diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'old/8spoe10u.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | old/8spoe10u.txt | 8541 |
1 files changed, 8541 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/old/8spoe10u.txt b/old/8spoe10u.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..92f5739 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/8spoe10u.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8541 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Selections From Poe, by J. Montgomery Gambrill + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Selections From Poe + +Author: J. Montgomery Gambrill + +Release Date: September, 2005 [EBook #8893] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on August 21, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SELECTIONS FROM POE *** + + + + +Produced by Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + +SELECTIONS FROM POE + +Edited with Biographical and Critical Introduction and Notes + +BY + +J. MONTGOMERY GAMBRILL + +Head of the Department of History and Civics +Baltimore Polytechnic Institute + +INSCRIBED TO THE POE AND LOWELL LITERARY SOCIETIES OF THE +BALTIMORE POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE + +[Illustration: EDGAR ALLAN POE. After an engraving by Cole] + + + +PREFACE + +Edgar Allan Poe has been the subject of so much controversy that he is +the one American writer whom high-school pupils (not to mention +teachers) are likely to approach with ready-made prejudices. It is +impossible to treat such a subject in quite the ordinary +matter-of-course way. Furthermore, his writings are so highly +subjective, and so intimately connected with his strongly held +critical theories, as to need somewhat careful and extended study. +These facts make it very difficult to treat either the man or his art +as simply as is desirable in a secondary text-book. Consequently the +Introduction is longer and less simple than the editor would desire +for the usual text. It is believed, however, that the teacher can take +up this Introduction with the pupil in such a way as to make it +helpful, significant, and interesting. + +The text of the following poems and tales is that of the +Stedman-Woodberry edition (described in the Bibliography, p. xxx), and +the selections are reprinted by permission of the publishers, Duffield +& Company; this text is followed exactly except for a very few changes +in punctuation, not more than five or six in all. My obligations to +other works are too numerous to mention; all the publications included +in the Bibliography, besides a number of others, have been examined, +but I especially desire to acknowledge the courtesy of Dr. Henry +Barton Jacobs of Baltimore, who sent me from Paris a copy of Émile +Lauvrière's interesting and important study, "Edgar Poe: Sa vie et son +oeuvre; étude de psychologie pathologique." To my wife I am indebted +for valuable assistance in the tedious work of reading proofs and +verifying the text. + + + +CONTENTS + + PREFACE + + INTRODUCTION + + BIBLIOGRAPHY + + POEMS + SONG + SPIRITS OF THE DEAD + TO ---- + ROMANCE + TO THE RIVER + TO SCIENCE + TO HELEN + ISRAFEL + THE CITY IN THE SEA + THE SLEEPER + LENORE + THE VALLEY OF UNREST + THE COLISEUM + HYMN + TO ONE IN PARADISE + TO F---- + TO F----S S. O----D + TO ZANTE + BRIDAL BALLAD + SILENCE + THE CONQUEROR WORM + DREAM-LAND + THE RAVEN + EULALIE + TO M.L. S---- + ULALUME + TO ---- ---- + AN ENIGMA + TO HELEN + A VALENTINE + FOR ANNIE + THE BELLS + ANNABEL LEE + TO MY MOTHER + ELDORADO + THE HAUNTED PALACE + + TALES + THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER + WILLIAM WILSON + A DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTRÖM + THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH + THE GOLD-BUG + THE PURLOINED LETTER + + NOTES + + + +INTRODUCTION + +EDGAR ALLAN POE: HIS LIFE, CHARACTER, AND ART + + +Edgar Allan Poe is in many respects the most fascinating figure in +American literature. His life, touched by the extremes of fortune, was +on the whole more unhappy than that of any other of our prominent men +of letters. His character was strangely complex, and was the subject +of misunderstanding during his life and of heated dispute after his +death; his writings were long neglected or disparaged at home, while +accepted abroad as our greatest literary achievement. Now, after more +than half a century has elapsed since his death, careful biographers +have furnished a tolerably full account of the real facts about his +life; a fairly accurate idea of his character is winning general +acceptance; and the name of Edgar Allan Poe has been conceded a place +among the two or three greatest in our literature. + + +LIFE AND CHARACTER + +In December, 1811, a well-known actress of the time died in Richmond, +leaving destitute three little children, the eldest but four years of +age. This mother, who was Elizabeth (Arnold) Poe, daughter of an +English actress, had suffered from ill health for several years and +had long found the struggle for existence difficult. Her husband, +David Poe, probably died before her; he was a son of General David +Poe, a Revolutionary veteran of Baltimore, and had left his home and +law books for the stage several years before his marriage. The second +of the three children, born January 19, 1809, in Boston, where his +parents happened to be playing at the time, was Edgar Poe, the future +poet and story-writer. The little Edgar was adopted by the wife of +Mr. John Allan, a well-to-do Scotch merchant of the city, who later +became wealthy, and the boy was thereafter known as Edgar Allan +Poe. He was a beautiful and precocious child, who at six years of age +could read, draw, dance, and declaim the best poetry with fine effect +and appreciation; report says, also, that he had been taught to stand +on a chair and pledge Mr. Allan's guests in a glass of wine with +"roguish grace." + +In 1815 Mr. Allan went to England, where he remained five years. Edgar +was placed in an old English school in the suburbs of London, among +historic, literary, and antiquarian associations, and possibly was +taken to the Continent by his foster parents at vacation seasons. The +English residence and the sea voyages left deep impressions on the +boy's sensitive nature. Returning to Richmond, he was prepared in good +schools for the University of Virginia, which he entered at the age of +seventeen, pursuing studies in ancient and modern languages and +literatures. During this youthful period he was already developing a +striking and peculiar personality. He was brilliant, if not +industrious, as a student, leaving the University with highest honors +in Latin and French; he was quick and nervous in his movements and +greatly excelled in athletics, especially in swimming; in character, +he was reserved, solitary, sensitive, and given to lonely reverie. +Some of his aristocratic playmates remembered to his discredit that he +was the child of strolling players, and their attitude helped to add a +strain of defiance to an already intensely proud nature. Though kindly +treated by his foster parents, this strange boy longed for an +understanding sympathy that was not his. Once he thought he had found +it in Mrs. Jane Stannard, mother of a schoolmate; but the new friend +soon died, and for months the grief-stricken boy, it is said, haunted +the lonely grave at night and brooded over his loss and the mystery of +death--a not very wholesome experience for a lonely and melancholy lad +of fifteen years. + +At the University he drank wine, though not intemperately, and played +cards a great deal, the end of the term finding him with gambling +debts of twenty-five hundred dollars. These habits were common at the +time, and Edgar did not incur any censure from the faculty; but +Mr. Allan declined to honor the gambling debt, removed Edgar, and +placed him in his own counting room. Such a life was too dull for the +high-spirited, poetic youth, and he promptly left his home. + +Going to Boston, he published a thin volume of boyish verse, +"Tamerlane, and Other Poems," but realizing nothing financially,[1] he +enlisted in the United States Army as Edgar A. Perry. After two years +of faithful and efficient service, he procured through Mr. Allan (who +was temporarily reconciled to him) an appointment to the West Point +Military Academy, entering in July, 1830. In the meantime, he had +published in Baltimore a second small volume of poems. Fellow-students +have described him as having a "worn, weary, discontented look"; +usually kindly and courteous, but shy, reserved, and exceedingly +sensitive; an extraordinary reader, but noted for carping criticism. +Although a good student, he seemed galled beyond endurance by the +monotonous routine of military duties, which he deliberately neglected +and thus procured his dismissal from the Academy. He left, alone and +penniless, in March, 1831. + +[Footnote 1: In November, 1900, a single copy of this little volume +sold in New York for $2550.] + +Going to New York, Poe brought out another little volume of poems +showing great improvement; then he went to Baltimore, and after a +precarious struggle of a year or two, turned to prose, and, while in +great poverty, won a prize of one hundred dollars from the Baltimore +_Saturday Visitor_ for his story, "The Manuscript Found in a +Bottle." Through John P. Kennedy[1], one of the judges whose +friendship the poverty-stricken author gained, he procured a good deal +of hack work, and finally an editorial position on the _Southern +Literary Messenger_, of Richmond. The salary was fair, and better +was in sight; yet Poe was melancholy, dissatisfied, and miserable. He +wrote a pitiable letter to Mr. Kennedy, asking to be convinced "that +it is at all necessary to live." + +[Footnote 1: A well-known Marylander, author of "Horse-Shoe Robinson," +"Swallow Barn," "Rob of the Bowl," and other popular novels of the +day, and later Secretary of the Navy.] + +For several years he had been making his home with an aunt, Mrs. +Clemm, and her daughter, Virginia, a girl beautiful in character and +person, but penniless and probably already a victim of the consumption +that was eventually to cause her death. In 1836, when she was only +fourteen years old, Poe married his cousin, to whom he was +passionately attached. His devotion to her lasted through life, and +the tenderest affection existed between him and Mrs. Clemm, who was +all a mother could have been to him; so that the home life was always +beautiful in spirit, however poor in material comfort. + +In January, 1837, his connection with the _Messenger_ was +severed, probably because of his occasional lapses from sobriety; but +his unfortunate temperament and his restless ambition were doubtless +factors. With some reputation as poet, story-writer, critic, and +editor, Poe removed to New York, and a year later to Philadelphia, +where he remained until 1844. Here he found miscellaneous literary, +editorial, and hack work, finally becoming editor of _Graham's +Magazine_, which prospered greatly under his management, increasing +its circulation from eight thousand to forty thousand within a +year. But Poe's restless spirit was dissatisfied. He was intensely +anxious to own a magazine for himself, and had already made several +unsuccessful efforts to obtain one,--efforts which were to be repeated +at intervals, and with as little success, until the day his death. He +vainly sought a government position, that a livelihood might be +assured while he carried out his literary plans. Finally he left +_Graham's_, doubtless because of personal peculiarities, since +his occasional inebriety did not interfere with his work; and there +followed a period of wretched poverty, broken once by the winning of a +prize of one hundred dollars for "The Gold Bug." + +He continued to be known as a "reserved, isolated, dreamy man, of +high-strung nerves, proud spirit, and fantastic moods," with a +haunting sense of impending evil. His home was poor and simple, but +impressed every visitor by its neatness and quiet refinement; +Virginia, accomplished in music and languages, was as devoted to her +husband as he was to her. Both were fond of flowers and plants, and of +household pets. Mrs. Clemm gave herself completely to her "children" +and was the business manager of the family. + +In the spring of 1844 Poe went with Virginia to New York, practically +penniless, and to Mrs. Clemm, who did not come at once, he wrote with +pathetic enthusiasm of the generous meals served at their boarding +house. He obtained a position on the _Evening Mirror_ at small +pay, but did his dull work faithfully and efficiently; later, he +became editor of the _Broadway Journal_, in which he printed +revisions of his best tales and poems. In 1845 appeared "The Raven," +which created a profound sensation at home and abroad, and immediately +won, and has since retained, an immense popularity. He was at the +height of his fame, but poor, as always. In 1846 he published "The +Literati," critical comments on the writers of the day, in which the +literary small fry were mercilessly condemned and ridiculed. This +naturally made Poe a host of enemies. One of these, Thomas Dunn +English, published an abusive article attacking the author's +character, whereupon Poe sued him for libel and obtained two hundred +and twenty-five dollars damages. + +The family now moved to a little three-room cottage at Fordham, a +quiet country place with flowers and trees and pleasant vistas; but +illness and poverty were soon there, too. In 1841 Virginia had burst +a blood vessel while singing, and her life was despaired of; this had +happened again and again, leaving her weaker each time. As the summer +and fall of this year wore away, she grew worse and needed the +tenderest care and attention. But winter drew on, and with it came +cold and hunger; the sick girl lay in an unheated room on a straw