1
00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:07,120
The Black Cat by Edgar Allen Pole. For the most wild yet most homely

2
00:00:07,200 --> 00:00:12,279
narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief,

3
00:00:13,080 --> 00:00:17,640
mad Indeed would I be to expect
it in a case where my very senses

4
00:00:17,719 --> 00:00:23,079
reject their own evidence. Yet,
mad Am, I not, and very

5
00:00:23,120 --> 00:00:28,640
surely do I not dream. But
tomorrow I die, and to day I

6
00:00:28,679 --> 00:00:34,000
would unburthen my soul. My immediate
purpose is to place before the world,

7
00:00:34,159 --> 00:00:39,920
plainly, succinctly, and without comment, a series of mere household events.

8
00:00:40,719 --> 00:00:46,200
In their consequences. These events have
terrified, have tortured, have destroyed me.

9
00:00:46,960 --> 00:00:50,759
Yet I will not attempt to expound
them. To me, they have

10
00:00:50,880 --> 00:00:56,439
presented little but horror, and to
many they will seem less terrible than baroque.

11
00:00:57,280 --> 00:01:02,240
Hereafter, perhaps some intellect may be
found which will reduce my phanfasm to

12
00:01:02,320 --> 00:01:07,560
the commonplace, some intellect more calm, more logical, and far less excitable

13
00:01:07,599 --> 00:01:11,280
than my own, which will perceive, in the circumstances I detail with awe

14
00:01:11,599 --> 00:01:18,719
nothing more than an ordinary succession of
very natural causes and effects. From my

15
00:01:18,879 --> 00:01:23,480
infancy. I was noted for the
docility and humanity of my disposition, My

16
00:01:23,640 --> 00:01:29,640
tenderness of heart was even so conspicuous
as to make me the jest of my

17
00:01:29,719 --> 00:01:34,079
companions. I was especially fond of
animals, and was indulged by my parents

18
00:01:34,079 --> 00:01:38,959
with a great variety of pets.
With these I spent most of my time,

19
00:01:40,400 --> 00:01:45,359
and never was so happy as when
feeding and caressing them. This peculiarity

20
00:01:45,439 --> 00:01:49,079
of character grew with my growth,
and in my manhood. I derived from

21
00:01:49,079 --> 00:01:53,840
it one of my principal sources of
pleasure. To those who have cherished an

22
00:01:53,840 --> 00:01:59,920
affection for a faithful and sagacious dog, I need hardly be at the trouble

23
00:02:00,079 --> 00:02:06,280
of explaining the nature or the intensity
of the gratification thus derivable. There is

24
00:02:06,319 --> 00:02:12,479
something in the unselfish and self sacrificing
love of a brute which goes directly to

25
00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:16,479
the heart of him who has had
frequent occasion to test the paltry friendship and

26
00:02:16,599 --> 00:02:22,840
gossamer fidelity of mere man. I
married early, and was happy to find

27
00:02:22,879 --> 00:02:29,159
in my wife a disposition not uncongenial
with my own. Observing my partiality for

28
00:02:29,280 --> 00:02:35,080
domestic pets, she lost no opportunity
of procuring those of the most agreeable kind.

29
00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:39,840
We had birds, goldfish, a
fine dog, rabbits, a small

30
00:02:39,840 --> 00:02:46,599
monkey, and a cat. This
latter was a remarkably large and beautiful animal,

31
00:02:47,280 --> 00:02:53,120
entirely black, and sagacious to an
astonishing degree. In speaking of his

32
00:02:53,280 --> 00:02:59,000
intelligence, my wife, who at
heart was not a little tinctured with superstition,

33
00:02:59,400 --> 00:03:05,400
made frequent allusion to the ancient popular
notion which regarded all black cats as

34
00:03:05,520 --> 00:03:10,639
witches in disguise. Not that she
was ever serious upon this point, And

35
00:03:10,759 --> 00:03:15,919
I mentioned the matter at all for
no better reason than that it happens just

36
00:03:15,039 --> 00:03:20,520
now to be remembered. Pluto,
this was the cat's name, was my

37
00:03:20,639 --> 00:03:24,639
favorite pet and playmate. I alone
fed him, and he attended me wherever

