1 00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:07,360 The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allanpoe. I was sick, sick unto 2 00:00:07,519 --> 00:00:13,560 death with that long agony. And when they at length unbound me and I 3 00:00:13,640 --> 00:00:18,280 was permitted to sit, I felt that my senses were leaving me. The 4 00:00:18,359 --> 00:00:25,239 sentence, the dread sentence of death, was the last of distinct acsenuation which 5 00:00:25,280 --> 00:00:32,479 reached my ears. After that, the sound of the inquisitorial voices seemed merge 6 00:00:32,880 --> 00:00:40,520 in one dreamy, indeterminate tom It conveyed to my soul the idea of revolution, 7 00:00:41,240 --> 00:00:45,280 perhaps from its association and fancy with the burr of a mill wheel. 8 00:00:46,679 --> 00:00:52,000 This only for a brief period, for presently I heard no more. Yet 9 00:00:52,359 --> 00:00:58,399 for a while I saw, but with how terrible an exaggeration, I saw 10 00:00:58,439 --> 00:01:03,560 the lips of the black Rube judges. They appeared to me white, whiter 11 00:01:03,600 --> 00:01:08,159 than the sheet upon which I traced these words, and thin even to grotesqueness. 12 00:01:08,879 --> 00:01:15,239 Thin with the intensity of their expression of firmness, of immovable resolution, 13 00:01:15,920 --> 00:01:22,280 of stern contempt of human torture. I saw that the decrees of what to 14 00:01:22,400 --> 00:01:26,760 me was fate were still issuing from those lips. I saw them, writhe 15 00:01:26,879 --> 00:01:32,439 with a deadly locution, I saw them fashion the syllables of my name, 16 00:01:33,159 --> 00:01:38,159 and I shuddered, because no sound succeeded. I saw, too, for 17 00:01:38,200 --> 00:01:44,879 a few moments of delirious horror, the soft and nearly imperceptible waving of the 18 00:01:44,959 --> 00:01:51,159 sable draperies, which unwrapped the walls of the apartment. And then my vision 19 00:01:51,280 --> 00:01:57,439 fell upon the seven tall candles upon the table. At first they wore the 20 00:01:57,519 --> 00:02:01,920 aspect of charity, and seemed white and slender angels who would save me. 21 00:02:02,599 --> 00:02:09,360 But then all at once there came a most deadly nausea over my spirit, 22 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:15,439 and I felt every fiber in my frame thrill, as if I had touched 23 00:02:15,439 --> 00:02:21,919 the wire of a galvanic battery. While the angel forms became meaningless specters with 24 00:02:22,039 --> 00:02:25,800 heads of flame, and I saw that from them there would be no help. 25 00:02:27,319 --> 00:02:30,719 And then there stole into my fancy, like a rich musical note, 26 00:02:31,560 --> 00:02:38,879 the thought of what sweet rest there must be in the grave. The thought 27 00:02:38,919 --> 00:02:44,520 came gently and stealthily, and it seemed along before it attained full appreciation. 28 00:02:45,280 --> 00:02:50,319 But just as my spirit came at length properly to feel and entertain it, 29 00:02:50,439 --> 00:02:54,639 the figures of the judges vanished, as if magically from before me. The 30 00:02:54,759 --> 00:03:00,719 tall candles sank into nothingness. Their flames went out utterly, the blackness of 31 00:03:00,840 --> 00:03:07,960 darkness supervened. All sensations appeared swallowed up, and a man rushing descent as 32 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:16,199 of the soul into hades. Then silence and stillness night were the universe. 33 00:03:17,400 --> 00:03:23,639 I had swooned, But still will not say that all of consciousness was lost. 34 00:03:23,759 --> 00:03:28,960 What of it there remained, I will not attempt to define or even 35 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:36,319 to describe. Yet all was not lost in the deepest slumber. No in 36 00:03:36,439 --> 00:03:44,759 delirium, no in a swoon, No in death, no even in the 37 00:03:44,840 --> 00:03:50,759 grave. All is not lost. Else there is no immortality for man. 38 00:03:51,960 --> 00:03:57,199 Arousing from the most profound of slumbers, we break the gossamer web of some 39 00:03:57,360 --> 00:04:02,599 dream. Yet in a second afterward, so frail may that web have been, 40 00:04:03,960 --> 00:04:09,599 we remember not that we have dreamed. In the return to life from 41 00:04:09,599 --> 00:04:15,919 the swoon, there are two stages, first that of the sense of mental 42 00:04:15,120 --> 00:04:24,519 or spiritual, secondly that of the sense of physical existence. It seems probable 43 00:04:24,720 --> 00:04:29,920 that, if upon reaching the second stage, we could recall the impressions of 44 00:04:29,959 --> 00:04:34,879 the first, we should find these impressions eloquent in memories of the gulf beyond 45 00:04:35,800 --> 00:04:43,120 and that gulf is what, how at least shall we distinguish its shadows from 46 00:04:43,160 --> 00:04:47,000 those of the tomb. But if the impressions of what I've termed the first 47 00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:55,839 stage are not at will recalled, yet after long interval, do they not 48 00:04:56,120 --> 00:05:00,240 come unbidden while we marvel? Whence they come? He who has never swooned? 49 00:05:00,759 --> 00:05:06,040 Is not he who finds strange palaces and wildly familiar faces in coals that 50 00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:13,000 glow. Is not he who beholds, floating in mid air the sad visions 51 00:05:13,040 --> 00:05:17,680 that the many may not view. Is not he who ponders over the perfume 52 00:05:18,079 --> 00:05:26,279 of some novel flower. Is not he whose brain grows bewildered with the meaning 53 00:05:26,600 --> 00:05:32,959 of some musical cadence which has never before arrested his attention. Amid frequent and 54 00:05:33,079 --> 00:05:41,079 thoughtful endeavors to remember, amid earnest struggles to regather some token of the state 55 00:05:41,519 --> 00:05:46,879 of seeming nothingness into which my soul had lapsed, there have been moments when 56 00:05:46,879 --> 00:05:54,160 I have dreamed of success. There have been brief, very brief periods when 57 00:05:54,160 --> 00:06:00,439 I have conjured up remembrances which the lucid reason of a later epoch