity 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 breathlessly 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 veracity observing that i remained without motion one or two of the boldnesses leapt 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 leapt 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 never 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 already be 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 was free the surcingle hung in ribbons from my body but the stroke of the pendulum already pressed upon my bosom it had divided the surge 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 tumultously away with a steady movement cautious silent shrinking and slow i slid from the embrace of the bandage and beyond the reach of the scimitar for the moment at least i 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 unusual some change which at first i could not appreciate distinctly it was obvious had taken place in the apartment 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 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 brilliant intensity 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 it forced it wrested 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 if with a fit of the aug 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 twofold escape and there would 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 from its form into that of a lozenge but the alteration 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 have not known that into the pit 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 its greatest width came just over the yawning gulf i shrank back but the closing walls pressed me resistlessly onward at length from my seared and writhing body there was no longer an inch of foothold on the firm floor of the prison i struggled no more but the agony of my soul found vent in one long loud 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 la salle the french army had entered toledo the inquisition was in the hands of its enemies the pit and the pendulum the