38
00:03:24,680 --> 00:03:30,800
I went about the house. It
was even with difficulty that I could prevent

39
00:03:30,919 --> 00:03:36,240
him from following me through the streets. Our friendship lasted in this manner for

40
00:03:36,280 --> 00:03:42,159
several years, during which my general
temperament and character, through the instrumentality of

41
00:03:42,199 --> 00:03:46,319
the fiend in temperance, had I
blushed to confess, it, experienced a

42
00:03:46,400 --> 00:03:52,439
radical alteration. For the worse.
I grew day by day more moody,

43
00:03:52,560 --> 00:03:58,080
more irritable, more regardless of the
feelings of others. I suffered myself to

44
00:03:58,199 --> 00:04:02,520
use intemperate language to my wife.
At length, I even offered her personal

45
00:04:02,599 --> 00:04:06,759
violence. My pets, of course, were made to feel the change in

46
00:04:06,840 --> 00:04:13,360
my disposition. I not only neglected
but ill used them. For Pluto,

47
00:04:13,520 --> 00:04:18,000
however, I still retained sufficient regard
to restrain me from maltreating him, as

48
00:04:18,040 --> 00:04:21,720
I made no scruple of maltreating the
rabbits, the monkey, or even the

49
00:04:21,839 --> 00:04:27,680
dog, when by accident or through
affection they came in my way. But

50
00:04:27,759 --> 00:04:31,959
my disease grew upon me, for
what disease is like alcohol, And at

51
00:04:32,040 --> 00:04:39,000
length even Pluto, who was now
becoming old and consequently somewhat peevish. Even

52
00:04:39,040 --> 00:04:44,439
Pluto began to experience the effects of
my ill temper. One night, returning

53
00:04:44,480 --> 00:04:48,600
home, much intoxicated from one of
my haunts about town, I fancied that

54
00:04:48,680 --> 00:04:54,439
the cat avoided my presence. I
seized him, when, in his fright

55
00:04:54,560 --> 00:04:59,000
at my violence, he inflicted a
slight wound upon my hand with his teeth.

56
00:04:59,800 --> 00:05:04,519
The fury of a demon instantly possessed
me. I knew myself no longer.

57
00:05:05,040 --> 00:05:10,600
My original soul seemed at once to
take its flight from my body,

58
00:05:11,079 --> 00:05:16,040
and more than fiendish malevolence, Gin
nurtured thrilled every fiber of my frame.

59
00:05:17,040 --> 00:05:23,160
I took from my waistcoat pocket a
pen knife. Opened it, grasped the

60
00:05:23,199 --> 00:05:27,639
poor beast by the throat, and
deliberately cut one of its eyes from the

61
00:05:27,680 --> 00:05:31,959
socket. I blush, I burn, I shudder while I penned the damnable

62
00:05:31,959 --> 00:05:38,199
atrocity. When reason returned with the
morning, when I had slept off the

63
00:05:38,240 --> 00:05:43,959
fumes of the night's debauch, I
experienced a sentiment half of horror, half

64
00:05:43,959 --> 00:05:47,319
of remorse for the crime of which
I had been guilty. But it was

65
00:05:47,399 --> 00:05:54,399
at best a feeble and equivocal feeling, and the soul remained untouched. I

66
00:05:54,480 --> 00:05:59,199
again plunged into excess, and soon
drowned in wine all the memory of the

67
00:05:59,240 --> 00:06:03,800
deed. In the meantime, the
cat slowly recovered the socket of the lost

68
00:06:03,879 --> 00:06:08,879
eye, presented, it is true, a frightful appearance, but he no

69
00:06:08,959 --> 00:06:13,199
longer appeared to suffer any pain.
He went about the house as usual,

70
00:06:13,720 --> 00:06:18,040
but as might be expected, fled
in extreme terror at my approach. I

71
00:06:18,160 --> 00:06:23,040
had so much of my old heart
left as to be at first grieved by

72
00:06:23,079 --> 00:06:27,240
this evident dislike on the part of
a creature which had once so loved me.