sures me 58 00:06:00,279 --> 00:06:08,920 could have had reference only to that condition of seeming unconsciousness. These shadows of 59 00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:15,079 memory tell indistinctly of tall figures that lifted and bore me in silence, down, 60 00:06:15,839 --> 00:06:23,519 down, still, down, till a hideous dizziness oppressed me at the 61 00:06:23,560 --> 00:06:30,240 mere idea of the interminableness of the descent. They tell also of a vague 62 00:06:30,279 --> 00:06:36,759 horror at my heart on account of that heart's unnatural stillness. Then comes a 63 00:06:36,879 --> 00:06:44,399 sense of sudden motionlessness throughout all things, as if those who bore me a 64 00:06:44,519 --> 00:06:51,160 ghastly train had outrun in their descent the limits of the limitless, and paused 65 00:06:51,360 --> 00:06:58,560 from the wearisomeness of their toil. After this I called to mind flatness and 66 00:06:58,759 --> 00:07:04,879 dampness. And then all is madness, the madness of a memory which busies 67 00:07:04,920 --> 00:07:13,160 itself among forbidden things. Very suddenly there came back to my soul motion and 68 00:07:13,399 --> 00:07:19,160 sound, the tumultuous motion of my heart, and in my ears the sound 69 00:07:19,199 --> 00:07:27,000 of its beating. Then a pause in which all is blank. Then again 70 00:07:27,120 --> 00:07:34,040 sound and motion, and touch, a tingling sensation pervading my frame. Then 71 00:07:34,120 --> 00:07:42,879 the mere consciousness of existence without thought, a condition which lasted long. Then 72 00:07:43,480 --> 00:07:50,279 very suddenly thought and shuddering terror, and earnest endeavor to comprehend my true state. 73 00:07:51,240 --> 00:08:00,800 Then a strong desire to lapse into insensibility, then a rushing reverival of 74 00:08:01,040 --> 00:08:05,879 soul and a successful effort to move, And now a full memory of the 75 00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:13,279 trial of the judges, of the sable draperies, of the sentence, of 76 00:08:13,319 --> 00:08:20,680 the sickness of the swoon, then entire forgetfulness of all that followed, of 77 00:08:20,800 --> 00:08:26,879 all that a later day and much earnestness of endeavor have enabled me vaguely to 78 00:08:26,920 --> 00:08:33,320 recall. So far I had not opened my eyes. I felt that I 79 00:08:33,399 --> 00:08:39,639 lay upon my back unbound. I reached out my hand and it fell heavily 80 00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:46,559 upon something damp and hard. There I suffered it to remain for many minutes, 81 00:08:46,360 --> 00:08:52,399 while I strove to imagine where and what I could be. I longed, 82 00:08:52,879 --> 00:08:58,720 yet dared not employ my vision. I dreaded the first glance at objects 83 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:03,279 around me. It was not that I feared to look upon things horrible, 84 00:09:03,879 --> 00:09:09,240 but that I grew aghast lest there should be nothing to see at length. 85 00:09:09,799 --> 00:09:16,600 With the wild desperation at heart, I quickly unclosed my eyes. My worst 86 00:09:16,600 --> 00:09:24,120 thoughts then were confirmed. The blackness of eternal night encompassed me. I struggled 87 00:09:24,159 --> 00:09:30,159 for breath. The intensity of the darkness seemed to oppress and stifle me. 88 00:09:31,320 --> 00:09:37,519 The atmosphere was intolerably close. I still lay quietly and made effort to exercise 89 00:09:37,639 --> 00:09:43,919 my reason. I brought to mind the inquisitorial proceedings, and attempted from that 90 00:09:45,039 --> 00:09:50,399 point to deduce my real condition. The sentence had passed, and it appeared 91 00:09:50,440 --> 00:09:56,120 to me that a very long interval of time had since elapsed. Yet not 92 00:09:56,320 --> 00:10:03,399 for a moment that I suppose myself actually dead. Such a supposition, notwithstanding 93 00:10:03,399 --> 00:10:11,360 what we read in fiction, is altogether inconsistent with real existence. But where 94 00:10:11,440 --> 00:10:16,559 and in what state was I? The condemned to death I knew perished usually 95 00:10:16,559 --> 00:10:20,960 at the otto's de fay, and one of these had been held on the 96 00:10:22,080 --> 00:10:26,679 very night of the day of my trial. Had I been remanded to my 97 00:10:26,799 --> 00:10:33,200 dungeon to await the next sacrifice, which would not take place for many months, 98 00:10:33,919 --> 00:10:39,240 This I at once saw could not be. Victims had been in immediate 99 00:10:39,399 --> 00:10:43,559 demand. Moreover, my dungeon, as well as all the condemned cells at 100 00:10:43,559 --> 00:10:50,799 Toledo, had stone floors, and the light was not altogether excluded. A 101 00:10:50,919 --> 00:10:56,480 fearful idea now suddenly drove the blood in torrents upon my heart, and for 102 00:10:56,559 --> 00:11:03,080 a brief period I once more relapsed insensibility. Upon recovering, I at once 103 00:11:03,120 --> 00:11:09,279 started to my feet, trembling convulsively in every fiber. I thrust my arms 104 00:11:09,360 --> 00:11:15,879 wildly above and around me in all directions. I felt nothing, yet dreaded 105 00:11:15,919 --> 00:11:20,279 to move a step lest I should be impeded by the walls of a tomb. 106 00:11:20,240 --> 00:11:26,159 Perspiration burst from every pore and stood in cold, big beads upon my 107 00:11:26,279 --> 00:11:31,600 forehead. The agony of suspense grew at length intolerable, and I cautiously moved 108 00:11:31,600 --> 00:11:37,360 forward, with my arms extended and my eyes straining from their sockets, in 109 00:11:37,360 --> 00:11:43,000 the hope of catching some faint ray of light. I proceeded for many paces, 110 00:11:43,799 --> 00:11:50,759 but still all was blackness and vacancy. I breathed more freely. It 111 00:11:50,879 --> 00:11:56,919 seemed evident that mine was not at least the most hideous of fates. And 112 00:11:56,120 --> 00:12:03,200 now, as I still continued to step cautiously onward, there came thronging upon 113 00:12:03,279 --> 00:12:09,120 my recollection a thousand vague rumors of the horrors of Toledo, of the dungeons. 