bed, +wrapped in her husband's coat, the husband and mother trying to chafe +a little warmth into her hands and feet. Some kind-hearted women +relieved the distress in a measure, but on January 30, 1847, Virginia +died. The effect on Poe was terrible. It is easy to see how a very +artist of death, who could study the dreadful stages of its slow +approach and seek to penetrate the mystery of its ultimate nature with +such intense interest and deep reflection as did Poe, must have +brooded and suffered during the years of his wife's illness. His own +health had long been poor; his brain was diseased and insanity seemed +imminent. After intense grief came a period of settled gloom and +haunting fear. The less than three years of life left for him was a +period of decline in every respect. But he remained in the little +cottage, finding some comfort in caring for his flowers and pets, and +taking long solitary rambles. During this time he thought out and +wrote "Eureka," a treatise on the structure, laws, and destiny of the +universe, which he desired to have regarded as a poem. + +Poe had always felt a need for the companionship of sympathetic and +affectionate women, for whom he entertained a chivalric regard +amounting to reverence. After the shock of his wife's death had +somewhat worn away, he began to depend for sympathy upon various women +with whom he maintained romantic friendships. Judged by ordinary +standards, his conduct became at times little short of maudlin; his +correspondence showed a sort of gasping, frantic dependence upon the +sympathy and consolation of these women friends, and exhibited a +painful picture of a broken man. Mrs. Shew, one of the kind women who +had relieved the family at the time of Virginia's last illness, +strongly advised him to marry, and he did propose marriage to +Mrs. Sara Helen Whitman, a verse writer of some note in her day. After +a wild and exhausting wooing, begun in an extravagantly romantic +manner, the match was broken off through the influence of the lady's +friends. When it was all over Poe seemed very little disturbed. The +truth is, he was a wreck, and feeling utterly dependent, clutched +frantically at every hope of sympathy and consolation. His only real +love was for his dead wife, which he recorded shortly before his death +in the exquisite lyric, "Annabel Lee." + +In July, 1849, full of the darkest forebodings, and predicting that he +should never return, Poe went to Richmond. Here he spent a few quiet +months, part of the time fairly cheerful, but twice yielding to the +temptation to drink, and each time suffering, in consequence, a +dangerous illness. On September 30 he left Richmond for New York with +fifteen hundred dollars, the product of a recent lecture arranged by +kind Richmond friends. What happened during the next three days is an +impenetrable mystery, but on October 3 (Wednesday) he was found in an +election booth in Baltimore, desperately ill, his money and baggage +gone. The most probable story is that he had been drugged by political +workers, imprisoned in a "coop" with similar victims, and used as a +repeater [1], this procedure being a common one at the time. Whether +he was also intoxicated is a matter of doubt. There could be but one +effect on his delicate and already diseased brain. He was taken to a +hospital unconscious, lingered several days in the delirium of a +violent brain fever, and in the early dawn of Sunday, October 7, +breathed his last. + +[Footnote 1: Repeater, a person who illegally votes more than once] + +The dead author's character immediately became the subject of violent +controversy. His severe critical strictures had made him many enemies +among the minor writers of the day and their friends. One of the men +who had suffered from Poe's too caustic pen was Rufus W. Griswold, but +friendly relations had been nominally established and Poe had +authorized Griswold to edit his works. This Griswold did, including a +biography which Poe's friends declared a masterpiece of malicious +distortion and misrepresentation; it certainly was grossly unfair and +inaccurate. Poe's friends retorted, and a long war of words followed, +in which hatred or prejudice on the one side and wholesale, +undiscriminating laudation on the other, alike tended to obscure the +truth. It is now almost impossible to see the real Poe, just as he +appeared to an ordinary, unprejudiced observer of his own time. Only +by the most careful, thoughtful, and sympathetic study can we hope to +approximate such an acquaintance. + +The fundamental fact about Poe is a very peculiar and unhappy +temperament, certain characteristic qualities of which began to +disclose themselves in early boyhood and, fostered by the vicissitudes +of his career, developed throughout his life. + +In youth he was nervous, sensitive, morbid, proud, solitary, and +wayward; and as the years went by, bringing poverty, illness, and the +bitterness of failure, often through his own faults, the man became +irritable, impatient, often morose. He had always suffered from fits +of depression,--"blue devils," Mr. Kennedy called them,--and though +he was extravagantly sanguine at times, melancholy was his usual mood, +often manifesting itself in a haunting fear of evil to come. The +peculiar character of his wonderful imagination made actual life less +real to him than his own land of dreams: the "distant Aidenn," the +"dim lake of Auber," the "kingdom by the sea," seemed more genuine +than the landscapes of earth; the lurid "city in the sea" more +substantial than the streets he daily walked. + +Because of this intensely subjective and self-absorbed character of +mind, he had no understanding of human nature, no insight into +character with its marvelous complexities and contradictions. With +these limitations Poe, as might be expected, had a very defective +sense of humor, lacked true sympathy, was tactless, possessed little +business ability, and was excessively annoyed by the dull routine and +rude frictions of ordinary life. He was always touched by kindness, +but was quick to resent an injury, and even as a boy could not endure +a jest at his expense. He had many warm and devoted friends whom he +loved in return, but the limitations of his own nature probably made a +really frank, unreserved friendship impossible; and when a break +occurred, he was apt to assume that his former friend was an utter +villain. These personal characteristics, in conjunction with a goading +ambition which took form in the idea of an independent journal of his +own in which he might find untrammeled expression, added uneasiness +and restlessness to a constantly discontented nature. To some extent, +at least, Poe realized the curse of such a temperament, but he strove +vainly against its impulses. + +The one genuine human happiness of this sad life was found in a +singularly beautiful home atmosphere. Husband and wife were +passionately devoted to each other, and Mrs. Clemm was more than a +mother to both. She says of her son-in-law: "At home, he was simple +and affectionate as a child, and during all the years he lived with +me, I do not remember a single night that he failed to come and kiss +his 'mother,' as he called me, before going to bed." This faithful +woman remained devoted to him after Virginia's death, and to his +memory, when calumny assailed it, after his own. + +The capital charge against Poe's character has been intemperance, and +although the matter has been grossly exaggerated and misrepresented, +the charge is true. Except for short periods, he was never what is +known as dissipated, and he struggled desperately against his +weakness,--an unequal struggle, since the craving was inherited, and +fostered by environment, circumstances, and temperament. One of his +biographers tells of bread soaked in gin being fed to the little Poe +children by an old nurse during the illness of their mother; and there +is another story, already mentioned, of the little Edgar, in his +adoptive home, taught to pledge the guests as a social grace. +Drinking was common at the time, wine was offered in every home and at +every social function, and in the South, where Poe spent his youth and +early manhood, the spirit of hospitality and conviviality held out +constant temptation. To his delicate organization strong drink early +became a veritable poison, and indulgence that would have been a small +matter to another man was ruinous to him; indeed, a single glass of +wine drove him practically insane, and a debauch was sure to +follow. Indulgence was stimulated, also, by the nervous strain and +worry induced by uncertain livelihood and privation, the frequent fits +of depression, and by constant brooding. Sometimes he fought his +weakness successfully for several years, but always it conquered in +the end. + +Moreover, he speaks of a very special cause in the latter part of his +life, which in fairness should be heard in his own written words to a +friend: "Six years ago a wife, whom I loved as no man ever loved +before, ruptured a blood vessel in singing. Her life was despaired +of. I took leave of her forever and underwent all the agonies of her +death. She recovered partially and I again hoped. At the end of a year +the vessel broke again. I went through precisely the same scene.... +Then again--again--and even once again, at varying intervals. Each +time I felt all the agonies of her death--and at each accession of her +disorder I loved her more dearly and clung to her life with more +desperate pertinacity. But I am constitutionally sensitive--nervous in +a very unusual degree. I became insane, with long intervals of +horrible sanity. During these fits of absolute unconsciousness, I +drank--God only knows how often or how much. As a matter of course, my +enemies referred the insanity to the drink, rather than the drink to +the insanity.... It was the horrible never-ending oscillation between +hope and despair, which I could _not_ longer have endured without +total loss of reason. In the death of what was my life, then, I +received a new, but--O God!--how melancholy an existence!" + +This statement, and the other facts mentioned, are not offered as +wholly excusing Poe. Doubtless a stronger man would have resisted, +doubtless a less self-absorbed man would have thought of his wife's +happiness as well as of his own relief from torture. Yet the +fair-minded person, familiar with Poe's unhappy life, and keeping in +mind the influences of heredity, temperament, and environment, will +hesitate to pronounce a severe judgment. + +Poe was also accused of untruthfulness, and this accusation likewise +has a basis of fact. He repeatedly furnished or approved statements +regarding his life and work that were incorrect, he often made a +disingenuous show of pretended learning, and he sometimes misstated +facts to avoid wounding his own vanity. This ugly fault seems to have +resulted from a fondness for romantic posing, and is doubtless related +to the peculiar character of imagination already mentioned. Perhaps, +too, he inherited from his actor parents a love of applause, and if +so, the trait was certainly encouraged in early childhood. There is +no evidence that he was ever guilty of malicious or mercenary +falsehood. + +Another of his bad habits was borrowing, but it must be remembered +that his life was one long struggle with grinding poverty, that he and +those dear to him sometimes suffered actual hunger and cold. Many who +knew him testified to his anxiety to pay all his debts, Mr. Graham +referring to him in this particular as "the soul of honor." + +In a letter to Lowell, Poe has well described himself in a sentence: +"My life has been whim--impulse--passion--a longing for solitude--a +scorn of all things present in an earnest desire for the future." +Interpreted, this means that in a sense he never really reached +maturity, that he remained a slave to his impulses and emotions, that +he detested the ordinary business of life and could not adapt himself +to it, that his mind was full of dreams of ideal beauty and +perfection, that his whole soul yearned to attain the highest +pleasures of artistic creation. His was perpetually a deeply agitated +soul; as such, it was natural he should outwardly seem irritable, +impatient, restless, discontented, and solitary. It is impossible to +believe that there was any strain of real evil in Poe. A man who could +inspire such devotion as he had from such a woman as Mrs. Clemm, a man +who loved flowers and children and animal pets, who could be so +devoted a husband, who could so consecrate himself to art, was not a +bad man. Yet his acts were often, as we have seen, most +reprehensible. Frequently the subject of slander, he was not a victim +of conspiracy to defame. Although circumstances were many times +against him, he was his own worst enemy. He was cursed with a +temperament. His mind was analytical and imaginative, and gave no +thought to the ethical. He remained wayward as a child. The man, like +his art, was not immoral, but simply unmoral. Whatever his faults, he +suffered frightfully for them, and his fame suffered after him. + + +LITERARY WORK + +Poe's first literary ventures were in verse. The early volumes, +showing strongly the influence of Byron and Moore, were productions of +small merit but large promise. Their author was soon to become one of +the most original of poets, his later work being unique, with a +strangely individual, "Poe" atmosphere that no other writer has ever +been able successfully to imitate. His verse is individual in theme, +treatment, and structure, all of which harmonize with his conscious +theory of poetic art. His theory is briefly this: It is not the +function of poetry to teach either truth or morals, but to gratify +through novel forms "the thirst for supernal beauty"; its proper +effect is to "excite, by elevating, the soul." The highest beauty has +always some admixture of sadness, the