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- Эдгар Алан По
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- Стр. 6/7
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At
first
the
ravenous
animals
were
startled
and
terrified
at
the
change
--
at
the
cessation
of
movement
.
They
shrank
alarmedly
back
;
many
sought
the
well
.
But
this
was
only
for
a
moment
.
I
had
not
counted
in
vain
upon
their
voracity
.
Observing
that
I
remained
without
motion
,
one
or
two
of
the
boldest
leaped
upon
the
frame-work
,
and
smelt
at
the
surcingle
.
This
seemed
the
signal
for
a
general
rush
.
Forth
from
the
well
they
hurried
in
fresh
troops
.
They
clung
to
the
wood
--
they
overran
it
,
and
leaped
in
hundreds
upon
my
person
.
The
measured
movement
of
the
pendulum
disturbed
them
not
at
all
.
Avoiding
its
strokes
they
busied
themselves
with
the
anointed
bandage
.
They
pressed
--
they
swarmed
upon
me
in
ever
accumulating
heaps
.
They
writhed
upon
my
throat
;
their
cold
lips
sought
my
own
;
I
was
half
stifled
by
their
thronging
pressure
;
disgust
,
for
which
the
world
has
no
name
,
swelled
my
bosom
,
and
chilled
,
with
a
heavy
clamminess
,
my
heart
.
Yet
one
minute
,
and
I
felt
that
the
struggle
would
be
over
.
Plainly
I
perceived
the
loosening
of
the
bandage
.
I
knew
that
in
more
than
one
place
it
must
be
already
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
ribands
from
my
body
.
But
the
stroke
of
the
pendulum
already
pressed
upon
my
bosom
.
It
had
divided
the
serge
of
the
robe
.
It
had
cut
through
the
linen
beneath
.
Twice
again
it
swung
,
and
a
sharp
sense
of
pain
shot
through
every
nerve
.
But
the
moment
of
escape
had
arrived
.
At
a
wave
of
my
hand
my
deliverers
hurried
tumultuously
away
.
With
a
steady
movement
--
cautious
,
sidelong
,
shrinking
,
and
slow
--
I
slid
from
the
embrace
of
the
bandage
and
beyond
the
reach
of
the
scimitar
.
For
the
moment
,
at
least
,
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
eves
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
.
For
many
minutes
of
a
dreamy
and
trembling
abstraction
,
I
busied
myself
in
vain
,
unconnected
conjecture
.
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
endeavored
,
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
colors
seemed
blurred
and
indefinite
.
These
colors
had
now
assumed
,
and
were
momentarily
assuming
,
a
startling
and
most
intense
brilliancy
,
that
gave
to
the
spectral
and
fiendish
portraitures
an
aspect
that
might
have
thrilled
even
firmer
nerves
than
my
own
.
Demon
eyes
,
of
a
wild
and
ghastly
vivacity
,
glared
upon
me
in
a
thousand
directions
,
where
none
had
been
visible
before
,
and
gleamed
with
the
lurid
lustre
of
a
fire
that
I
could
not
force
my
imagination
to
regard
as
unreal
.
Unreal
!
--
Even
while
I
breathed
there
came
to
my
nostrils
the
breath
of
the
vapour
of
heated
iron
!
A
suffocating
odour
pervaded
the
prison
!
A
deeper
glow
settled
each
moment
in
the
eyes
that
glared
at
my
agonies
!
A
richer
tint
of
crimson
diffused
itself
over
the
pictured
horrors
of
blood
.
I
panted
!
I
gasped
for
breath
!
There
could
be
no
doubt
of
the
design
of
my
tormentors
--
oh
!
most
unrelenting
!
oh
!
most
demoniac
of
men
!
I
shrank
from
the
glowing
metal
to
the
centre
of
the
cell
.
Amid
the
thought
of
the
fiery
destruction
that
impended
,
the
idea
of
the
coolness
of
the
well
came
over
my
soul
like
balm
.
I
rushed
to
its
deadly
brink
.
I
threw
my
straining
vision
below
.
The
glare
from
the
enkindled
roof
illumined
its
inmost
recesses
.
Yet
,
for
a
wild
moment
,
did
my
spirit
refuse
to
comprehend
the
meaning
of
what
I
saw
.
At
length
it
forced
--
it
wrestled
its
way
into
my
soul
--
it
burned
itself
in
upon
my
shuddering
reason
.
--
Oh
!
for
a
voice
to
speak
!
--
oh
!
horror
!
--
oh
!
any
horror
but
this
!
With
a
shriek
,
I
rushed
from
the
margin
,
and
buried
my
face
in
my
hands
--
weeping
bitterly
.
The
heat
rapidly
increased
,
and
once
again
I
looked
up
,
shuddering
as
with
a
fit
of
the
ague
.
There
had
been
a
second
change
in
the
cell
--
and
now
the
change
was
obviously
in
the
form
.
As
before
,
it
was
in
vain
that
I
,
at
first
,
endeavoured
to
appreciate
or
understand
what
was
taking
place
.
But
not
long
was
I
left
in
doubt
.
The
Inquisitorial
vengeance
had
been
hurried
by
my
two-fold
escape
,
and
there
was
to
be
no
more
dallying
with
the
King
of
Terrors
.
The
room
had
been
square
.
I
saw
that
two
of
its
iron
angles
were
now
acute
--
two
,
consequently
,
obtuse
.
The
fearful
difference
quickly
increased
with
a
low
rumbling
or
moaning
sound
.
In
an
instant
the
apartment
had
shifted
its
form
into
that
of
a
lozenge
.
But
the
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
it
was
the
object
of
the
burning
iron
to
urge
me
?
Could
I
resist
its
glow
?
or
,
if
even
that
,
could
I
withstand
its
pressure
?
And
now
,
flatter
and
flatter
grew
the
lozenge
,
with
a
rapidity
that
left
me
no
time
for
contemplation
.
Its
centre
,
and
of
course
,
its
greatest
width
,
came
just
over
the
yawning
gulf
.
I
shrank
back
--
but
the
closing
walls
pressed
me
resistlessly
onward
.