114 00:12:09,559 --> 00:12:15,240 There had been strange things, narrated fables. I had always deemed them, 115 00:12:16,039 --> 00:12:20,360 but yet strange and too ghastly to repeat save in a whisper. Was 116 00:12:20,399 --> 00:12:26,480 I left to perish of starvation in this subterranean world of darkness? Or what 117 00:12:26,720 --> 00:12:33,279 fate, perhaps even more fearful, awaited me? That the result would be 118 00:12:33,360 --> 00:12:37,879 death, and a death of more than customary bitterness. I knew too well 119 00:12:37,960 --> 00:12:43,799 the character of my judges to doubt. The mode and the hour were all 120 00:12:43,840 --> 00:12:50,159 that occupied or distracted me. My outstretched hands at length encountered some solid obstruction. 121 00:12:52,240 --> 00:12:58,240 It was a wall, seemingly of stone masonry, very smooth, slimy, 122 00:12:58,799 --> 00:13:03,320 and cold. I followed it up, stepping with all the careful distrust 123 00:13:03,799 --> 00:13:11,080 with which certain antique narratives had inspired me. This process, however, afford 124 00:13:11,120 --> 00:13:16,320 me no means of ascertaining the dimensions of my dungeon, as I might make 125 00:13:16,320 --> 00:13:20,799 its circuit, and returned to the point whence I set out, without being 126 00:13:20,799 --> 00:13:28,120 aware of the fact, so perfectly uniformed seemed the wall. I therefore sought 127 00:13:28,159 --> 00:13:31,799 the knife which had been in my pocket, which led into the inquisitorial chamber, 128 00:13:33,440 --> 00:13:37,840 but it was gone. My clothes had been exchanged for a wrapper of 129 00:13:37,960 --> 00:13:43,960 coarse serge. I had thought of forcing the blade in some minute crevice of 130 00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:48,159 the masonry, so as to identify my point of departure. The difficulty, 131 00:13:48,519 --> 00:13:54,799 nevertheless, was but trivial, although in the disorder of my fancy it seemed 132 00:13:54,799 --> 00:14:01,000 at first insuperable. I tore a part of the hem from the robe and 133 00:14:01,200 --> 00:14:05,639 placed the fragmented full length and at right angles to the wall. In groping 134 00:14:05,639 --> 00:14:11,159 my way around the prison, I could not fail to encounter this rag upon 135 00:14:11,240 --> 00:14:15,759 completing the circuit, so at least, I thought. But I had not 136 00:14:15,879 --> 00:14:20,080 counted upon the extent of the dungeon, or upon my own weakness. The 137 00:14:20,080 --> 00:14:24,840 ground was moist and slippery. I staggered onward for some time. When I 138 00:14:24,879 --> 00:14:31,039 stumbled and fell. My excessive fatigue induced me to remain prostrate, and sleep 139 00:14:31,120 --> 00:14:37,360 soon overtook me. As I lay upon a waking and stretching forth an arm 140 00:14:37,120 --> 00:14:43,399 I found beside me a loaf and a pitcher with water. I was too 141 00:14:43,480 --> 00:14:48,559 much exhausted to reflect upon this circumstance, but ate and drank with avidity. 142 00:14:48,519 --> 00:14:54,720 Shortly afterward, I resumed my tour around the prison, and with much toil, 143 00:14:54,279 --> 00:15:00,240 came at last upon the fragment of the search up to the period when 144 00:15:00,279 --> 00:15:03,759 I had fell, I had counted fifty two paces, and upon resuming my 145 00:15:03,879 --> 00:15:09,519 walk, I had counted forty eight more. When I arrived at the rag 146 00:15:09,440 --> 00:15:16,279 there were in all then a hundred paces, and admitting two paces to the 147 00:15:16,399 --> 00:15:22,360 yard, I presumed the dungeon to be fifty yards in circuit. I had 148 00:15:22,399 --> 00:15:26,559 met, however, with many angles in the wall, and thus I could 149 00:15:26,600 --> 00:15:31,200 form no guess at the shape of the vault. For vault, I could 150 00:15:31,240 --> 00:15:37,039 not help supposing it to be. I had little object, certainly no hope 151 00:15:37,720 --> 00:15:43,799 in these researches, but a vague curiosity prompted me to continue them. Quitting 152 00:15:43,799 --> 00:15:48,360 the wall, I resolved to cross the area of the enclosure. At first, 153 00:15:48,840 --> 00:15:54,120 I proceeded with extreme caution, for the floor, although seemingly of solid 154 00:15:54,159 --> 00:16:02,159 material, was treacherous with slime. At length, however, I took courage 155 00:16:02,759 --> 00:16:07,759 and did not hesitate a step, firmly endeavoring to cross in as direct a 156 00:16:07,840 --> 00:16:12,440 line as possible. I had advanced some ten or twelve paces in this manner 157 00:16:14,120 --> 00:16:18,240 when the remnant of the torn hem of my robe became entangled between my legs. 158 00:16:19,279 --> 00:16:25,320 I stepped on it and fell violently on my face. In the confusion, 159 00:16:25,360 --> 00:16:30,200 attending my fall, I did not immediately apprehend a somewhat startling circumstance, 160 00:16:32,039 --> 00:16:36,360 which, yet, in a few seconds afterward, and while I lay prostrate, 161 00:16:36,879 --> 00:16:41,559 arrested my attention. It was this My chin rested upon the floor of 162 00:16:41,559 --> 00:16:48,200 the prison, but my lips and the upproportion of my head, although seemingly 163 00:16:48,440 --> 00:16:53,679 at a less elevation than my chin, touched nothing. At the same time, 164 00:16:55,279 --> 00:17:00,639 my forehead seen bathed in a clammy vapor, and the peculiar smell of 165 00:17:00,720 --> 00:17:06,960 de cad fungus arose to my nostrils. I put forward my arm and shuddered 166 00:17:07,160 --> 00:17:11,400 to find that I had fallen at the very brink of a circular pit, 167 00:17:11,279 --> 00:17:17,319 whose extent, of course, I had no means of ascertaining at the moment. 