most poetical of all themes +being the death of a beautiful woman. Moreover, the pleasure derived +from the contemplation of this higher beauty should be indefinite; +that is, true poetic feeling is not the result of coherent narrative +or clear pictures or fine moral sentiment, but consists in vague, +exalted emotion. Music, of all the arts, produces the vaguest and most +"indefinite" pleasure; consequently verse forms should be chosen with +the greatest possible attention to musical effect. Poetry must be +purely a matter of feeling. "Its sole arbiter is Taste. With the +Intellect or with the Conscience it has only collateral relations." + +This explanation is necessary, because the stock criticism of Poe's +poetry condemns it as vague, indefinite, and devoid of thought or +ethical content. These are precisely its limitations, but hardly its +faults, since the poet attained with marvelous art the very effects he +desired. The themes of nearly all the poems are death, ruin, regret, +or failure; the verse is original in form, and among the most musical +in the language, full of a haunting, almost magical melody. Mystery, +symbolism, shadowy suggestion, fugitive thought, elusive beauty, +beings that are mere insubstantial abstractions--these are the +characteristics, but designedly so, of Poe's poetry. A poem to him was +simply a crystallized mood, and it is futile for his readers to apply +any other test. Yet the influence of this verse has been wide and +important, extending to most lyric poets of the last half-century, +including such masters as Rossetti and Swinburne. + +"To Helen," a poem of three brief stanzas, is Poe's first really +notable production; it is an exquisite tribute of his reverent +devotion to his boyhood friend, Mrs. Stannard, portraying her as a +classic embodiment of beauty. "Israfel" is a lyric of aspiration of +rare power and rapture, worthy of Shelley, and is withal the most +spontaneous, simple, and genuinely human poem Poe ever wrote. "The +Haunted Palace," one of the finest of his poems, is an unequaled +allegory of the wreck and ruin of sovereign reason, which to be fully +appreciated should be read in its somber setting, "The Fall of the +House of Usher." Less attractive is "The Conqueror Worm," with its +repulsive imagery, but this "tragedy 'Man,'" with the universe as a +theater, moving to the "music of the spheres," and "horror the soul of +the plot," is undeniably powerful and intensely terrible. + +"The Raven," published in 1845, attained immediately a world-wide +celebrity, and rivals in fame and popularity any lyric ever written. +It is the most elaborate treatment of Poe's favorite theme, the death +of a beautiful woman. The reveries of a bereaved lover, alone in his +library at midnight in "the bleak December," vainly seeking to forget +his sorrow for the "lost Lenore," are interrupted by a tapping, as of +some one desirous to enter. After a time, he admits a "stately raven" +and seeks to beguile his sad fancy by putting questions to the bird, +whose one reply is "Nevermore," and this constitutes the refrain of +the poem. Impelled by an instinct of self-torture, the lover asks +whether he shall have "respite" from the painful memories of "Lenore," +here or hereafter, and finally whether in the "distant Aidenn" he and +his love shall be reunited; to all of which the raven returns his one +answer. Driven to frenzy, the lover implores the bird, "Take thy beak +from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door," only to learn +that the shadow will be lifted "nevermore." The raven is, in the +poet's own words, "emblematical of Mournful and Never-Ending +Remembrance." + +"Ulalume" has been commonly (though not always) regarded as a mere +experiment in verbal ingenuity, meaningless melody, or "the insanity +of versification," as a distinguished American critic has called +it. Such a judgment is a mark of inability to understand Poe's most +characteristic work, for in truth "Ulalume" is the extreme expression +at once of his critical theory and of his peculiar genius as a +poet. It was published in December of the same year in which Virginia +died in January. The poet's condition has already been described; +"Ulalume" is a marvelous expression of his mood at this time. It +depicts a soul worn out by long suffering, groping for courage and +hope, only to return again to "the door of a legended tomb." It is +true the movement is slow, impeded by the frequent repetitions, but so +the wearied mind, after nervous exhaustion, is "palsied and sere." +There is no appeal to the intellect, but this is characteristic of Poe +and appropriate to a mind numbed by protracted suffering. It is this +mood of wearied, benumbed, discouraged, hopeless hope, feebly seeking +for the "Lethean peace of the skies" only to find the mind inevitably +reverting to the "lost Ulalume," that finds expression. There is no +definite thought, because only the communication of feeling is +intended; there is no distinct setting, because the whole action is +spiritual; "the dim lake" and "dark tarn of Auber," "the ghoul-haunted +woodland of Weir," "the alley Titanic of cypress," are the +grief-stricken and fear-haunted places of the poet's own darkened +mind, while the ashen skies of "the lonesome October" are significant +enough of this "most immemorial year." The poem is a monody of +nerveless, exhausted grief. As such it must be read to be appreciated, +as such it must be judged, and so appreciated and so judged it is +absolutely unique and incomparable. + +About a year later came "The Bells," wonderful for the music of its +verse, and the finest onomatopoetic poem in the language. Two days +after Poe's death appeared "Annabel Lee," a simple, sincere, and +beautiful ballad, a tribute to his dead wife. Last of all was printed +the brief "Eldorado," a fitting death-song for Poe, in which a gallant +knight sets out, "singing a song," "in search of Eldorado," only to +learn when youth and strength are gone that he must seek his goal +"down the Valley of the Shadow." + +The tales, like the poems, are a real contribution to the world's +literature, but more strikingly so, since the type itself is +original. Poe, Hawthorne, and Irving are distinctly the pioneers in +the production of the modern short story, and neither has been +surpassed on his own ground; but Poe has been vastly the greater +influence in foreign countries, especially in France. Poe formed a new +conception of the short story, one which Professor Brander Matthews[1] +has treated formally and explicitly as a distinct literary form, +different from the story that is merely short. Without calling it a +distinct form, Poe implied the idea in a review of Hawthorne's +"Twice-Told Tales": + +[Footnote 1: "The Philosophy of the Short-Story," Chapter IV of "Pen +and Ink."] + +The ordinary novel is objectionable from its length.... As it cannot +be read at one sitting, it deprives itself, of course, of the immense +force derivable from _totality_.... In the brief tale, however, +the author is enabled to carry out the fulness of his intention, be it +what it may. During the hour of perusal, the soul of the reader is at +the writer's control.... + +A skillful literary artist has constructed a tale. If wise, he has not +fashioned his thoughts to accommodate his incidents; but having +conceived with deliberate care a certain unique or single +_effect_ to be wrought out, he then invents such incidents--he +then combines such events as may best aid him in establishing this +preconceived effect. If his very initial sentence tend not to the +out-bringing of this effect, then he has failed in his first step. In +the whole composition there should be no word written, of which the +tendency, direct or indirect, is not to the one preëstablished design. + +This idea of a short story should be kept in mind in reading Poe's +works, for he applied his theory perfectly. + +The stories are of greater variety than the poems. There are romances +of death whose themes are fear, horror, madness, catalepsy, premature +burial, torture, mesmerism, and revengeful cruelty; tales of weird +beauty; allegories of conscience; narratives of pseudo-science; +stories of analytical reasoning; descriptions of beautiful landscapes; +and what are usually termed "prose poems." He also wrote tales +grotesque, humorous, and satirical, most of which are failures. The +earlier tales are predominantly imaginative and emotional; most of the +later ones are predominantly intellectual. None of the tales touches +ordinary, healthy life; there is scarcely a suggestion of local color; +the humor is nearly always mechanical; there is little conversation +and the characters are never normal human beings. Although the stories +are strongly romantic in subject, plot, and setting, there is an +extraordinary realism in treatment, a minuteness and accuracy of +detail equaling the work of Defoe. This is one secret of the magical +art that not only transports us to the world of dream and vision where +the author's own soul roamed, but for the time makes it all real to +us. + +Poe's finest tale, as a work of art, is "The Fall of the House of +Usher," which is as nearly perfect in its craftsmanship as human work +may be. It is a romance of death with a setting of profound gloom, and +is wrought out as a highly imaginative study in fear--a symphony in +which every touch blends into a perfect unity of effect. "Ligeia," +perhaps standing next, incorporating "The Conqueror Worm" as its +keynote, portrays the terrific struggle of a woman's will against +death. "The Masque of the Red Death," a tale of the Spirit of +Pestilence and of Death victorious over human selfishness and power, +is a splendid study in somber color. "The Assignation," a romance of +Venice, is also splendid in coloring and rich in decorative effects, +presenting a luxury of sorrow culminating in romantic suicide. +"William Wilson" is an allegory of conscience personified in a double, +the forerunner of Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Other +conscience stories are "The Man of the Crowd"; "The Tell-Tale Heart," +also depicting insanity; and "The Black Cat," of which the atmosphere +is horror. "The Adventures of One Hans Pfaal" and "The Balloon Hoax" +are examples of the pseudo-scientific tales, which attain their +verisimilitude by diverting attention from the improbability or +impossibility of the general incidents to the accuracy and naturalness +of details. In "The Descent into the Maëlstrom," scientific reasoning +is skillfully blended with imaginative strength, poetic description, +and stirring adventure. This type of story is clearly enough the +original of those of Jules Verne and similar writers. "The Murders in +the Rue Morgue" and "The Purloined Letter" are the pioneer detective +stories, Dupin the original Sherlock Holmes, and they remain the best +of their kind, unsurpassed in originality, ingenuity, and +plausibility. Another type of the story of analytical reasoning is +"The Gold-Bug," built around the solution of a cryptogram, but also +introducing an element of adventure. Poe's analytical power was real, +not a trick. If he made Legrand solve the cryptogram and boast his +ability to solve others more difficult, Poe himself solved scores sent +him in response to a public magazine challenge; if Dupin solved +mysteries that Poe invented for him, Poe himself wrote in "Marie +Roget," from newspaper accounts, the solution of a real murder +mystery, and astounded Dickens by outlining the entire plot of +"Barnaby Rudge" when only a few of the first chapters had been +published; if he wrote imaginatively of science, he in fact +demonstrated in "Maelzel's Chess Player" that a pretended automaton +was operated by a man. "Hop Frog" and "The Cask of Amontillado" are +old-world stories of revenge. "The Island of the Fay" and "The Domain +of Arnheim" are landscape studies, the one of calm loveliness, the +other of Oriental profusion and coloring. "Shadow" and "Silence" are +commonly classed as "prose poems," the former being one of Poe's most +effective productions. "Eleonora," besides having a story to tell, is +both a prose poem and a landscape study, and withal one of Poe's most +exquisite writings. + +Although Poe was not a great critic, his critical work is by no means +valueless. He applied for the first time in America a thoroughgoing +scrutiny and able, fearless criticism to contemporary literature, +undoubtedly with good effect. His attacks on didacticism were +especially valuable. His strength as a critic lay in his artistic +temperament and in the incisive intellect that enabled him to analyze +the effects produced in his own creations and in those of others. His +weaknesses were extravagance; a mania for harping on plagiarism; lack +of spiritual insight, broad sympathies, and profound scholarship; and, +in general, the narrow range of his genius, which has already been +made sufficiently clear. His severity has been exaggerated, as he +often praised highly, probably erring more frequently by undue +laudation than by extreme severity. Though personal prejudice +sometimes crept into his work, especially in favor of women, yet on +the whole he was as fair and fearless as he claimed to be. Much of the +hasty, journalistic hack work is valueless, as might be expected, but +he wrote very suggestively of his art, and nearly all his judgments +have been sustained. Moreover, he met one supreme test of a critic in +recognizing unknown genius: Dickens he was among the first to appraise +as a great novelist; Tennyson and Elizabeth Barrett (Browning) he +ranked among the great poets without hesitation; and at home he early +expressed a due appreciation of Hawthorne, Lowell, Longfellow, and +Bryant. + +Poe's place, both in prose and poetry, is assured. His recognition +abroad has been clear and emphatic from the first, especially in +France, and to-day foreigners generally regard