73
00:06:28,079 --> 00:06:31,319
But this feeling soon gave place to
irritation, and then came, as

74
00:06:31,360 --> 00:06:39,000
if to my final and irrevocable overthrow. The spirit of perverseness of this spirit,

75
00:06:39,120 --> 00:06:43,639
philosophy takes no account. Yet I
am not more sure that my soul

76
00:06:43,800 --> 00:06:48,000
lives than I am that perverseness is
one of the primitive impulses of the human

77
00:06:48,040 --> 00:06:54,959
heart, one of the indivisible primary
faculties or sentiments, which give direction to

78
00:06:55,000 --> 00:07:00,040
the character of man, who has
not a hundred times found himself committing a

79
00:07:00,160 --> 00:07:04,199
vile or a silly action for no
other reason than because he knows he should

80
00:07:04,240 --> 00:07:10,759
not. Have We not a perpetual
inclination in the teeth of our best judgment

81
00:07:10,879 --> 00:07:15,600
to violate that which is law,
merely because we understand it to be such.

82
00:07:15,399 --> 00:07:19,279
This spirit of perverseness, I say, came to my final overthrow.

83
00:07:19,680 --> 00:07:26,519
It was this unfathomable longing of the
soul to vex itself, to offer violence

84
00:07:26,600 --> 00:07:30,720
to its own nature, to do
wrong for the wrong's sake, only that

85
00:07:30,959 --> 00:07:34,959
urged me to continue, and finally
to consummate the injury I had inflicted upon

86
00:07:34,959 --> 00:07:41,480
the unoffending brute. One morning in
cool blood, I slipped a noose about

87
00:07:41,480 --> 00:07:45,439
its neck and hung it to the
limb of a tree. Hung it with

88
00:07:45,560 --> 00:07:49,600
the tears streaming from my eyes,
and with the bitterest remorse at my heart.

89
00:07:50,360 --> 00:07:56,199
Hung it because I knew that it
had loved me, and because I

90
00:07:56,319 --> 00:08:01,399
felt it had given me no reason
of offense. Hung it because I knew

91
00:08:01,439 --> 00:08:05,160
that in so doing I was committing
a sin, a deadly sin that would

92
00:08:05,199 --> 00:08:11,079
so jeopardize my immortal soul as to
place it if such a thing were possible,

93
00:08:11,240 --> 00:08:16,639
even beyond the reach of the infinite
mercy of the most merciful and most

94
00:08:16,759 --> 00:08:20,360
terrible God. On the night of
the day on which this cruel deed was

95
00:08:20,480 --> 00:08:26,279
done, I was aroused from sleep
by the cry of fire. The curtains

96
00:08:26,279 --> 00:08:30,399
of my bed were in flames.
The whole house was blazing. It was

97
00:08:30,439 --> 00:08:33,960
with great difficulty that my wife,
a servant, and myself made our escape

98
00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:41,960
from the conflagration. The destruction was
complete, My entire worldly wealth was swallowed

99
00:08:41,039 --> 00:08:48,240
up, and I resigned myself thenceforward
to despair. I am above the weakness

100
00:08:48,240 --> 00:08:52,480
of seeking to establish a sequence of
cause and effect between the disaster and the

101
00:08:52,519 --> 00:08:56,720
atrocity. But I am detailing a
chain of facts, and wish not to

102
00:08:56,840 --> 00:09:03,200
leave even a possible link in perfect. On the day succeeding the fire,

103
00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:09,480
I visited the ruins the walls,
with one exception had fallen in. This

104
00:09:09,720 --> 00:09:15,480
exception was found in a compartment wall
not very thick, which stood about the

105
00:09:15,480 --> 00:09:18,240
middle of the house, and against
which had rested the head of my bed.

106
00:09:18,960 --> 00:09:24,519
The plastering had here in great measure
resisted the action of the fire,

107
00:09:24,879 --> 00:09:30,600
a fact which I attributed to its
having been recently spread about this wall.

108
00:09:30,679 --> 00:09:35,360
A dense crowd were collected, and
many persons seemed to be examining a particular

109
00:09:35,480 --> 00:09:41,960
portion of it with very minute and
eager attention. The words strange, singular,

110
00:09:43,519 --> 00:09:48,679
and other similar expressions excited my curiosity. I approached and saw, as

111
00:09:48,720 --> 00:09:54,360
if graven in boss relief, upon
the white surface, the figure of a

112
00:09:54,399 --> 00:10:01,120
gigantic cat. The impression was given
with an accuracy truly marked. There was

113
00:10:01,159 --> 00:10:05,879
a rope about the animal's neck.
When I first beheld this apparition, for

114
00:10:05,000 --> 00:10:11,320
I could scarcely regard it as less, my wonder and my terror were extreme.