168 00:17:18,119 --> 00:17:22,480 Groping about the masonry chest below the margin, I succeeded in dislodging a 169 00:17:22,559 --> 00:17:29,079 small fragment and let it fall into the abyss. For many seconds, I 170 00:17:29,240 --> 00:17:33,000 hearkened to its reverberations as it dashed against the size of the chasm in its 171 00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:40,440 descent. At length, there was a sullen plunge into water, succeeded by 172 00:17:40,559 --> 00:17:45,920 loud echoes. At the same moment, there came a sound resembling the quick 173 00:17:45,960 --> 00:17:51,519 opening and as rapid closing of a door overhead, while a faint gleam of 174 00:17:51,599 --> 00:17:56,599 light flashed suddenly through the gloom, and as suddenly faded away. I saw 175 00:17:56,720 --> 00:18:02,839 clearly the doom which had been prepared for me, and congratulated myself upon the 176 00:18:02,920 --> 00:18:08,039 timely accident by which I had escaped another step before my fall, and the 177 00:18:08,079 --> 00:18:14,440 world had seen me no more, And the death just avoided was of that 178 00:18:14,559 --> 00:18:21,200 very character which I had regarded as fabulous and frivolous in the tales respecting the 179 00:18:21,240 --> 00:18:26,319 Inquisition. To the victims of its tyranny. There was the choice of death 180 00:18:26,880 --> 00:18:33,680 with its direst physical agonies, or death with its most hideous to moral horrors. 181 00:18:33,720 --> 00:18:38,960 I had been reserved for the latter. By long suffering. My nerves 182 00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:44,880 had been unstrung until I trembled at the sound of my own voice, and 183 00:18:44,960 --> 00:18:51,480 had become in every respect a fitting subject for the species of torture which awaited 184 00:18:51,519 --> 00:18:56,680 me. Shaking in every limb, I groped my way back to the wall, 185 00:18:56,519 --> 00:19:03,240 resolving there to perish rather than risk the terrors of the wells of which 186 00:19:03,279 --> 00:19:10,960 my imagination now pictured many in various positions about the dungeon. In other conditions 187 00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:15,920 of mind, I might have had courage to end my misery at once by 188 00:19:15,920 --> 00:19:21,279 a plunge into one of these abysses. But now I was the veriest of 189 00:19:21,359 --> 00:19:25,880 cowards. Neither could I forget what I have read of these pits, that 190 00:19:25,960 --> 00:19:32,839 the sudden extinction of life formed no part of their most horrible plan. Agitation 191 00:19:32,920 --> 00:19:37,640 of spirit kept me awake for many long hours, but at length I again 192 00:19:37,720 --> 00:19:44,759 slumbered. Upon arousing, I found by my side, as before, a 193 00:19:44,880 --> 00:19:49,079 loaf and a pitcher of water. A burning thirst consumed me, and I 194 00:19:49,119 --> 00:19:53,880 emptied the vessel at a drought. It must have been drugged, for scarcely 195 00:19:53,920 --> 00:20:00,480 had I drunk. Before I became irresistibly drowsy. A deep sleep fell upon 196 00:20:00,559 --> 00:20:07,720 me, a sleep like that of death. How long it lasted, of 197 00:20:07,759 --> 00:20:14,400 course, I know not. But when once again I unclosed my eyes, 198 00:20:15,400 --> 00:20:21,559 the objects around me were visible by a wild, sulfurous luster, the origin 199 00:20:21,640 --> 00:20:26,000 of which I could not at first determine. I was enabled to see the 200 00:20:26,119 --> 00:20:30,799 extent and aspect of the prison. In its size, I have been greatly 201 00:20:30,839 --> 00:20:37,960 mistaken. The whole circuit of its walls did not exceed twenty five yards for 202 00:20:38,079 --> 00:20:44,720 some minutes. This fact occasioned me a world of vain trouble. Vain indeed, 203 00:20:45,400 --> 00:20:51,039 for what could be of less importance under the terrible circumstances which environed me 204 00:20:51,680 --> 00:20:56,640 than the mere dimensions of my dungeon. But my soul took a wild interest 205 00:20:56,680 --> 00:21:00,960 in trifles, and I busied myself and endeavored to account for the error I 206 00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:07,599 had committed in my measurement. The truth at length flashed upon me. In 207 00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:12,119 my first attempt at exploration, I had counted fifty two paces up to the 208 00:21:12,200 --> 00:21:18,039 period when I fell. I must then have been within a pace or two 209 00:21:18,480 --> 00:21:23,119 of the fragment of search. In fact, I had nearly performed the circuit 210 00:21:23,200 --> 00:21:30,319 of the vault. I then slept, and upon awaking I must have returned 211 00:21:30,640 --> 00:21:36,599 upon my steps, thus supposing the circuit nearly double what it actually was. 212 00:21:37,920 --> 00:21:42,480 My confusion of mind prevented me from observing that I began my tour with the 213 00:21:42,519 --> 00:21:48,759 wall to the left and ended it with the wall to the right. I 214 00:21:48,880 --> 00:21:53,799 had been deceived too in respect to the shape of the enclosure. In feeling 215 00:21:53,839 --> 00:21:59,799 my way, I had found many angles, and thus deduced an idea of 216 00:22:00,160 --> 00:22:06,640 great irregularity. So potent is the effect of total darkness upon one arousing from 217 00:22:06,680 --> 00:22:12,920 authardy or sleep. The angles were simply those of a few slight depressions or 218 00:22:14,039 --> 00:22:21,079 niches at odd intervals. The general shape of the prison was square. What 219 00:22:21,200 --> 00:22:26,440 I had taken for masonry seemed now to be iron or some other metal, 220 00:22:26,079 --> 00:22:34,839 in huge plates whose sutures or joints occasioned the depression. The entire surface of 221 00:22:34,880 --> 00:22:42,480 this metallic enclosure was rudely daubed in all the hideous and repulsive devices to which 222 00:22:42,519 --> 00:22:49,319 the Charnel superstition of the monks has given rise. The figures of fiends and 223 00:22:49,480 --> 00:22:59,119 aspects of menace, with skeleton forms and other more really fearful images overspread and 224 00:22:59,279 --> 00:23:07,720 disfigured the walls. I observed that the outlines of these monstrosities were sufficiently distinct, 225 00:23:07,680 --> 00:23:12,880 but that the colors seemed faded and blurred, as if from the effects 226 00:23:12,920 --> 00:23:18,599 of a damp atmosphere. I now noticed the floor, too, which was 227 00:23:18,640 --> 00:23:25,640 of stone. In the center yawned the circular pit from whose jaws I had 228 00:23:25,759 --> 00:23:30,039 escaped, but it was the only one in the dungeon. All this I 229 00:23:30,079 --> 00:23:37,480 saw indistinctly, and by much effort, for my personal condition had been greatly 230 00:23:37,680 --> 00:23:44,640 changed during slumber. I now lay upon my back and at full length on 231 00:23:44,680 --> 00:23:49,799 a species of low framework of wood. To this I was securely bound by 232 00:23:49,839 --> 00:23:57,640 a long strap resembling a surcingle. It passed in many convolutions about my limbs 233 00:23:57,640 --> 00:24:03,440 and body, leaving at liberty only my head and my left arm, to 234 00:24:03,480 --> 00:24:10,359 such extent that I could, by dint of much exertion, supply myself with 235 00:24:10,440 --> 00:24:14,200 food from an earthen dish, which lay by my side on the floor. 