him as the greatest +writer we have produced, an opinion in which a number of our own +critics and readers concur. One's judgment in the matter will depend +upon the point of view and the standards adopted; it is too large a +subject to consider here, but if artistic craftsmanship be the +standard, certainly Hawthorne would be his only rival, and Hawthorne +was not also a poet. The question of exact relative rank, however, it +is neither possible nor important to settle. It is sufficient to say, +in the words of Professor Woodberry, "On the roll of our literature +Poe's name is inscribed among the few foremost, and in the world at +large his genius is established as valid among all men." + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + +The year after Poe's death there appeared "The Works of the Late Edgar +Allan Poe," with a Memoir, in two volumes, edited by R. W. Griswold +and published by J. S. Redfield, New York. The same editor and +publisher brought out a four-volume edition in 1856. Griswold had +suffered from Poe's sharp criticisms and had quarreled with him, +though later there was a reconciliation, and Poe himself selected +Griswold to edit his works. The biographer painted the dead author +very black indeed, and his account is now generally considered unfair. + +In 1874-1875 "The Works of Edgar Allan Poe," with Memoir, edited by +John H. Ingram, were published in four volumes, in Edinburgh, and in +1876 in New York. Ingram represents the other extreme from Griswold, +attempting to defend practically everything that Poe was and did. + +In 1884 A. C. Armstrong & Son, New York, brought out "The Works of +Edgar Allan Poe" in six volumes, with an Introduction and Memoir by +Richard Henry Stoddard. Stoddard is far from doing justice to Poe +either as man or as author. + +Although Griswold's editing was poor, subsequent editions followed his +until 1895, when Professor George E. Woodberry and Mr. Edmund Clarence +Stedman published a new edition in ten volumes through Stone & +Kimball, Chicago (now published by Duffield & Company, New York). This +edition is incomparably superior to all its predecessors, going to the +original sources, and establishing an authentic text, corrected +slightly in quotations and punctuation. Professor Woodberry +contributed a Memoir, and Mr. Stedman admirable critical articles on +the poems and the tales. Scholarly notes, an extensive bibliography, a +number of portraits, and variorum readings of the poems, are included. + +In 1902 T.Y. Crowell & Company, New York, issued "The Complete Works +of Edgar Allan Poe" in seventeen volumes, edited by Professor James +A. Harrison, including a biography and a volume of letters. This +edition contains much of Poe's criticism not published in previous +editions, and follows Poe's latest text exactly; complete variorum +readings are included. + +In 1902 there also appeared "The Booklover's Arnheim" edition in ten +volumes, edited by Professor Charles F. Richardson and published by +G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York. This is mechanically the finest edition +of Poe's works. + +The one-volume collections of poems and of tales are almost +innumerable, but nearly all are devoid of merit and poorly edited in +selection, text, and notes. (This does not refer to the small +collections for study in schools.) The best are the following: "Tales +of Mystery," Unit Book Publishing Company, New York (72 cents); "The +Best Tales of Edgar Allan Poe," edited with critical studies by +Sherwin Cody, A.C. McClurg & Company, Chicago ($1.00); "The Best Poems +and Essays of E. A. Poe," edited with biographical and critical +introduction by Sherwin Cody, McClurg ($1.00); "Poems of E. A. Poe," +complete, edited and annotated by Charles W. Kent, The Macmillan +Company, New York (25 cents). + +Professor George E. Woodberry contributed in 1885 a volume on Poe to +the American Men of Letters Series (Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston), +which is the ablest yet written. In scholarship and critical +appreciation it is all that could be desired, but unfortunately it is +unsympathetic. Mr. Woodberry assumed a coldly judicial attitude, in +which mood he is occasionally a little less than just to Poe's +character. Professor Harrison's biography, written for the Virginia +edition, is published separately by T.Y. Crowell & Company. It is very +full, and valuable for the mass of material supplied, but is not +discriminating in criticism or estimate of Poe's character. + +Numerous magazine articles may be found by consulting the periodical +indexes. A number of suggestive short studies are to be found in the +text-books of American literature, such as those of Messrs. Trent, +Abernethy, Newcomer, and Wendell; and in the larger books of +Professors Richardson, Trent, and Wendell. One may also find acute and +valuable comment in such works as Professor Bliss Perry's "A Study of +Prose Fiction," and Professor Brander Matthews's "Philosophy of the +Short-Story" (published separately, and in "Pen and Ink"). + +Many of Poe's tales and poems have been translated into practically +all the important languages of modern Europe, including Greek. An +important French study of Poe, recently published, is mentioned in the +Preface. + + + + +POEMS + + + +SONG + + +I saw thee on thy bridal day, + When a burning blush came o'er thee, +Though happiness around thee lay, + The world all love before thee; + +And in thine eye a kindling light 5 + (Whatever it might be) +Was all on Earth my aching sight + Of loveliness could see. + +That blush, perhaps, was maiden shame: + As such it well may pass, 10 +Though its glow hath raised a fiercer flame + In the breast of him, alas! + +Who saw thee on that bridal day, + When that deep blush _would_ come o'er thee, +Though happiness around thee lay, 15 + The world all love before thee. + + + +SPIRITS OF THE DEAD + + +Thy soul shall find itself alone +'Mid dark thoughts of the gray tombstone; +Not one, of all the crowd, to pry +Into thine hour of secrecy. + +Be silent in that solitude, 5 + Which is not loneliness--for then +The spirits of the dead, who stood + In life before thee, are again +In death around thee, and their will +Shall overshadow thee; be still. 10 + +The night, though clear, shall frown, +And the stars shall look not down +From their high thrones in the Heaven +With light like hope to mortals given, +But their red orbs, without beam, 15 +To thy weariness shall seem +As a burning and a fever +Which would cling to thee forever. + +Now are thoughts thou shalt not banish, +Now are visions ne'er to vanish; 20 +From thy spirit shall they pass +No more, like dewdrops from the grass. + +The breeze, the breath of God, is still, +And the mist upon the hill +Shadowy, shadowy, yet unbroken, 25 +Is a symbol and a token. +How it hangs upon the trees, +A mystery of mysteries! + + + +TO ---- + + +I heed not that my earthly lot + Hath little of Earth in it, +That years of love have been forgot + In the hatred of a minute: + +I mourn not that the desolate 5 + Are happier, sweet, than I, +But that you sorrow for my fate + Who am a passer-by. + + + +ROMANCE + + +Romance, who loves to nod and sing +With drowsy head and folded wing +Among the green leaves as they shake +Far down within some shadowy lake, +To me a painted paroquet 5 +Hath been--a most familiar bird-- +Taught me my alphabet to say, +To lisp my very earliest word +While in the wild-wood I did lie, +A child--with a most knowing eye. 10 + +Of late, eternal condor years +So shake the very heaven on high +With tumult as they thunder by, +I have no time for idle cares +Through gazing on the unquiet sky; 15 +And when an hour with calmer wings +Its down upon my spirit flings, +That little time with lyre and rhyme +To while away--forbidden things-- +My heart would feel to be a crime 20 +Unless it trembled with the strings. + + + +TO THE RIVER + + +Fair river! in thy bright, clear flow + Of crystal, wandering water, +Thou art an emblem of the glow + Of beauty--the unhidden heart, + The playful maziness of art 5 + In old Alberto's daughter; + +But when within thy wave she looks, + Which glistens then, and trembles, +Why, then, the prettiest of brooks + Her worshipper resembles; 10 +For in his heart, as in thy stream, + Her image deeply lies-- +His heart which trembles at the beam + Of her soul-searching eyes. + + + +TO SCIENCE + +A PROLOGUE TO "AL AARAAF" + + +Science! true daughter of Old Time thou art, + Who alterest all things with thy peering eyes. +Why preyest thou thus upon the poet's heart, + Vulture, whose wings are dull realities? +How should he love thee? or how deem thee wise, 5 + Who wouldst not leave him in his wandering +To seek for treasure in the jewelled skies, + Albeit he soared with an undaunted wing? +Hast thou not dragged Diana from her car, + And driven the Hamadryad from the wood 10 +To seek a shelter in some happier star? + Hast thou not torn the Naiad from her flood, +The Elfin from the green grass, and from me +The summer dream beneath the tamarind-tree? + + + +TO HELEN + + +Helen, thy beauty is to me + Like those Nicæan barks of yore, +That gently, o'er a perfumed sea, + The weary, wayworn wanderer bore + To his own native shore. 5 + +On desperate seas long wont to roam, + Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face, +Thy Naiad airs, have brought me home + To the glory that was Greece + And the grandeur that was Rome. 10 + +Lo! in yon brilliant window-niche + How statue-like I see thee stand, + The agate lamp within thy hand! +Ah, Psyche, from the regions which + Are Holy Land! 15 + + + +ISRAFEL + +And the angel Israfel, whose heart-strings are a lute, +and who has the sweetest voice of all God's creatures.--KORAN + + +In Heaven a spirit doth dwell + Whose heart-strings are a lute; +None sing so wildly well +As the angel Israfel, +And the giddy stars (so legends tell), 5 +Ceasing their hymns, attend the spell + Of his voice, all mute. + +Tottering above + In her highest noon, + The enamoured moon 10 +Blushes with love, + While, to listen, the red levin + (With the rapid Pleiads, even, + Which were seven) + Pauses in Heaven. 15 + +And they say (the starry choir + And the other listening things) +That Israfeli's fire +Is owing to that lyre + By which he sits and sings, 20 +The trembling living wire + Of those unusual strings. + +But the skies that angel trod, + Where deep thoughts are a duty, +Where Love's a grown-up God, 25 + Where the Houri glances are +Imbued with all the beauty + Which we worship in a star. + +Therefore thou art not wrong, + Israfeli, who despisest 30 +An unimpassioned song; +To thee the laurels belong, + Best bard, because the wisest: +Merrily live, and long! + +The ecstasies above 35 + With thy burning measures suit: +Thy grief, thy joy, thy hate, thy love, + With the fervor of thy lute: + Well may the stars be mute! + +Yes, Heaven is thine; but this 40 + Is a world of sweets and sours; + Our flowers are merely--flowers, +And the shadow of thy perfect bliss + Is the sunshine of ours. + +If I could dwell 45 +Where Israfel + Hath dwelt, and he where I, +He might not sing so wildly well + A mortal melody, +While a bolder note than this might swell 50 + From my lyre within the sky. + + + +THE CITY IN THE SEA + + +Lo! Death has reared himself a throne +In a strange city lying alone +Far down within the dim West, +Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best +Have gone to their eternal rest. 5 +There shrines and palaces and towers +(Time-eaten towers that tremble not) +Resemble nothing that is ours. +Around, by lifting winds forgot, +Resignedly beneath the sky 10 +The melancholy waters lie. + +No rays from the holy heaven come down +On the long night-time of that town; +But light from out the lurid sea +Streams up the turrets silently, 15 +Gleams up the pinnacles far and free: +Up domes, up spires, up kingly halls, +Up fanes, up Babylon-like walls, + +Up shadowy long-forgotten bowers +Of sculptured ivy and stone flowers, 20 +Up many and many a marvellous shrine +Whose wreathed friezes intertwine +The viol, the violet, and the vine. +Resignedly beneath the sky +The melancholy waters lie. 25 +So blend the turrets and shadows there +That all seem pendulous in air, +While from a proud tower in the town +Death looks gigantically down. + +There open fanes and gaping graves 30 +Yawn level with the luminous waves; +But not the riches there that lie +In each idol's diamond eye,-- +Not the gaily-jewelled dead, +Tempt the waters from their bed; 35 +For no ripples curl, alas, +Along that wilderness of glass; +No swellings tell that winds may be +Upon some far-off happier sea; +No heavings hint that winds have been 40 +On seas less hideously serene! + +But lo, a stir is in the air! +The wave--there is a movement there! +As if the towers had thrust aside, +In slightly sinking, the dull tide; 45 +As if their tops had feebly given +A void within the filmy Heaven! +The waves have now a redder glow, +The hours are breathing faint and low; +And when, amid no earthly moans, 50 +Down, down that town shall settle hence, +Hell, rising from a thousand thrones, +Shall do it reverence. + + + +THE SLEEPER + + +At midnight, in the month of June, +I stand beneath the mystic moon. +An opiate vapor, dewy, dim, +Exhales from out her golden rim, +And, softly dripping, drop by drop, 5 +Upon the quiet mountain-top, +Steals drowsily and musically +Into the universal valley. +The rosemary nods upon the grave; +The lily lolls upon the wave; 10 +Wrapping the fog about its breast, +The ruin moulders into rest; +Looking like Lethe, see! the lake +A conscious slumber seems to take, +And would not, for the world, awake. 15 +All beauty sleeps!