115
00:10:11,000 --> 00:10:16,320
But at length reflection came to my
aid. The cat I remembered,

116
00:10:16,399 --> 00:10:20,440
had been hung in a garden adjacent
to the house upon the alarm of fire.

117
00:10:20,799 --> 00:10:26,200
This garden had been immediately filled by
the crowd, by some one of

118
00:10:26,279 --> 00:10:30,200
whom the animal must have been cut
from the tree and thrown through an open

119
00:10:30,240 --> 00:10:35,600
window into my chamber. This had
probably been done with the view of arousing

120
00:10:35,639 --> 00:10:39,480
me from sleep. The falling of
other walls had compressed the victim of my

121
00:10:39,679 --> 00:10:45,919
cruelty into the substance of the freshly
spread plaster, the lime of which,

122
00:10:46,039 --> 00:10:50,279
with the flames and the ammonia from
the carcass, had then accomplished the portraiture

123
00:10:50,639 --> 00:10:56,080
as I saw it. Although I
thus readily accounted to my reason, if

124
00:10:56,120 --> 00:11:01,320
not altogether to my conscience, for
the startling fact just deeps, it did

125
00:11:01,320 --> 00:11:05,440
not the less fail to make a
deep impression upon my fancy. For months

126
00:11:05,480 --> 00:11:09,799
I could not rid myself of the
phantasm of the cat, And during this

127
00:11:09,879 --> 00:11:15,240
period there came back into my spirit
a half sentiment that seen, but was

128
00:11:15,399 --> 00:11:20,519
not remorse. I went so far
as to regret the loss of the animal,

129
00:11:20,000 --> 00:11:24,480
and to look about me among the
vile haunts which I now habitually frequented,

130
00:11:24,879 --> 00:11:31,039
for another pet of the same species
and of somewhat similar appearance, with

131
00:11:31,120 --> 00:11:35,240
which to supply its place. One
night, as I sat half stupefied in

132
00:11:35,320 --> 00:11:41,200
a den of more than infamy.
My attention was suddenly drawn to some black

133
00:11:41,279 --> 00:11:46,519
object reposing upon the head of one
of the immense hogsheads of gin or of

134
00:11:46,639 --> 00:11:52,279
Rum, which constituted the chief furniture
of the apartment. I had been looking

135
00:11:52,320 --> 00:11:56,039
steadily at the top of this hogshead
for some minutes, and what now caused

136
00:11:56,080 --> 00:12:01,759
me surprise was the fact that I
had not sooner received the object. Thereupon

137
00:12:01,879 --> 00:12:07,080
I approached it and touched it with
my hand. It was a black cat,

138
00:12:07,120 --> 00:12:13,399
a very large one, fully as
large as Pluto, and closely resembling

139
00:12:13,480 --> 00:12:18,759
him in every respect but one.
Pluto had not a white hair upon any

140
00:12:18,799 --> 00:12:22,399
portion of his body, but this
cat had a large, although indefinite,

141
00:12:22,440 --> 00:12:28,960
splotch of white covering nearly the whole
region of the breast. Upon my touching

142
00:12:28,039 --> 00:12:33,840
him, he immediately arose, purred, loudly, rubbed against my hand,

143
00:12:33,080 --> 00:12:39,080
and appeared delighted with my notice.
This, then, was the very creature

144
00:12:39,159 --> 00:12:43,240
of which I was in search.
I at once offered to purchase it of

145
00:12:43,279 --> 00:12:46,679
the landlord, but this person made
no claim to it, knew nothing of

146
00:12:46,759 --> 00:12:52,759
it, had never seen it before. I continued my caresses, and when

147
00:12:52,799 --> 00:12:56,320
I prepared to go home. The
animal evinced a disposition to accompany me.

148
00:12:58,279 --> 00:13:03,639
I permitted it to do so,
occasionally stooping and patting it as I proceeded.