236 00:24:15,519 --> 00:24:21,680 I saw to my horror that the picture had been removed, I say to 237 00:24:21,720 --> 00:24:26,920 my horror, for I was consumed with intolerable thirst. This thirst, it 238 00:24:26,960 --> 00:24:33,359 appeared to be the design of my persecutors to stimulate. For the food in 239 00:24:33,400 --> 00:24:40,839 the dish was meat pungently seasoned. Looking upward, I surveyed the ceiling of 240 00:24:40,880 --> 00:24:47,559 my prison. It was some thirty or forty feet overhead, and constructed much 241 00:24:47,640 --> 00:24:52,519 as the side walls. In one of its panels, a very singular figure 242 00:24:52,920 --> 00:24:59,480 riveted my whole attention. It was the painted figure of Time, as he 243 00:24:59,519 --> 00:25:04,160 is common represented, save that in lieu of a scythe he held what, 244 00:25:04,920 --> 00:25:11,680 at a casual glance I supposed to be the pictured image of a huge pendulum, 245 00:25:11,079 --> 00:25:15,880 such as we see on antique clocks. There was something, however, 246 00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:21,920 in the appearance of this machine, which caused me to regard it more attentively. 247 00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:26,480 While I gazed directly upward at it, for its position was immediately over 248 00:25:26,559 --> 00:25:33,480 my own, I fancied that I saw it in motion in an instant afterward, 249 00:25:33,720 --> 00:25:40,759 the fancy was confirmed. Its sweep was brief and of course slow. 250 00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:47,400 I watched it for some minutes, somewhat in fear, but more in wonder. 251 00:25:48,759 --> 00:25:52,680 Wearied at length with observing its dull movement, I turned my eyes upon 252 00:25:52,720 --> 00:25:59,279 the other objects in the cell. A slight noise attracted my notice, and 253 00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:04,119 looking to the floor, I saw several enormous rats traversing it. They had 254 00:26:04,160 --> 00:26:11,000 issued from the well, which lay chest within view to my right. Even 255 00:26:11,039 --> 00:26:15,480 then, while I gazed, they came up in troops, hurriedly, with 256 00:26:15,599 --> 00:26:22,920 ravenous eyes, alert by the scent of the meat. From this it required 257 00:26:22,039 --> 00:26:27,839 much effort and attention to scare them away. It might have been half an 258 00:26:27,839 --> 00:26:33,640 hour, perhaps even an hour, for I could take but imperfect note of 259 00:26:33,680 --> 00:26:41,880 time before I again cast my eyes upward, where I then saw confounded and 260 00:26:41,960 --> 00:26:48,160 amazed me. The sweep of the pendulum had increased in extent by nearly a 261 00:26:48,279 --> 00:26:55,319 yard. As a natural consequence, its velocity was also much greater. But 262 00:26:55,400 --> 00:27:02,519 what mainly this sturved me was the idea that had been perceptive descended. I 263 00:27:02,599 --> 00:27:08,400 now observed with what horror. It is needless to say that its nether extremity 264 00:27:08,920 --> 00:27:15,759 was formed of a crescent of glittering steel, about a foot in length from 265 00:27:15,759 --> 00:27:22,319 horn to horn, the horns upward, and the under edge evidently as keen 266 00:27:22,440 --> 00:27:26,839 as that of a razor. Like a razor, also it seems massy and 267 00:27:26,920 --> 00:27:33,440 heavy, tapering from the edge into a solid and broad structure. Above it 268 00:27:33,480 --> 00:27:38,880 was appended to a weighty rod of brass, and the whole hissed as it 269 00:27:40,039 --> 00:27:45,000 swung through the air. I could no longer doubt the doom prepared for me 270 00:27:45,480 --> 00:27:52,440 by Monkish ingenuity in torture. My cognizance of the pit had become known to 271 00:27:52,480 --> 00:27:57,640 the inquisitorial agents, the pits whose horrors had been destined for so bold a 272 00:27:57,680 --> 00:28:04,119 reconaissant as myself, the pit typical of hell, and regarded by rumor as 273 00:28:04,119 --> 00:28:10,640 the ultimate ful of all their punishments. The plunge into this pit I had 274 00:28:10,640 --> 00:28:15,519 avoided by the merest of accidents. I knew that surprise or entrapment into torment 275 00:28:17,240 --> 00:28:23,079 formed an important portion of all the grotesquerie of these dungeon debts. Having failed 276 00:28:23,119 --> 00:28:27,319 to fall, it was no part of the demon plant to hurrow me into 277 00:28:27,319 --> 00:28:36,079 the abyss, and thus there being no alternative, a different and a milder 278 00:28:36,160 --> 00:28:42,079 destruction awaited me mild her. I half smiled in my agony as I thought 279 00:28:42,079 --> 00:28:48,359 of such application of such a term. What boots it to tell of the 280 00:28:48,480 --> 00:28:53,319 long, long hours of horror more than mortal, during which I counted the 281 00:28:53,400 --> 00:29:03,000 rushing vibrations of the steel inch by inch by line, with the descent only 282 00:29:03,039 --> 00:29:11,920 appreciable at intervals that seemed ages down and still down. It came, days 283 00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:17,880 passed. It might have been that many days passed. Ere it swept so 284 00:29:18,039 --> 00:29:23,240 closely over me as to fan me with its acrid breath. The odor of 285 00:29:23,279 --> 00:29:30,000 the sharp steel forced itself into my nostrils. I prayed, I wearied Heaven 286 00:29:30,079 --> 00:29:36,839 with my prayer for its more speedy descent. I grew frantically mad, and 287 00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:42,839 