--and lo! where lies +Irene, with her destinies! + +Oh lady bright! can it be right, +This window open to the night? +The wanton airs, from the tree-top, 20 +Laughingly through the lattice drop; +The bodiless airs, a wizard rout, +Flit through thy chamber in and out, +And wave the curtain canopy +So fitfully, so fearfully, 25 +Above the closed and fringéd lid +'Neath which thy slumb'ring soul lies hid, +That, o'er the floor and down the wall, +Like ghosts the shadows rise and fall. +Oh lady dear, hast thou no fear? 30 +Why and what art thou dreaming here? +Sure thou art come o'er far-off seas, +A wonder to these garden trees! +Strange is thy pallor: strange thy dress: +Strange, above all, thy length of tress, 35 +And this all solemn silentness! + +The lady sleeps. Oh, may her sleep, +Which is enduring, so be deep! +Heaven have her in its sacred keep! +This chamber changed for one more holy, 40 +This bed for one more melancholy, +I pray to God that she may lie +Forever with unopened eye, +While the pale sheeted ghosts go by! + +My love, she sleeps. Oh, may her sleep, 45 +As it is lasting, so be deep! +Soft may the worms about her creep! +Far in the forest, dim and old, +For her may some tall vault unfold: +Some vault that oft hath flung its black 50 +And winged pannels fluttering back, +Triumphant, o'er the crested palls +Of her grand family funerals: +Some sepulchre, remote, alone, +Against whose portal she hath thrown, 55 +In childhood, many an idle stone: +Some tomb from out whose sounding door +She ne'er shall force an echo more, +Thrilling to think, poor child of sin, +It was the dead who groaned within! 60 + + + +LENORE + + +Ah, broken is the golden bowl! the spirit flown forever +Let the bell toll!--a saintly soul floats on the Stygian river; +And, Guy De Vere, hast _thou_ no tear?--weep now or never more! +See, on yon drear and rigid bier low lies thy love, Lenore! +Come, let the burial rite be read--the funeral song be sung, 5 +An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young, +A dirge for her the doubly dead in that she died so young. + +"Wretches, ye loved her for her wealth and hated her for her pride, +And when she fell in feeble health, ye blessed her--that she died! +How _shall_ the ritual, then, be read? the requiem how be sung 10 +By you--by yours, the evil eye,--by yours, the slanderous tongue +That did to death the innocence that died, and died so young?" + +_Peccanimus_; but rave not thus! and let a Sabbath song +Go up to God so solemnly the dead may feel no wrong. +The sweet Lenore hath gone before, with Hope that flew beside, 15 +Leaving thee wild for the dear child that should have been thy bride: +For her, the fair and debonair, that now so lowly lies, +The life upon her yellow hair but not within her eyes; +The life still there, upon her hair--the death upon her eyes. + +"Avaunt! avaunt! from friends below, the indignant ghost is riven-- 20 +From Hell unto a high estate far up within the Heaven-- +From grief and groan, to a golden throne, beside the King of Heaven! +Let no bell toll, then,--lest her soul, amid its hallowed mirth, +Should catch the note as it doth float up from the damnéd Earth! +And I!--to-night my heart is light!--No dirge will I upraise, 25 +But waft the angel on her flight with a Pæan of old days." + + + +THE VALLEY OF UNREST + + +Once it smiled a silent dell +Where the people did not dwell; +They had gone unto the wars, +Trusting to the mild-eyed stars, +Nightly, from their azure towers, 5 +To keep watch above the flowers, +In the midst of which all day +The red sunlight lazily lay. +Now each visitor shall confess +The sad valley's restlessness. 10 +Nothing there is motionless, +Nothing save the airs that brood +Over the magic solitude. +Ah, by no wind are stirred those trees +That palpitate like the chill seas 15 +Around the misty Hebrides! +Ah, by no wind those clouds are driven +That rustle through the unquiet Heaven +Uneasily, from morn till even, +Over the violets there that lie 20 +In myriad types of the human eye, +Over the lilies there that wave +And weep above a nameless grave! +They wave:--from out their fragrant tops +Eternal dews come down in drops. 25 +They weep:--from off their delicate stems +Perennial, tears descend in gems. + + + +THE COLISEUM + + +Type of the antique Rome! Rich reliquary +Of lofty contemplation left to Time +By buried centuries of pomp and power! +At length--at length--after so many days +Of weary pilgrimage and burning thirst 5 +(Thirst for the springs of lore that in thee lie), +I kneel, an altered and an humble man, +Amid thy shadows, and so drink within +My very soul thy grandeur, gloom, and glory. + +Vastness, and Age, and Memories of Eld! 10 +Silence, and Desolation, and dim Night! +I feel ye now, I feel ye in your strength, +O spells more sure than e'er Judæan king +Taught in the gardens of Gethsemane! +O charms more potent than the rapt Chaldee 15 +Ever drew down from out the quiet stars! + +Here, where a hero fell, a column falls! +Here, where the mimic eagle glared in gold, +A midnight vigil holds the swarthy bat; +Here, where the dames of Rome their gilded hair 20 +Waved to the wind, now wave the reed and thistle; +Here, where on golden throne the monarch lolled, +Glides, spectre-like, unto his marble home, + +Lit by the wan light of the hornéd moon, +The swift and silent lizard of the stones. 25 + +But stay! these walls, these ivy-clad arcades, +These mouldering plinths, these sad and blackened shafts, +These vague entablatures, this crumbling frieze, +These shattered cornices, this wreck, this ruin, +These stones--alas! these gray stones--are they all, 30 +All of the famed and the colossal left +By the corrosive Hours to Fate and me? + +"Not all"--the Echoes answer me--"not all! +Prophetic sounds and loud arise forever +From us, and from all Ruin, unto the wise, 35 +As melody from Memnon to the Sun. +We rule the hearts of mightiest men--we rule +With a despotic sway all giant minds. +We are not impotent, we pallid stones: +Not all our power is gone, not all our fame, 40 +Not all the magic of our high renown, +Not all the wonder that encircles us, +Not all the mysteries that in us lie, +Not all the memories that hang upon +And cling around about us as a garment, 45 +Clothing us in a robe of more than glory." + + + +HYMN + + +At morn--at noon--at twilight dim, +Maria! thou hast heard my hymn. +In joy and woe, in good and ill, +Mother of God, be with me still! +When the hours flew brightly by, 5 +And not a cloud obscured the sky, +My soul, lest it should truant be, +Thy grace did guide to thine and thee. +Now, when storms of fate o'ercast +Darkly my Present and my Past, 10 +Let my Future radiant shine +With sweet hopes of thee and thine! + + + +TO ONE IN PARADISE + + +Thou wast all that to me, love, + For which my soul did pine: +A green isle in the sea, love, + A fountain and a shrine +All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers, 5 + And all the flowers were mine. + +Ah, dream too bright to last! + Ah, starry Hope, that didst arise +But to be overcast! + A voice from out the Future cries, 10 +"On! on!"--but o'er the Past + (Dim gulf!) my spirit hovering lies +Mute, motionless, aghast. + +For, alas! alas! with me + The light of Life is o'er! 15 + No more--no more--no more-- +(Such language holds the solemn sea + To the sands upon the shore) +Shall bloom the thunder-blasted tree, + Or the stricken eagle soar. 20 + +And all my days are trances, + And all my nightly dreams +Are where thy gray eye glances, + And where thy footstep gleams-- +In what ethereal dances, 25 + By what eternal streams. + + + +TO F---- + + +Beloved! amid the earnest woes + That crowd around my earthly path +(Drear path, alas! where grows +Not even one lonely rose), + My soul at least a solace hath 5 +In dreams of thee, and therein knows +An Eden of bland repose. + +And thus thy memory is to me + Like some enchanted far-off isle +In some tumultuous sea,-- 10 +Some ocean throbbing far and free + With storms, but where meanwhile +Serenest skies continually + Just o'er that one bright island smile. + + + +TO F----S S. O----D + + +Thou wouldst be loved?--then let thy heart + From its present pathway part not: +Being everything which now thou art, + Be nothing which thou art not. +So with the world thy gentle ways, 5 + Thy grace, thy more than beauty, +Shall be an endless theme of praise, + And love--a simple duty. + + + +TO ZANTE + + +Fair isle, that from the fairest of all flowers + Thy gentlest of all gentle names dost take, +How many memories of what radiant hours + At sight of thee and thine at once awake! +How many scenes of what departed bliss, 5 + How many thoughts of what entombéd hopes, +How many visions of a maiden that is + No more--no more upon thy verdant slopes! +_No more!_ alas, that magical sad sound + Transforming all! Thy charms shall please no more, 10 +Thy memory no more. Accurséd ground! + Henceforth I hold thy flower-enamelled shore, +O hyacinthine isle! O purple Zante! + "Isola d'oro! Fior di Levante!" + + + +BRIDAL BALLAD + + +The ring is on my hand, + And the wreath is on my brow; +Satins and jewels grand +Are all at my command, + And I am happy now. 5 + +And my lord he loves me well; + But, when first he breathed his vow, +I felt my bosom swell, +For the words rang as a knell, +And the voice seemed his who fell 10 +In the battle down the dell, + And who is happy now. + +But he spoke to reassure me, + And he kissed my pallid brow, +While a reverie came o'er me, 15 +And to the church-yard bore me, +And I sighed to him before me, +Thinking him dead D'Elormie, + "Oh, I am happy now!" + +And thus the words were spoken, 20 + And this the plighted vow; +And though my faith be broken, +And though my heart be broken, +Here is a ring, as token + That I am happy now! 25 + +Would God I could awaken! + For I dream I know not how, +And my soul is sorely shaken +Lest an evil step be taken, +Lest the dead who is forsaken 30 + May not be happy now. + + + +SILENCE + + +There are some qualities, some incorporate things, + That have a double life, which thus is made +A type of that twin entity which springs + From matter and light, evinced in solid and shade. +There is a twofold Silence--sea and shore, 5 + Body and soul. One dwells in lonely places, + Newly with grass o'ergrown; some solemn graces, +Some human memories and tearful lore, +Render him terrorless: his name's "No More." +He is the corporate Silence: dread him not: 10 + No power hath he of evil in himself; +But should some urgent fate (untimely lot!) + Bring thee to meet his shadow (nameless elf, +That haunteth the lone regions where hath trod +No foot of man), commend thyself to God! 15 + + + +THE CONQUEROR WORM + + +Lo! 't is a gala night + Within the lonesome latter years. +An angel throng, bewinged, bedight + In veils, and drowned in tears, +Sit in a theatre to see 5 + A play of hopes and fears, +While the orchestra breathes fitfully + The music of the spheres. + +Mimes, in the form of God on high, + Mutter and mumble low, 10 + +And hither and thither fly; + Mere puppets they, who come and go +At bidding of vast formless things + That shift the scenery to and fro, +Flapping from out their condor wings 15 + Invisible Woe. + +That motley drama--oh, be sure + It shall not be forgot! +With its Phantom chased for evermore + By a crowd that seize it not, 20 +Through a circle that ever returneth in + To the self-same spot; +And much of Madness, and more of Sin, + And Horror the soul of the plot. + +But see amid the mimic rout 25 + A crawling shape, intrude: +A blood-red thing that writhes from out + The scenic solitude! +It writhes--it writhes!--with mortal pangs + The mimes become its food, 30 +And seraphs sob at vermin fangs + In human gore imbued. + +Out--out are the lights--out all! + And over each quivering form +The curtain, a funeral pall, 35 + Comes down with the rush of a storm, +While the angels, all pallid and wan, + Uprising, unveiling, affirm +That the play is the tragedy, "Man," + And its hero, the Conqueror Worm. 40 + + + +DREAM-LAND + + +By a route obscure and lonely, +Haunted by ill angels only, +Where an Eidolon, named Night, +On a black throne reigns upright, +I have reached these lands but newly 5 +From an ultimate dim Thule: +From a wild weird clime that lieth, sublime, + Out of Space--out of Time. +Bottomless vales and boundless floods, +And chasms and caves and Titan woods, 10 +With forms that no man can discover +For the tears that drip all over; +Mountains toppling evermore +Into seas without a shore; +Seas that restlessly aspire, 15 +Surging, unto skies of fire; +Lakes that endlessly outspread +Their lone waters, lone and dead,-- +Their still waters, still and chilly +With the snows of the lolling lily. 20 + +By the lakes that thus outspread +Their lone waters, lone and dead,-- +Their sad waters, sad and chilly +With the snows of the lolling lily; +By the mountains--near the river 25 +Murmuring lowly, murmuring ever; +By the gray woods, by the swamp +Where the toad and the newt encamp; +By the dismal tarns and pools + Where dwell the Ghouls; 30 +By each spot the most unholy, +In each nook most melancholy,-- +There the traveller meets aghast +Sheeted Memories of the Past: +Shrouded forms that start and sigh 35 +As they pass the wanderer by, +White-robed forms of friends long given, +In agony, to the Earth--and Heaven. + +For the heart whose woes are legion +'T is a peaceful, soothing region; 40 +For the spirit that walks in shadow +'T is--oh, 't is an Eldorado! +But the traveller, travelling through it, +May not--dare not openly view it; +Never its mysteries are exposed 45 +To the weak human eye unclosed; +So wills its King, who hath forbid +The uplifting of the fringéd lid; +And thus the sad Soul that here passes +Beholds it but through darkened glasses. 