149
00:13:03,320 --> 00:13:09,519
When it reached the house, it
domesticated itself at once and became immediately

150
00:13:09,559 --> 00:13:13,279
a great favorite with my wife.
For my own part, I soon found

151
00:13:13,320 --> 00:13:18,120
a dislike to it arising within me. This was just the reverse of what

152
00:13:18,240 --> 00:13:24,080
I had anticipated, But I know
not how or why. It was its

153
00:13:24,120 --> 00:13:30,879
evident fondness for myself rather disgusted and
annoyed. By slow degrees, these feelings

154
00:13:30,919 --> 00:13:35,240
of disgust and annoyance rose into the
bitterness of hatred. I avoided the creature,

155
00:13:35,759 --> 00:13:39,840
a certain sense of shame, and
the remembrance of my former deed of

156
00:13:39,919 --> 00:13:46,519
cruelty preventing me from physically abusing it. I did not, for some week's

157
00:13:46,519 --> 00:13:52,720
strike or otherwise violently ill use it. But gradually, very gradually, I

158
00:13:52,799 --> 00:13:58,080
came to look upon it with unutterable
loathing, and to flee silently from its

159
00:13:58,159 --> 00:14:03,519
odious presence. As for the breath
of a pestilence. What added no doubt

160
00:14:03,519 --> 00:14:07,080
to my hatred of the beast was
the discovery, on the morning after I

161
00:14:07,240 --> 00:14:11,159
brought it home that, like Pluto, it also had been deprived of one

162
00:14:11,240 --> 00:14:16,440
of its eyes. This circumstance,
however, only endeared it to my wife,

163
00:14:16,840 --> 00:14:20,600
who, as I have already said, possessed in a high degree that

164
00:14:20,720 --> 00:14:26,080
humanity of feeling, which had once
been my distinguishing trait and the source of

165
00:14:26,120 --> 00:14:33,159
many of my simplest and purest pleasures. With my aversion to this cat,

166
00:14:33,200 --> 00:14:39,559
however, its partiality for myself seemed
to increase. It followed my footsteps with

167
00:14:39,639 --> 00:14:43,879
a pertinent sea, which it would
be difficult to make the reader comprehend.

168
00:14:43,840 --> 00:14:48,240
Whenever I sat, it would crouch
beneath my chair, or spring upon my

169
00:14:48,360 --> 00:14:54,360
knees, covering me with its loathsome
caresses. If I arose to walk,

170
00:14:54,480 --> 00:14:56,799
it would get it between my feet, and thus nearly throw me down,

171
00:14:58,519 --> 00:15:03,480
or fastening its long sharp claws in
my dress, clamor in this manner to

172
00:15:03,559 --> 00:15:07,600
my breast. At such times,
although I longed to destroy it with a

173
00:15:07,639 --> 00:15:13,399
blow, I was yet withheld from
so doing, partly by a memory of

174
00:15:13,440 --> 00:15:18,000
my former crime, but chiefly,
let me confess it at once by absolute

175
00:15:18,159 --> 00:15:24,679
dread of the beast. This dread
was not exactly a dread of physical evil,

176
00:15:24,240 --> 00:15:28,559
and yet I should be at a
loss how otherwise to define it.

177
00:15:28,559 --> 00:15:33,799
I am almost ashamed to own.
Yes, even in this Felon's cell,

178
00:15:33,360 --> 00:15:39,000
I am almost ashamed to own that
the terror and horror with which the animal

179
00:15:39,120 --> 00:15:43,679
inspired me had been heightened by one
of the merest chimeras it would be possible

180
00:15:43,759 --> 00:15:50,200
to conceive. My wife had called
my attention more than once to the character

181
00:15:50,320 --> 00:15:54,840
of the mark of white hair,
of which I have spoken, and which

182
00:15:54,919 --> 00:16:00,720
constituted the sole visible difference between the
strange beast and the one I had destroyed.