struggled to force myself upward against the sweep of the fearful scimitar, and then 288 00:29:44,079 --> 00:29:48,920 I fell suddenly calm, and lay smiling at the glittering death as a child 289 00:29:49,319 --> 00:29:56,799 at some rare bauble. There was another interval of utter insensibility. It was 290 00:29:56,839 --> 00:30:03,200 brief, for upon against lap sing into life, there had been no perceptible 291 00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:07,680 descent in the pendulum. But it might have been long, for I knew 292 00:30:07,720 --> 00:30:12,039 there were demons who took a note of my swoon, and who could have 293 00:30:12,200 --> 00:30:18,519 arrested the vibration at pleasure. Upon my recovery, too, I felt very, 294 00:30:19,440 --> 00:30:26,440 oh inexpressibly sick and weak, as if through long and amnition. Even 295 00:30:26,480 --> 00:30:34,000 amid the agonies of that period, the human nature craved food with painful effort. 296 00:30:34,640 --> 00:30:41,319 I outstretched my left arm as far as my bonds permitted, and took 297 00:30:41,400 --> 00:30:47,599 possession of the small remnant which had been spared me by the rats. As 298 00:30:47,599 --> 00:30:52,039 I put a portion of it within my lips, there rushed to my mind 299 00:30:52,480 --> 00:30:57,480 a half formed thought of joy, of hope. Yet what business had I 300 00:30:57,559 --> 00:31:03,480 with hope? It was, as I say, a half formed thought. 301 00:31:03,400 --> 00:31:08,440 Man has many such which are never completed. I felt that it was of 302 00:31:08,519 --> 00:31:15,400 joy of hope, but felt also that it had perished in its formation in 303 00:31:15,559 --> 00:31:22,440 vain. I struggled to perfect it, to regain it. Long suffering had 304 00:31:22,559 --> 00:31:30,119 nearly annihilated all my ordinary powers of mine. I was an imbecile, an 305 00:31:30,160 --> 00:31:34,079 idiot. The vibration of the pendulum was at right angles to my length. 306 00:31:34,920 --> 00:31:40,039 I saw that the crescent was designed to cross the region of the heart. 307 00:31:40,960 --> 00:31:45,200 It would fray the surgue of my robe. It would return and repeat its 308 00:31:45,240 --> 00:31:53,720 operations again and again. Notwithstanding terrifically wide sweep some thirty feet or more, 309 00:31:55,680 --> 00:32:00,559 and the hissing vigor of its descent sufficient to sunder these very walls of iron. 310 00:32:01,400 --> 00:32:06,440 Still, the fraying of my robe would be all that, for several 311 00:32:06,480 --> 00:32:12,519 minutes it would accomplish. And at this thought I paused. I dared not 312 00:32:12,680 --> 00:32:17,599 go farther than this reflection. I dwelt upon it with a pertinacity of attention, 313 00:32:20,039 --> 00:32:24,799 as if in so dwelling I could rest here the descent of the steel. 314 00:32:27,200 --> 00:32:30,839 I forced myself to ponder upon the sound of the crescent as it should 315 00:32:30,920 --> 00:32:38,039 pass across the garment, Upon the peculiar thrilling sensation which the friction of cloth 316 00:32:38,160 --> 00:32:45,400 produces on the nerves. I pondered upon all this frivolity until my teeth were 317 00:32:45,480 --> 00:32:52,559 on edge. Down steadily, down it crept. I took a frenzied pleasure 318 00:32:52,920 --> 00:32:59,240 in contrasting its downward with its lateral velocity to the right, to the left, 319 00:33:00,039 --> 00:33:04,720 far and wide, with the shriek of a damned spirit to my heart, 320 00:33:05,079 --> 00:33:09,400 with the stealthy pace of the tiger. I alternately laughed and howled as 321 00:33:09,440 --> 00:33:16,240 the one or the other idea grew predominant, down, certainly, relentlessly down 322 00:33:17,079 --> 00:33:24,400 it vibrated within three inches of my bosom. I struggled violently, furiously to 323 00:33:24,480 --> 00:33:30,279 free my left arm. This was free only from the elbow to the hand. 324 00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:35,880 I could reach the ladder from the platter beside me to my mouth with 325 00:33:36,039 --> 00:33:40,680 great effort. But no farther could I have broken the fastenings above the elbow. 326 00:33:42,359 --> 00:33:45,880 I would have seized and attempted to arrest the pendulum. I might as 327 00:33:45,880 --> 00:33:52,400 well have attempted to arrest an avalanche. Down still, unceasingly, still, 328 00:33:52,480 --> 00:34:00,039 inevitably down, I gasped and struggled at each vibration. I shrunk coulsively at 329 00:34:00,039 --> 00:34:07,559 its every sweep. My eyes followed its outward or upward whirls with the eagerness 330 00:34:07,559 --> 00:34:14,400 of the most unmeaning despair. They closed themselves spasmodically at the descent. Although 331 00:34:14,400 --> 00:34:20,760 death would have been a relief, oh how unspeakable. Still I quivered in 332 00:34:20,840 --> 00:34:25,440 every nerve to think how slight a sinking of the machinery would precipitate that keen 333 00:34:25,840 --> 00:34:31,679 glistening axe upon my bosom. It was hope that prompted the nerve to quiver, 334 00:34:32,400 --> 00:34:37,840 the frame to shrink. It was hope, the hope that triumphs on 335 00:34:37,840 --> 00:34:44,480 the rack, that whispers to the death condemned. Even in the dungeons of 336 00:34:44,519 --> 00:34:50,840 the inquisition, I saw that some ten or twelve vibrations would bring the steel 337 00:34:50,960 --> 00:34:55,400 in actual contact with my robe. And with this observation there suddenly came over 338 00:34:55,480 --> 00:35:04,079 my spirit all the keen collected calm of despair. For the first time during 339 00:35:04,079 --> 00:35:08,519 many hours or perhaps days, I thought, it now occurred to me that 340 00:35:08,639 --> 00:35:15,559 the bandage, or so single which enveloped me was unique. I was tied 341 00:35:15,599 --> 00:35:22,400 by no separate chord. The first stroke of the razorlike crescent athwart any position 342 00:35:22,440 --> 00:35:29,360 of the band would so detach it that it might be unwound from my person 343 00:35:29,440 --> 00:35:32,559 by means of my left hand. But how fearful. In that case, 344 00:35:32,880 --> 00:35:39,840 the proximity of the steel the result of the