50 +By a route obscure and lonely, +Haunted by ill angels only, +Where an Eidolon, named Night, +On a black throne reigns upright, +I have wandered home but newly 55 +From this ultimate dim Thule. + + + +THE RAVEN + + +Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, +Over many a quaint and curious volume of, forgotten lore,-- +While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, +As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. +"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door: 5 + Only this and nothing more." + +Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December, +And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. +Eagerly I wished the morrow;--vainly I had sought to borrow +From my books surcease of sorrow--sorrow for the lost Lenore, 10 +For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore: + Nameless here forevermore. + +And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain +Thrilled me--filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before; +So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating 15 +"'T is some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door, +Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door: + This it is and nothing more." + +Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer, +"Sir," said I, "or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore; 20 +But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping, +And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door, +That I scarce was sure I heard you"--here I opened wide the door:-- + Darkness there and nothing more. + +Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, 25 +Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before; +But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token, +And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore?" +This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore:" + Merely this and nothing more. 30 + +Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning, +Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before. +"Surely," said I, "surely that is something at my window lattice; +Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore; +Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore: 35 + 'T is the wind and nothing more." + +Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter, +In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore. +Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he; +But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door, 40 +Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door: + Perched, and sat, and nothing more. + +Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling +By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,-- +"Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven, 45 +Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore: +Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!" + Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore." + +Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly, +Though its answer little meaning--little relevancy bore; 50 +For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being +Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door, +Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door, + With such name as "Nevermore." + +But the Raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only 55 +That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour. +Nothing further then he uttered, not a feather then he fluttered, +Till I scarcely more than muttered,--"Other friends have flown before; +On the morrow _he_ will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before." + Then the bird said, "Nevermore." 60 + +Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken, +"Doubtless," said I, "what it utters is its only stock and store, +Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster +Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore +Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore 65 + Of 'Never--nevermore.'" + +But the Raven still beguiling all my fancy into smiling, +Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird and bust and door; +Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking +Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore, 70 +What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore + Meant in croaking "Nevermore." + +This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing +To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core; +This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining 75 +On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o'er, +But whose velvet violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o'er + _She_ shall press, ah, nevermore! + +Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer +Swung by seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor. 80 +"Wretch," I cried, "thy God hath lent thee--by these angels he hath sent thee +Respite--respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore! +Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!" + Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore." + +"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil! prophet still, if bird or devil! 85 +Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore, +Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted-- +On this home by Horror haunted--tell me truly, I implore: +Is there--_is_ there balm in Gilead?--tell me--tell me, I implore!" + Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore." 90 + +"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil--prophet still, if bird or devil! +By that Heaven that bends above us, by that God we both adore, +Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn, +It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore: +Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore." 95 + Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore." + +"Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!" I shrieked, upstarting: +"Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore! +Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken! +Leave my loneliness unbroken! quit the bust above my door! 100 +Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!" + Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore." + +And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting +On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door; +And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming, 105 +And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor: +And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor + Shall be lifted--nevermore. + + + +EULALIE + + +I dwelt alone +In a world of moan, +And my soul was a stagnant tide, +Till the fair and gentle Eulalie became my blushing bride, +Till the yellow-haired young Eulalie became my smiling bride. 5 + +Ah, less--less bright +The stars of the night +Than the eyes of the radiant girl! +And never a flake +That the vapor can make 10 +With the moon-tints of purple and pearl +Can vie with the modest Eulalie's most unregarded curl, +Can compare with the bright-eyed Eulalie's most humble and careless curl. + +Now doubt--now pain +Come never again, 15 +For her soul gives me sigh for sigh; +And all day long +Shines, bright and strong, +Astarte within the sky, +While ever to her dear Eulalie upturns her matron eye, 20 +While ever to her young Eulalie upturns her violet eye. + + + +TO M.L.S-- + + +Of all who hail thy presence as the morning; +Of all to whom thine absence is the night, +The blotting utterly from out high heaven +The sacred sun; of all who, weeping, bless thee +Hourly for hope, for life, ah! above all, 5 +For the resurrection of deep-buried faith +In truth, in virtue, in humanity; +Of all who, on despair's unhallowed bed +Lying down to die, have suddenly arisen +At thy soft-murmured words, "Let there be light!" 10 +At the soft-murmured words that were fulfilled +In the seraphic glancing of thine eyes; +Of all who owe thee most, whose gratitude +Nearest resembles worship, oh, remember +The truest, the most fervently devoted, 15 +And think that these weak lines are written by him: +By him, who, as he pens them, thrills to think +His spirit is communing with an angel's. + + + +ULALUME + + +The skies they were ashen and sober; + The leaves they were crispéd and sere, + The leaves they were withering and sere; +It was night in the lonesome October + Of my most immemorial year; 5 +It was hard by the dim lake of Auber, + In the misty mid region of Weir: +It was down by the dank tarn of Auber, + In the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir. + +Here once, through an alley Titanic 10 + Of cypress, I roamed with my Soul-- + Of cypress, with Psyche, my Soul. +These were days when my heart was volcanic + As the scoriac rivers that roll, + As the lavas that restlessly roll 15 +Their sulphurous currents down Yaanek + In the ultimate climes of the pole, +That groan as they roll down Mount Yaanek + In the realms of the boreal pole. + +Our talk had been serious and sober, 20 + But our thoughts they were palsied and sere, + Our memories were treacherous and sere, +For we knew not the month was October, + And we marked not the night of the year, + (Ah, night of all nights in the year!) 25 +We noted not the dim lake of Auber + (Though once we had journeyed down here), +Remembered not the dank tarn of Auber + Nor the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir. + +And now, as the night was senescent 30 + And star-dials pointed to morn, + As the star-dials hinted of morn, +At the end of our path a liquescent + And nebulous lustre was born, +Out of which a miraculous crescent 35 + Arose with a duplicate horn, +Astarte's bediamonded crescent + Distinct with its duplicate horn. + +And I said--"She is warmer than Dian: + She rolls through an ether of sighs, 40 + She revels in a region of sighs: +She has seen that the tears are not dry on + These cheeks, where the worm never dies, +And has come past the stars of the Lion + To point us the path to the skies, 45 + To the Lethean peace of the skies: +Come up, in despite of the Lion, + To shine on us with her bright eyes: +Come up through the lair of the Lion, + With love in her luminous eyes." 50 + +But Psyche, uplifting her finger, + Said--"Sadly this star I mistrust: + Her pallor I strangely mistrust: +Oh, hasten!--oh, let us not linger! + Oh, fly!--let us fly!--for we must." 55 +In terror she spoke, letting sink her + Wings until they trailed in the dust; +In agony sobbed, letting sink her + Plumes till they trailed in the dust, + Till they sorrowfully trailed in the dust. 60 + +I replied--"This is nothing but dreaming: + Let us on by this tremulous light! + Let us bathe in this crystalline light! +Its sibyllic splendor is beaming + With hope and in beauty to-night: 65 + See, it flickers up the sky through the night! +Ah, we safely may trust to its gleaming, + And be sure it will lead us aright: +We safely may trust to a gleaming + That cannot but guide us aright, 70 + Since it flickers up to Heaven through the night." + +Thus I pacified Psyche and kissed her, + And tempted her out of her gloom, + And conquered her scruples and gloom; +And we passed to the end of the vista, 75 + But were stopped by the door of a tomb, + By the door of a legended tomb; +And I said--"What is written, sweet sister, + On the door of this legended tomb?" + She replied--"Ulalume--Ulalume-- 80 + 'T is the vault of thy lost Ulalume!" + +Then my heart it grew ashen and sober + As the leaves that were crisped and sere, + As the leaves that were withering and sere, +And I cried--"It was surely October 85 + On this very night of last year + That I journeyed--I journeyed down here, + That I brought a dread burden down here: + On this night of all nights in the year, + Ah, what demon has tempted me here? 90 +Well I know, now, this dim lake of Auber, + This misty mid region of Weir: +Well I know, now, this dank tarn of Auber, + This ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir." + + + +TO ---- + + +Not long ago the writer of these lines, +In the mad pride of intellectuality, +Maintained "the power of words"--denied that ever +A thought arose within the human brain +Beyond the utterance of the human tongue: 5 +And now, as if in mockery of that boast, +Two words, two foreign soft dissyllables, +Italian tones, made only to be murmured +By angels dreaming in the moonlit "dew +That hangs like chains of pearl on Hermon hill," 10 +Have stirred from out the abysses of his heart +Unthought-like thoughts, that are the souls of thought,-- +Richer, far wilder, far diviner visions +Than even the seraph harper, Israfel +(Who has "the sweetest voice of all God's creatures"), 15 +Could hope to utter. And I--my spells are broken; +The pen falls powerless from my shivering hand; +With thy dear name as text, though hidden by thee, +I cannot write--I cannot speak or think-- +Alas, I cannot feel; for't is not feeling,-- 20 +This standing motionless upon the golden +Threshold of the wide-open gate of dreams, +Gazing entranced adown the gorgeous vista, +And thrilling as I see, upon the right, +Upon the left, and all the way along, 25 +Amid empurpled vapors, far away +To where the prospect terminates--thee only. + + + +AN ENIGMA + + +"Seldom we find," says Solomon Don Dunce, + "Half an idea in the profoundest sonnet. +Through all the flimsy things we see at once + As easily as through a Naples bonnet-- + Trash of all trash! how can a lady don it? 5 +Yet heavier far than your Petrarchan stuff, +Owl-downy nonsense that the faintest puff + Twirls into trunk-paper the while you con it." +And, veritably, Sol is right enough. +The general tuckermanities are arrant 10 +Bubbles, ephemeral and _so_ transparent; + But _this_ is, now, you may depend upon it, +Stable, opaque, immortal--all by dint +Of the dear names that lie concealed within 't. + + + +TO HELEN. + + +I saw thee once--once only--years ago: +I must not say how many--but not many. +It was a July midnight; and from out +A full-orbed moon, that, like thine own soul, soaring +Sought a precipitate pathway up through heaven, 5 +There fell a silvery-silken veil of light, +With quietude and sultriness and slumber, +Upon the upturned faces of a thousand +Roses that grew in an enchanted garden, +Where no wind dared to stir, unless on tiptoe: 10 +Fell on the upturned faces of these roses +That gave out, in return for the love-light, +Their odorous souls in an ecstatic death: +Fell on the upturned faces of these roses +That smiled and died in this parterre, enchanted 15 +By thee, and by the poetry of thy presence. + +Clad all in white, upon a violet bank +I saw thee half reclining; while the moon +Fell on the upturned faces of the roses, +And on thine own, upturned--alas, in sorrow! 