183
00:16:02,320 --> 00:16:06,679
The reader will remember that this mark, although large, had been originally

184
00:16:06,879 --> 00:16:12,600
very indefinite, but by slow degrees
degrees nearly imperceptible, and which for a

185
00:16:12,639 --> 00:16:18,720
long time my reason struggled to reject
as fanciful, it had at length assumed

186
00:16:18,799 --> 00:16:25,720
a rigorous distinctness of outline. It
was now the representation of an object that

187
00:16:25,840 --> 00:16:30,960
I shudder to name, And for
this above all I loathed and dreaded,

188
00:16:30,200 --> 00:16:36,120
and would have rid myself of the
monster had I dared. It was now,

189
00:16:36,200 --> 00:16:40,720
I say, the image of a
hideous, of a ghastly thing of

190
00:16:40,799 --> 00:16:45,919
the gallows, all mournful and terrible, engine of horror and of crime,

191
00:16:45,240 --> 00:16:49,879
of agony, and of death.
And now was I indeed wretched beyond the

192
00:16:49,879 --> 00:16:56,840
wretchedness of mere humanity, and a
brute beast whose fellow I had contemptuously destroyed,

193
00:16:57,159 --> 00:17:02,039
A brute beast to word work out
for me, for me, a

194
00:17:02,120 --> 00:17:07,759
man fashioned in the image of the
High God, so much of insufferable woe,

195
00:17:07,400 --> 00:17:12,359
alas neither by day nor by night
knew I the blessing of rest any

196
00:17:12,400 --> 00:17:18,319
more. During the former, the
creature left me no moment alone, And

197
00:17:18,480 --> 00:17:23,240
in the latter I started, hourly
from dreams of unutterable fear to find the

198
00:17:23,279 --> 00:17:29,400
hot breath of the thing upon my
face, and its vast weight, an

199
00:17:29,440 --> 00:17:34,640
incarnate nightmare that I had no power
to shake off, incumbent eternally upon my

200
00:17:34,880 --> 00:17:41,640
heart. Beneath the pressure of torments
such as these, the feeble remnant of

201
00:17:41,720 --> 00:17:47,960
the good within me succumbed. Evil
thoughts became my soul intimates the darkest and

202
00:17:48,039 --> 00:17:52,440
most evil of thoughts. The moodiness
of my usual temper increased to hatred of

203
00:17:52,480 --> 00:17:59,240
all things and of all mankind,
while from the sudden, frequent and ungovernable

204
00:17:59,359 --> 00:18:04,680
outbursts of a fury to which I
now blindly abandoned myself. My uncomplaining wife,

205
00:18:04,920 --> 00:18:11,559
alas was the most usual and the
most patient of sufferers. One day

206
00:18:11,599 --> 00:18:15,960
she accompanied me upon some household errand
into the cellar of the old building which

207
00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:22,480
our poverty compelled us to inhabit.
The cat followed me down the steep stairs,

208
00:18:22,960 --> 00:18:29,039
and nearly throwing me headlong, exasperated
me to madness, uplifting an axe

209
00:18:29,279 --> 00:18:33,599
and forgetting in my wrath the childish
dread which had hitherto stayed my hand.

210
00:18:34,279 --> 00:18:38,519
I aimed a blow at the animal, which of course would have proved instantly

211
00:18:38,680 --> 00:18:44,559
fatal had it descended as I wished. But this blow was arrested by the

212
00:18:44,640 --> 00:18:49,160
hand of my wife. Goaded by
the interference into a rage more than demoniacal,

213
00:18:49,799 --> 00:18:55,559
I withdrew my arm from her grasp
and buried the axe in her brain.

214
00:18:56,559 --> 00:19:03,000
She fell dead upon the spot without
a groan. This hideous murder accomplished.

215
00:19:03,359 --> 00:19:07,960
I set myself forthwith and with entire
deliberation, to the task of concealing

216
00:19:07,960 --> 00:19:12,200
the body. I knew that I
could not remove it from the house,

217
00:19:12,640 --> 00:19:17,920
either by day or by night,
without the risk of being observed by the

218
00:19:17,920 --> 00:19:22,839
neighbors. Many projects centered my mind. At one period I thought of cutting

219
00:19:22,920 --> 00:19:30,400
the corpse into minute fragments and destroying
them by fire. At another I resolved

220
00:19:30,400 --> 00:19:33,200
to dig a grave for it in
the floor of the cellar. Again,

221
00:19:33,359 --> 00:19:38,039
I deliberated about testing it in the
well in the yard, about packing it

222
00:19:38,119 --> 00:19:44,079
in a box as if merchandised with
the usual arrangements, and so getting a