slightest struggle, how deadly was 345 00:35:39,920 --> 00:35:45,920 it likely? Moreover, that the minions of the torturer had not foreseen and 346 00:35:46,079 --> 00:35:52,119 provided for this possibility? Was it probable that the bandage crossed my bosom in 347 00:35:52,199 --> 00:35:58,239 the track of the pendulum. Dreading to find my faint and, as it 348 00:35:58,280 --> 00:36:04,159 seemed my last hope. Frustrated, I so far elevated my head as to 349 00:36:04,199 --> 00:36:09,320 obtain a distinct view of my breast. The circingle enveloped my limbs and body 350 00:36:09,639 --> 00:36:16,199 close in all directions save in the path of the destroying crescent. Scarcely had 351 00:36:16,199 --> 00:36:22,000 I dropped my head back into its original position, where there flashed upon my 352 00:36:22,159 --> 00:36:28,039 mind what I cannot better describe than as the unformed half of that idea of 353 00:36:28,079 --> 00:36:36,719 deliverance to which I have previously alluded, and of which amiety only floated indeterminately 354 00:36:36,719 --> 00:36:40,880 through my brain. When I raised food to my burning lips. The whole 355 00:36:40,960 --> 00:36:47,000 thought was now present, feeble, scarcely saying, scarcely definite, but still 356 00:36:47,199 --> 00:36:52,800 entire, I proceeded at once, with the nervous energy of despair, to 357 00:36:52,880 --> 00:36:59,960 attempt its execution. For many hours, the immediate vicinity of the low framework 358 00:37:00,159 --> 00:37:06,159 upon which I lay had been literally swarming with rats. They were wild, 359 00:37:06,679 --> 00:37:12,400 bold, ravenous, their red eyes glaring upon me as if they waited but 360 00:37:12,559 --> 00:37:16,639 for motionlessness on my part, to make me their prey to what food? 361 00:37:17,159 --> 00:37:22,920 I thought have they been accustomed in the well they had devoured in spite of 362 00:37:22,960 --> 00:37:28,360 all my efforts to prevent them, all but a small remnant of the contents 363 00:37:28,360 --> 00:37:34,280 of the dish. I had fallen into an habitual sea saw or wave of 364 00:37:34,320 --> 00:37:40,280 the hand about the platter, and at length the unconscious uniformity of the movement 365 00:37:40,599 --> 00:37:46,719 deprived it of effect. In their veracity, the vermin frequently fastened their sharp 366 00:37:46,760 --> 00:37:52,159 fangs in my fingers. With the particles of the oily and spicy viand which 367 00:37:52,199 --> 00:37:58,480 now remained, I thoroughly rubbed the bandage wherever I could reach it. Then, 368 00:37:59,119 --> 00:38:04,159 raising my hand from the floor, I lay breathlessly still. At first, 369 00:38:04,360 --> 00:38:08,360 the ravenous animals were startled and terrified at the change. At the cessation 370 00:38:08,440 --> 00:38:15,199 of movement, they shrank alarmedly back. Many sought the well. But this 371 00:38:15,119 --> 00:38:21,360 was only for a moment. I had not counted in vain upon their veracity, 372 00:38:22,079 --> 00:38:25,559 observing that I remained without motion. One or two of the boldest leaped 373 00:38:25,599 --> 00:38:30,360 upon the framework and smelt at the cercingle. This seemed to signal for a 374 00:38:30,480 --> 00:38:37,000 general rush forth from the well. They hurried in fresh troops. They clung 375 00:38:37,079 --> 00:38:40,440 to the wood, they overran it, and leaped in hundreds upon my person. 376 00:38:42,360 --> 00:38:46,880 The measured movement of the pendulum disturbed them, not at all, avoiding 377 00:38:46,880 --> 00:38:53,000 its strokes, they busied themselves with the anointed bandage. They pressed. They 378 00:38:53,119 --> 00:39:00,800 swarmed upon me in ever accumulating heaps. They writhed upon my throat. Their 379 00:39:00,880 --> 00:39:05,880 cold lips sought my own. I was half stifled by their thronging pressure. 380 00:39:06,800 --> 00:39:13,960 Disgust for which the world has no name, swelled my bosom and chilled with 381 00:39:14,039 --> 00:39:19,519 the heavy clamminess my heart. Yet one minute and I felt that the struggle 382 00:39:19,559 --> 00:39:25,000 would be over. Plainly I perceived the loosening of the bandage. I knew 383 00:39:25,039 --> 00:39:30,119 that in more than one place it must already be severed with a more than 384 00:39:30,239 --> 00:39:36,679 human resolution. I lay still. Nor had I erred in my calculations, 385 00:39:37,320 --> 00:39:42,360 nor had I endured in vain. I at length felt that I was free. 386 00:39:43,079 --> 00:39:46,400 The circingle hung in ribbons from my body. But the stroke of the 387 00:39:46,440 --> 00:39:52,480 pendulum already pressed upon my bosom. It had divided the surge of the robe, 388 00:39:52,840 --> 00:39:57,039 it had cut through the linen beneath twice. Again it swung, and 389 00:39:57,159 --> 00:40:01,159 a sharp sense of pain shot through every nerve. But the moment of escape 390 00:40:01,199 --> 00:40:07,079 had arrived. At a wave of my hand. My deliverers hurried tumultuously away 391 00:40:07,519 --> 00:40:15,119 with the steady movement, cautious, sidelong, shrinking and slow, I slid 392 00:40:15,119 --> 00:40:19,280 from the embrace of the bandage and beyond the reach of the scimitar. For 393 00:40:19,320 --> 00:40:24,320 the moment at least I was free. Free, and in the grasp of 394 00:40:24,360 --> 00:40:30,280 the inquisition. I had scarcely stepped from my wooden bed of horror upon the 395 00:40:30,320 --> 00:40:34,719 stone floor of the prison. When the motion of the hellish machine ceased, 396 00:40:35,039 --> 00:40:39,559 and I beheld the drawn up by some invisible force through the ceiling. This 397 00:40:39,639 --> 00:40:45,440 was a lesson which I took desperately to heart. My every motion was undoubtedly 398 00:40:45,559 --> 00:40:52,519 watched. Free, I had but escaped death in one form of agony, 399 00:40:52,920 --> 00:40:57,400 to be delivered unto worse than death in some other. With that thought, 400 00:40:57,679 --> 00:41:01,639 I rolled my eves nervously around on the barriers of iron that hemmed me in 401 00:41:02,639 --> 00:41:10,079 something unusual, some change which at first I could not appreciate distinctly, it 402 00:41:10,119 --> 00:41:16,119 was obvious had taken place in the apartment. For many minutes of a dreamy 403 00:41:16,159 --> 00:41:23,840 and trembling abstraction, I busied myself in vain unconnected conjecture. During this period 404 00:41:24,360 --> 00:41:30,199 I became aware for the first time of the origin of the sulfurous light which 405 00:41:30,239 --> 00:41:36,960 illumined the cell. It proceeded from a fissure about half an inch in width 406 00:41:37,519 --> 00:41:43,039 extending entirely around the prison at the base of the walls, which thus appeared 407 00:41:43,679 --> 00:41:50,320 and were completely separated from the floor. I endeavored, but of course in 408 00:41:50,400 --> 00:41:54,519 vain, to look through the aperture. As I arose from the attempt, 409 00:41:54,960 --> 00:42:00,400 the mystery of the alteration in the chamber broke at once upon my understanding. 