20 + +Was it not Fate, that, on this July midnight-- +Was it not Fate (whose name is also Sorrow) +That bade me pause before that garden-gate +To breathe the incense of those slumbering roses? +No footsteps stirred: the hated world all slept, 25 +Save only thee and me--O Heaven! O God! +How my heart beats in coupling those two words!-- +Save only thee and me. I paused, I looked, +And in an instant all things disappeared. +(Ah, bear in mind this garden was enchanted!) 30 +The pearly lustre of the moon went out: + +The mossy banks and the meandering paths, +The happy flowers and the repining trees, +Were seen no more: the very roses' odors +Died in the arms of the adoring airs. 35 +All, all expired save thee--save less than thou: +Save only the divine light in thine eyes, +Save but the soul in thine uplifted eyes: +I saw but them--they were the world to me: +I saw but them, saw only them for hours, 40 +Saw only them until the moon went down. +What wild heart-histories seem to lie enwritten +Upon those crystalline, celestial spheres; +How dark a woe, yet how sublime a hope; +How silently serene a sea of pride; 45 +How daring an ambition; yet how deep, +How fathomless a capacity for love! + +But now, at length, dear Dian sank from sight, +Into a western couch of thunder-cloud; +And thou, a ghost, amid the entombing trees 50 +Didst glide away. Only thine eyes remained: +They would not go--they never yet have gone; +Lighting my lonely pathway home that night, +They have not left me (as my hopes have) since; +They follow me--they lead me through the years; 55 +They are my ministers--yet I their slave; +Their office is to illumine and enkindle-- +My duty, to be saved by their bright light, +And purified in their electric fire, +And sanctified in their elysian fire, 60 +They fill my soul with beauty (which is hope), +And are, far up in heaven, the stars I kneel to +In the sad, silent watches of my night; +While even in the meridian glare of day +I see them still--two sweetly scintillant 65 +Venuses, unextinguished by the sun. + + + +A VALENTINE + + +For her this rhyme is penned, whose luminous eyes, + Brightly expressive as the twins of Leda, +Shall find her own sweet name, that nestling lies + Upon the page, enwrapped from every reader. +Search narrowly the lines! they hold a treasure 5 + Divine, a talisman, an amulet +That must be worn at heart. Search well the measure-- + The word--the syllables. Do not forget +The trivialest point, or you may lose your labor: + And yet there is in this no Gordian knot 10 +Which one might not undo without a sabre, + If one could merely comprehend the plot. +Enwritten upon the leaf where now are peering + Eyes scintillating soul, there lie _perdus_ +Three eloquent words oft uttered in the hearing 15 + Of poets, by poets--as the name is a poet's, too. +Its letters, although naturally lying + Like the knight Pinto, Mendez Ferdinando, +Still form a synonym for Truth.--Cease trying! + You will not read the riddle, though you do the best you can do. 20 + + + +FOR ANNIE + + +Thank Heaven! the crisis, + The danger, is past, +And the lingering illness + Is over at last, +And the fever called "Living" 5 + Is conquered at last. + +Sadly I know + I am shorn of my strength, +And no muscle I move + As I lie at full length: 10 +But no matter!--I feel + I am better at length. + +And I rest so composedly + Now, in my bed, +That any beholder 15 + Might fancy me dead, +Might start at beholding me, + Thinking me dead. + +The moaning and groaning, + The sighing and sobbing, 20 +Are quieted now, + With that horrible throbbing +At heart:--ah, that horrible, + Horrible throbbing! + +The sickness, the nausea, 25 + The pitiless pain, +Have ceased, with the fever + That maddened my brain, +With the fever called "Living" + That burned in my brain. 30 + +And oh! of all tortures, + That torture the worst +Has abated--the terrible + Torture of thirst +For the naphthaline river 35 + Of Passion accurst: +I have drank of a water + That quenches all thirst: + +Of a water that flows, + With a lullaby sound, 40 +From a spring but a very few + Feet under ground, +From a cavern not very far + Down under ground. + +And ah! let it never 45 + Be foolishly said +That my room it is gloomy, + And narrow my bed; +For man never slept + In a different bed: 50 +And, _to sleep_, you must slumber + In just such a bed. + +My tantalized spirit + Here blandly reposes, +Forgetting, or never 55 + Regretting, its roses: +Its old agitations + Of myrtles and roses; + +For now, while so quietly + Lying, it fancies 60 +A holier odor + About it, of pansies: +A rosemary odor, + Commingled with pansies, +With rue and the beautiful 65 + Puritan pansies. + +And so it lies happily, + Bathing in many +A dream of the truth + And the beauty of Annie, 70 +Drowned in a bath + Of the tresses of Annie. + +She tenderly kissed me, + She fondly caressed, +And then I fell gently 75 + To sleep on her breast, +Deeply to sleep + From the heaven of her breast. + +When the light was extinguished, + She covered me warm, 80 +And she prayed to the angels + To keep me from harm, +To the queen of the angels + To shield me from harm. + +And I lie so composedly 85 + Now, in my bed, +(Knowing her love) + That you fancy me dead; +And I rest so contentedly + Now, in my bed, 90 +(With her love at my breast) + That you fancy me dead, +That you shudder to look at me, + Thinking me dead. + +But my heart it is brighter 95 + Than all of the many +Stars in the sky, + For it sparkles with Annie: +It glows with the light + Of the love of my Annie, 100 +With the thought of the light + Of the eyes of my Annie. + + + +THE BELLS + + +I + +Hear the sledges with the bells, +Silver bells! +What a world of merriment their melody foretells! +How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, +In the icy air of night! 5 +While the stars, that oversprinkle +All the heavens, seem to twinkle +With a crystalline deligit; +Keeping time, time, time, +In a sort of Runic rhyme, 10 +To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells +From the bells, bells, bells, bells, +Bells, bells, bells-- +From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells. + + +II + +Hear the mellow wedding bells, 15 +Golden bells! +What a world of happiness their harmony foretells! +Through the balmy air of night +How they ring out their delight! +From the molten-golden notes, 20 +And all in tune, +What a liquid ditty floats +To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats +On the moon! +Oh, from out the sounding cells, 25 +What a gush of euphony voluminously wells! +How it swells! +How it dwells +On the Future! how it tells +Of the rapture that impels 30 +To the swinging and the ringing +Of the bells, bells, bells, +Of the bells, bells, bells, bells, +Bells, bells, bells-- +To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells! 35 + + +III + +Hear the loud alarum bells, +Brazen bells! +What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells! +In the startled ear of night +How they scream out their affright! 40 +Too much horrified to speak, +They can only shriek, shriek, +Out of tune, +In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire, +In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire, 45 +Leaping higher, higher, higher, +With a desperate desire, +And a resolute endeavor +Now--now to sit or never, +By the side of the pale-faced moon. 50 +Oh, the bells, bells, bells! +What a tale their terror tells +Of Despair! +How they clang, and clash, and roar! +What a horror they outpour 55 +On the bosom of the palpitating air! +Yet the ear it fully knows, +By the twanging +And the clanging, +How the danger ebbs and flows; 60 +Yet the ear distinctly tells, +In the jangling +And the wrangling, +How the danger sinks and swells,-- +By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells, 65 +Of the bells, +Of the bells, bells, bells, bells, +Bells, bells, bells-- +In the clamor and the clangor of the bells! + + +IV + + +Hear the tolling of the bells, 70 +Iron bells! +What a world of solemn thought their monody compels! +In the silence of the night +How we shiver with affright +At the melancholy menace of their tone! 75 +For every sound that floats +From the rust within their throats +Is a groan. +And the people--ah, the people, +They that dwell up in the steeple, 80 +All alone, +And who tolling, tolling, tolling +In that muffled monotone, +Feel a glory in so rolling +On the human heart a stone-- 85 +They are neither man nor woman, +They are neither brute nor human, +They are Ghouls: +And their king it is who tolls; +And he rolls, rolls, rolls, 90 +Rolls +A pæan from the bells; +And his merry bosom swells +With the pæan of the bells, +And he dances, and he yells: 95 +Keeping time, time, time, +In a sort of Runic rhyme, +To the pæan of the bells, +Of the bells: +Keeping time, time, time, 100 +In a sort of Runic rhyme, + To the throbbing of the bells, +Of the bells, bells, bells-- + To the sobbing of the bells; +Keeping time, time, time, 105 + As he knells, knells, knells, +In a happy Runic rhyme, + To the rolling of the bells, +Of the bells, bells, bells: + To the tolling of the bells, 110 +Of the bells, bells, bells, bells, + Bells, bells, bells-- +To the moaning and the groaning of the bells. + + + +ANNABEL LEE + + +It was many and many a year ago, + In a kingdom by the sea, +That a maiden there lived whom you may know + By the name of Annabel Lee; +And this maiden she lived with no other thought 5 + Than to love and be loved by me. + +I was a child and she was a child, + In this kingdom by the sea, +But we loved with a love that was more than love, + I and my Annabel Lee; 10 +With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven + Coveted her and me. + +And this was the reason that, long ago, + In this kingdom by the sea, +A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling 15 + My beautiful Annabel Lee; +So that her highborn kinsmen came + And bore her away from me, +To shut her up in a sepulchre + In this kingdom by the sea. 20 + +The angels, not half so happy in heaven, + Went envying her and me; +Yes! that was the reason (as all men know, + In this kingdom by the sea) +That the wind came out of the cloud by night, 25 + Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee. + +But our love it was stronger by far than the love + Of those who were older than we, + Of many far wiser than we; +And neither the angels in heaven above, 30 + Nor the demons down under the sea, +Can ever dissever my soul from the soul + Of the beautiful Annabel Lee: + +For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams + Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; 35 +And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes + Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; +And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side +Of my darling--my darling--my life and my bride, + In her sepulchre there by the sea, 40 + In her tomb by the sounding sea. + + + +TO MY MOTHER + + +Because I feel that, in the Heavens above, + The angels, whispering to one another, +Can find among their burning terms of love-- + None so devotional as that of "Mother," +Therefore by that dear name I long have called you-- 5 + You who are more than mother unto me, +And fill my heart of hearts where Death installed you + In setting my Virginia's spirit free. +My mother, my own mother, who died early, + Was but the mother of myself; but you 10 +Are mother to the one I loved so dearly, + And thus are dearer than the mother I knew +By that infinity with which my wife +Was dearer to my soul than its soul-life. + + + +ELDORADO + + +Gayly bedight, +A gallant knight, +In sunshine and in shadow, +Had journeyed long, +Singing a song, 5 +In search of Eldorado. + +But he grew old, +This knight so bold, +And o'er his heart a shadow +Fell as he found 10 +No spot of ground +That looked like Eldorado. + +And, as his strength +Failed him at length, +He met a pilgrim shadow: 15 +"Shadow," said he, +"Where can it be, +This land of Eldorado?" + +"Over the Mountains +Of the Moon, 20 +Down the Valley of the Shadow, +Ride, boldly ride," +The shade replied, +"If you seek for Eldorado!" + + + + +TALES + + + +THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER + + Son coeur est un luth suspendu; + Sitôt qu'on le touche il résonne. + Béranger + + +During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of +the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had +been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of +country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew +on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher. I know not how it +was--but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of +insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable; for the +feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable, because +poetic, sentiment with which the mind usually receives even the +sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible. I looked upon +the scene before me--upon the mere house, and the simple landscape +features of the domain, upon the bleak walls, upon the vacant eye-like +windows, upon a few rank sedges, and upon a few white trunks of +decayed trees--with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to +no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the +reveller upon opium: the bitter lapse into everyday life, the hideous +dropping