223
00:19:44,119 --> 00:19:48,039
porter to take it from the house. Finally, I hit upon what I

224
00:19:48,119 --> 00:19:52,240
considered a far better expedient than either
of these. I determined to wall it

225
00:19:52,359 --> 00:19:56,240
up in the cellar, as the
monks of the Middle Ages are recorded to

226
00:19:56,319 --> 00:20:02,599
have walloped their victims for a purpose
such as this. The cellar was well

227
00:20:02,640 --> 00:20:07,599
adapted. Its walls were loosely constructed, and had lately been plastered throughout with

228
00:20:07,720 --> 00:20:12,519
a rough plaster, which the dampness
of the atmosphere had prevented from hardening.

229
00:20:14,079 --> 00:20:18,200
Moreover, in one of the walls
was a projection caused by a false chimney

230
00:20:18,400 --> 00:20:23,240
or fireplace that had been filled up
and made to resemble the red of the

231
00:20:23,279 --> 00:20:29,200
cellar. I made no doubt that
I could readily displace the bricks at this

232
00:20:29,319 --> 00:20:33,559
point, insert the corpse, and
wall the whole up as before, so

233
00:20:33,640 --> 00:20:40,440
that no eye could detect anything suspicious, and in this calculation I was not

234
00:20:40,599 --> 00:20:45,960
deceived by means of a crowbar.
I easily dislodged the bricks, and having

235
00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:52,000
carefully deposited the body against the inner
wall, I propped it in that position,

236
00:20:52,400 --> 00:20:56,480
while with little trouble, I relayed
the whole structure as it originally stood,

237
00:20:57,160 --> 00:21:03,000
Having procured mortar, sand and hair
with every possible precaution, I prepared

238
00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:07,279
a plaster which could not be distinguished
from the old, and with this I

239
00:21:07,519 --> 00:21:12,079
very carefully went over the new brickwork. When I had finished, I felt

240
00:21:12,119 --> 00:21:18,079
satisfied that all was right. The
wall did not present the slightest appearance of

241
00:21:18,160 --> 00:21:22,880
having been disturbed. The rubbish on
the floor was picked up with the minutest

242
00:21:22,960 --> 00:21:27,319
tear. I looked round triumphantly and
said to myself, here, at least,

243
00:21:27,440 --> 00:21:33,079
then my labor has not been in
vain. My next step was to

244
00:21:33,079 --> 00:21:37,240
look for the beast which had been
the cause of so much wretchedness, For

245
00:21:37,359 --> 00:21:41,039
I had at length firmly resolved to
put it to death. Had I been

246
00:21:41,079 --> 00:21:45,480
able to meet with it at the
moment, there could have been no doubt

247
00:21:45,480 --> 00:21:49,000
of its fate. But it appeared
that the crafty animal had been alarmed at

248
00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:55,559
the violence of my previous anger,
and forebore to present itself in my present

249
00:21:55,680 --> 00:22:00,119
mood. It is impossible to describe
or to imagine the deep, the blissful

250
00:22:00,160 --> 00:22:06,279
sense of relief which the absence of
the detested creature occasioned in my bosom.

251
00:22:06,720 --> 00:22:10,880
It did not make its appearance during
the night, and thus for one night

252
00:22:10,960 --> 00:22:15,799
at least, since its introduction into
the house, I soundly and tranquility slept.

253
00:22:17,440 --> 00:22:21,759
I slept, even with the burden
of murder upon my soul. The

254
00:22:21,839 --> 00:22:26,799
second and the third day passed,
and still my tormentor came. Not once

255
00:22:26,839 --> 00:22:30,640
again. I breathed as a free
man. The monster in terror had fled

256
00:22:30,680 --> 00:22:37,039
the premises, forever I should behold
it no more. My happiness was supreme.