410 00:42:01,000 --> 00:42:07,000 I have observed that although the outlines of the figures upon the walls were sufficiently 411 00:42:07,079 --> 00:42:14,039 distinct, yet the colors seemed blurred and indefinite. These colors had now assumed 412 00:42:14,519 --> 00:42:22,039 and were momentarily assuming a startling and most intense brilliancy that gave to the spectral 413 00:42:22,079 --> 00:42:27,159 and fiendish portraitures, an aspect that might have thrilled even firmer nerves than my 414 00:42:27,239 --> 00:42:34,519 own demonize of a wild and ghastly vivacity glared upon me in a thousand directions 415 00:42:35,000 --> 00:42:38,760 where none had been visible before, and gleamed with a lurid luster of a 416 00:42:38,840 --> 00:42:45,159 fire that I could not force my imagination to regard as unreal, unreal. 417 00:42:45,760 --> 00:42:49,719 Even while I breathed, there came to my nostrils the breadth of the vapor 418 00:42:49,800 --> 00:42:55,400 of heated iron. A suffocating odor pervaded the prison. A deeper glow settled 419 00:42:55,440 --> 00:43:01,280 each moment in the eyes that glared at my agonies. A richer tint of 420 00:43:01,440 --> 00:43:08,000 crimson diffuse itself over the pictured hars of blood. I panted, I gasped 421 00:43:08,039 --> 00:43:13,599 for breath. There could be no doubt of the design of my tormentors, 422 00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:22,159 Oh most unrelenting, oh most demoniac of men. I shrank from the glowing 423 00:43:22,199 --> 00:43:27,880 metal to the center of the cell. Amid the thought of the fiery destruction 424 00:43:28,000 --> 00:43:31,960 that impended the idea of the coolness of the well came over my soul like 425 00:43:32,159 --> 00:43:38,159 balm. I rushed to its deadly brink. I threw my straining vision below. 426 00:43:39,199 --> 00:43:45,559 The glare from the enkindled roof illumined its inmost recesses. Yet for a 427 00:43:45,639 --> 00:43:51,679 wild moment did my spirit refuse to comprehend the meaning of what I saw. 428 00:43:52,719 --> 00:43:57,440 At length, it forced, it wrestled its way into my soul. It 429 00:43:57,480 --> 00:44:05,239 burned itself in upon my shudderings. Oh for a voice to speak, Oh 430 00:44:05,239 --> 00:44:10,679 horror, Oh, any horror. But this with a shriek, I rushed 431 00:44:10,719 --> 00:44:15,880 from the margin and buried my face in my hands, weeping bitterly. The 432 00:44:15,960 --> 00:44:21,599 heat rapidly increased, and once again I looked up, shuddering. As with 433 00:44:21,639 --> 00:44:24,840 the fit of the AGUEU. There had been a second change in the cell, 434 00:44:25,599 --> 00:44:31,039 and now the change was obviously in the form as before. It was 435 00:44:31,079 --> 00:44:37,840 in vain that I at first endeavored to appreciate or understand what was taking place. 436 00:44:38,880 --> 00:44:45,199 But not long was I left in doubt. The inquisitorial vengeance had been 437 00:44:45,280 --> 00:44:49,800 hurried by my two fold escape, and there was to be no more dallying 438 00:44:50,239 --> 00:44:55,199 with the King of terrors. The room had been square. I saw that 439 00:44:55,239 --> 00:45:01,079 two of its iron angles were now acute, two consequ quently obtuse. The 440 00:45:01,199 --> 00:45:07,880 fearful difference quickly increased with a low rumbling or moaning sound. In an instant 441 00:45:08,039 --> 00:45:14,320 the apartment had shifted its form into that of a lossenge. But the alteration 442 00:45:14,440 --> 00:45:20,320 stopped, not here I neither hoped nor desired it to stop. I could 443 00:45:20,320 --> 00:45:24,960 have clasped the red walls to my bosom as a garment of eternal piece death, 444 00:45:25,519 --> 00:45:31,000 I said, any death, but that of the pit. Fool might 445 00:45:31,119 --> 00:45:36,239 I have not known that into the pit it was the object of the burning 446 00:45:36,320 --> 00:45:42,000 iron to urge me. Could I resist its glow? Or if even that, 447 00:45:42,519 --> 00:45:47,480 could I withstand its pressure? And now flatter and flatter grew the lozenge 448 00:45:47,920 --> 00:45:53,519 with the rapidity that left me no time for contemplation. Its center, and 449 00:45:53,599 --> 00:46:00,679 of course its greatest width, came chest over the yawning gulf. Shrank back, 450 00:46:00,079 --> 00:46:07,039 but the closing walls pressed me resistlessly onward at length. For my seared 451 00:46:07,079 --> 00:46:10,760 and writhing body, there was no longer an inch of foothold on the firm 452 00:46:10,880 --> 00:46:16,000 floor of the prison. I struggled no more, but the agony of my 453 00:46:16,079 --> 00:46:22,920 soul found vent in one loud, long and final scream of despair. I 454 00:46:23,079 --> 00:46:29,960 felt that I tottered upon the brink. I averted my eyes. There was 455 00:46:30,000 --> 00:46:35,840 a discordant hum of human voices. There was a loud blast as of many 456 00:46:35,880 --> 00:46:42,559 trumpets. There was a harsh grating as of a thousand thunders. The fiery 457 00:46:42,639 --> 00:46:49,079 walls rushed back. An outstretched arm caught my own as I fell, fainting 458 00:46:49,800 --> 00:46:55,400 into the abyss. It was that of General Lassalle. The French army had 459 00:46:55,559 --> 00:47:02,639 entered Toledo. The Inquisition was in the hands of its enemies, and of 460 00:47:04,400 --> 00:47:06,440 the pit and the pendulum.