257
00:22:37,599 --> 00:22:42,039
The guilt of my dark deed disturbed
me but little. Some few inquiries

258
00:22:42,119 --> 00:22:47,640
had been made, but these had
been readily answered. Even a search had

259
00:22:47,680 --> 00:22:52,759
been instituted, but of course nothing
was to be discovered. I looked upon

260
00:22:52,839 --> 00:22:59,000
my future felicity as secured. Upon
the fourth day of the assassination, a

261
00:22:59,079 --> 00:23:03,599
party of the police came very unexpectedly
into the house and proceeded again to make

262
00:23:03,759 --> 00:23:10,519
rigorous investigation. Of the premises secure. However, in the inscrutability of my

263
00:23:10,640 --> 00:23:15,440
place of a concealment, I felt
no embarrassment whatever. The officers bade me

264
00:23:15,480 --> 00:23:21,839
accompany them in their search. They
left no nook nor corner unexplored. At

265
00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:26,680
length. For the third or fourth
time they descended into the cellar, I

266
00:23:26,799 --> 00:23:30,319
quivered not in a muscle. My
heart beat calmly as that of one whose

267
00:23:30,319 --> 00:23:36,640
slumbers in innocence. I walked the
cellar from end to end. I folded

268
00:23:36,640 --> 00:23:41,799
my arms upon my bosom, and
roamed easily to and fro. The police

269
00:23:41,839 --> 00:23:47,119
were thoroughly satisfied and prepared to depart. The glee at my heart was too

270
00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:52,079
strong to be restrained. I burned
to say if but one word by way

271
00:23:52,119 --> 00:23:57,200
of triumph, and to render doubly
sure their assurance of my guiltlessness. Gentlemen,

272
00:23:57,440 --> 00:24:02,680
I said at last, as the
already ascended the steps, I delight

273
00:24:02,799 --> 00:24:07,839
to have allayed your suspicions. I
wish you all health and a little more

274
00:24:07,920 --> 00:24:12,400
courtesy. By the bye, gentlemen, this this is a very well constructed

275
00:24:12,440 --> 00:24:18,400
house. In the rabid desire to
say something easily, I scarcely knew what

276
00:24:18,519 --> 00:24:22,880
I uttered. It all I may
say, an excellently well constructed house.

277
00:24:23,400 --> 00:24:29,640
These walls are you going, gentlemen, These walls are solidly put together.

278
00:24:30,319 --> 00:24:33,920
And here, through the mere frenzy
of Bravado, I rapped heavily with a

279
00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:37,440
cane, which I held in my
hand, upon that very portion of the

280
00:24:37,480 --> 00:24:42,720
brickwork, behind which stood the corpse
of the wife of my bosom. But

281
00:24:42,839 --> 00:24:48,680
may God shield and deliver me from
the fangs of the arch fiend. No

282
00:24:48,920 --> 00:24:52,440
sooner had the reverberation of my blow
sunk into the silence, than I was

283
00:24:52,519 --> 00:24:57,119
answered by a voice from within the
tomb, by a cry, at first

284
00:24:57,200 --> 00:25:03,359
muffled and broken, like the sobbing
of a child, and then quickly swelling

285
00:25:03,400 --> 00:25:08,559
into one long, loud and continuous
scream, utterly anomalous and inhuman, a

286
00:25:08,680 --> 00:25:15,240
howl, a wailing shriek, half
of horror and half of triumph, such

287
00:25:15,279 --> 00:25:18,759
as might have arisen only out of
hell, conjointly from the throats of the

288
00:25:18,839 --> 00:25:25,920
damned in their agony, and of
the demons that exult in the damnation of

289
00:25:25,960 --> 00:25:30,519
my own thoughts. It is folly
to speak swooning. I staggered to the

290
00:25:30,559 --> 00:25:36,720
opposite wall for one instant. The
party upon the stairs remained motionless through extremity

291
00:25:36,759 --> 00:25:41,640
of terror and of awe. In
the next a dozen stout arms were toiling

292
00:25:41,680 --> 00:25:47,200
at the wall. It fell bodily. The corpse, already greatly decayed and

293
00:25:47,319 --> 00:25:52,720
clotted with gore, stood erect before
the eyes of the spectators. Upon its

294
00:25:52,759 --> 00:25:57,559
head, with red extended mouth and
solitary eye of fire, sat the hideous

295
00:25:57,640 --> 00:26:03,880
beast, whose craft had seduced me
into murder, and whose informing voice had

296
00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:07,839
consigned me to the hangman. I
had walled the monster up within the tomb

297
00:26:10,799 --> 00:26:11,400
end of the Black Cat