off of the veil. There was an iciness, a sinking, a +sickening of the heart, an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no +goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the +sublime. What was it--I paused to think--what was it that so unnerved +me in the contemplation of the House of Usher? It was a mystery all +insoluble; nor could I grapple with the shadowy fancies that crowded +upon me as I pondered. I was forced to fall back upon the +unsatisfactory conclusion, that while, beyond doubt, there _are_ +combinations of very simple natural objects which have the power of +thus affecting us, still the analysis of this power lies among +considerations beyond our depth. It was possible, I reflected, that a +mere different arrangement of the particulars of the scene, of the +details of the picture, would be sufficient to modify, or perhaps to +annihilate, its capacity for sorrowful impression; and acting upon +this idea, I reined my horse to the precipitous brink of a black and +lurid tarn that lay in unruffled lustre by the dwelling, and gazed +down--but with a shudder even more thrilling than before--upon the +remodelled and inverted images of the gray sedge, and the ghastly +tree-stems, and the vacant and eye-like windows. + +Nevertheless, in this mansion of gloom I now proposed to myself a +sojourn of some weeks. Its proprietor, Roderick Usher, had been one of +my boon companions in boyhood; but many years had elapsed since our +last meeting. A letter, however, had lately reached me in a distant +part of the country--a letter from him--which in its wildly +inportunate nature had admitted of no other than a personal reply. +The MS. gave evidence of nervous agitation. The writer spoke of acute +bodily illness, of a mental disorder which oppressed him, and of an +earnest desire to see me, as his best and indeed his only personal +friend, with a view of attempting, by the cheerfulness of my society, +some alleviation of his malady. It was the manner in which all this, +and much more, was said--it was the apparent _heart_ that went +with his request--which allowed me no room for hesitation; and I +accordingly obeyed forthwith what I still considered a very singular +summons. + +Although as boys we had been even intimate associates, yet I really +knew little of my friend. His reserve had been always excessive and +habitual. I was aware, however, that his very ancient family had been +noted, time out of mind, for a peculiar sensibility of temperament, +displaying itself, through long ages, in many works of exalted art, +and manifested of late in repeated deeds of munificent yet unobtrusive +charity, as well as in a passionate devotion to the intricacies, +perhaps even more than to the orthodox and easily recognizable +beauties, of musical science. I had learned, too, the very remarkable +fact that the stem of the Usher race, all time-honored as it was, had +put forth at no period any enduring branch; in other words, that the +entire family lay in the direct line of descent, and had always, with +very trifling and very temporary variation, so lain. It was this +deficiency, I considered, while running over in thought the perfect +keeping of the character of the premises with the accredited character +of the people, and while speculating upon the possible influence which +the one, in the long lapse of centuries, might have exercised upon the +other--it was this deficiency, perhaps, of collateral issue, and the +consequent undeviating transmission from sire to son of the patrimony +with the name, which had, at length, so identified the two as to merge +the original title of the estate in the quaint and equivocal +appellation of the "House of Usher"--an appellation which seemed to +include, in the minds of the peasantry who used it, both the family +and the family mansion. + +I have said that the sole effect of my somewhat childish experiment, +that of looking down within the tarn, had been to deepen the first +singular impression. There can be no doubt that the consciousness of +the rapid increase of my superstition--for why should I not so term +it?--served mainly to accelerate the increase itself. Such, I have +long known, is the paradoxical law of all sentiments having terror as +a basis. And it might have been for this reason only, that, when I +again uplifted my eyes to the house itself, from its image in the +pool, there grew in my mind a strange fancy--a fancy so ridiculous, +indeed, that I but mention it to show the vivid force of the +sensations which oppressed me. I had so worked upon my imagination as +really to believe that about the whole mansion and domain there hung +an atmosphere peculiar to themselves and their immediate vicinity: an +atmosphere which had no affinity with the air of heaven, but which had +reeked up from the decayed trees, and the gray wall, and the silent +tarn: a pestilent and mystic vapor, dull, sluggish, faintly +discernible, and leaden-hued. + +Shaking off from my spirit what _must_ have been a dream, I +scanned more narrowly the real aspect of the building. Its principal +feature seemed to be that of an excessive antiquity. The +discoloration of ages had been great. Minute fungi overspread the +whole exterior, hanging in a fine tangled web-work from the eaves. Yet +all this was apart from any extraordinary dilapidation. No portion of +the masonry had fallen; and there appeared to be a wild inconsistency +between its still perfect adaptation of parts and the crumbling +condition of the individual stones. In this there was much that +reminded one of the specious totality of old wood-work which has +rotted for long years in some neglected vault, with no disturbance +from the breath of the external air. Beyond this indication of +extensive decay, however, the fabric gave little token of +instability. Perhaps the eye of a scrutinizing observer might have +discovered a barely perceptible fissure, which, extending from the +roof of the building in front, made its way down the wall in a zigzag +direction, until it became lost in the sullen waters of the tarn. + +Noticing these things, I rode over a short causeway to the house. A +servant in waiting took my horse, and I entered the Gothic archway of +the hall. A valet, of stealthy step, thence conducted me, in silence, +through many dark and intricate passages in my progress to the studio +of his master. Much that I encountered on the way contributed, I know +not how, to heighten the vague sentiments of which I have already +spoken. While the objects around me--while the carvings of the +ceilings, the sombre tapestries of the walls, the ebon blackness of +the floors, and the phantasmagoric armorial trophies which rattled as +I strode, were but matters to which, or to such as which, I had been +accustomed from my infancy--while I hesitated not to acknowledge how +familiar was all this--I still wondered to find how unfamiliar were +the fancies which ordinary images were stirring up. On one of the +staircases, I met the physician of the family. His countenance, I +thought, wore a mingled expression of low cunning and perplexity. He +accosted me with trepidation and passed on. The valet now threw open +a door and ushered me into the presence of his master. + +The room in which I found myself was very large and lofty. The +windows were long, narrow, and pointed, and at so vast a distance from +the black oaken floor as to be altogether inaccessible from +within. Feeble gleams of encrimsoned light made their way through the +trellised panes, and served to render sufficiently distinct the more +prominent objects around; the eye, however, struggled in vain to reach +the remoter angles of the chamber, or the recesses of the vaulted and +fretted ceiling. Dark draperies hung upon the walls. The general +furniture was profuse, comfortless, antique, and tattered. Many books +and musical instruments lay scattered about, but failed to give any +vitality to the scene. I felt that I breathed an atmosphere of +sorrow. An air of stern, deep, and irredeemable gloom hung over and +pervaded all. + +Upon my entrance, Usher arose from a sofa on which he had been lying +at full length, and greeted me with a vivacious warmth which had much +in it, I at first thought, of an overdone cordiality--of the +constrained effort of the _ennuyé_ man of the world. A glance, +however, at his countenance, convinced me of his perfect sincerity. We +sat down; and for some moments, while he spoke not, I gazed upon him +with a feeling half of pity, half of awe. Surely man had never before +so terribly altered, in so brief a period, as had Roderick Usher! It +was with difficulty that I could bring myself to admit the identity of +the wan being before me with the companion of my early boyhood. Yet +the character of his face had been at all times remarkable. A +cadaverousness of complexion; an eye large, liquid, and luminous +beyond comparison; lips somewhat thin and very pallid, but of a +surpassingly beautiful curve; a nose of a delicate Hebrew model, but +with a breadth of nostril unusual in similar formations; a finely +moulded chin, speaking, in its want of prominence, of a want of moral +energy; hair of a more than web-like softness and tenuity; these +features, with an inordinate expansion above the regions of the +temple, made up altogether a countenance not easily to be forgotten. + +And now in the mere exaggeration of the prevailing character of these +features, and of the expression they were wont to convey, lay so much +of change that I doubted to whom I spoke. The now ghastly pallor of +the skin, and the now miraculous lustre of the eye, above all things +startled and even awed me. The silken hair, too, had been suffered to +grow all unheeded, and as, in its wild gossamer texture, it floated +rather than fell about the face, I could not, even with effort, +connect its arabesque expression with any idea of simple humanity. + +In the manner of my friend I was at once struck with an incoherence, +an inconsistency; and I soon found this to arise from a series of +feeble and futile struggles to overcome an habitual trepidancy, an +excessive nervous agitation. For something of this nature I had indeed +been prepared, no less by his letter than by reminiscences of certain +boyish traits, and by conclusions deduced from his peculiar physical +conformation and temperament. His action was alternately vivacious and +sullen. His voice varied rapidly from a tremulous indecision (when the +animal spirits seemed utterly in abeyance) to that species of +energetic concision--that abrupt, weighty, unhurried, and +hollow-sounding enunciation--that leaden, self-balanced and perfectly +modulated guttural utterance--which may be observed in the lost +drunkard, or the irreclaimable eater of opium, during the periods of +his most intense excitement. + +It was thus that he spoke of the object of my visit, of his earnest +desire to see me, and of the solace he expected me to afford him. He +entered, at some length, into what he conceived to be the nature of +his malady. It was, he said, a constitutional and a family evil, and +one for which he despaired to find a remedy--a mere nervous affection, +he immediately added, which would undoubtedly soon pass off. It +displayed itself in a host of unnatural sensations. Some of these, as +he detailed them, interested and bewildered me; although, perhaps, the +terms and the general manner of the narration had their weight. He +suffered much from a morbid acuteness of the senses; the most insipid +food was alone endurable; he could wear only garments of certain +texture; the odors of all flowers were oppressive; his eyes were +tortured by even a faint light; and there were but peculiar sounds, +and these from stringed instruments, which did not inspire him with +horror. + +To an anomalous species of terror I found him a bounden slave. "I +shall perish," said he, "I _must_ perish in this deplorable +folly. Thus, thus, and not otherwise, shall I be lost. I dread the +events of the future, not in themselves, but in their results. I +shudder at the thought of any, even the most trivial, incident, which +may operate upon this intolerable agitation of soul. I have, indeed, +no abhorrence of danger, except in its absolute effect--in terror. In +this unnerved--in this pitiable condition, I feel that the period will +sooner or later arrive when I must abandon life and reason together, +in some struggle with the grim phantasm, FEAR." + +I learned moreover at intervals, and through broken and equivocal +hints, another singular feature of his mental condition. He was +enchained by certain superstitious impressions in regard to the +dwelling which he tenanted, and whence, for many years, he had never +ventured forth--in regard to an influence whose supposititious force +was conveyed in terms too shadowy here to be re-stated--an influence +which some peculiarities in the mere form and substance of his family +mansion, had, by dint of long sufferance, he said, obtained over his +spirit--an effect which the physique of the gray walls and turrets, +and of the dim tarn into which they all looked down, had, at length, +brought about upon the morale of his existence. + +He admitted, however, although with hesitation, that much of the +peculiar gloom which thus afflicted him could be traced to a more +natural and far more palpable origin--to the severe and long-continued +illness, indeed to the evidently approaching dissolution, of a +tenderly beloved sister--his sole companion for long years, his last +and only relative on earth. "Her decease," he said, with a bitterness +which I can never forget, "would leave him (him the hopeless and the +frail) the last of the ancient race of the Ushers." While he spoke, +the lady Madeline (for so was she called) passed slowly through a +remote portion of the apartment, and, without having noticed my +presence, disappeared. I regarded her with an utter astonishment not +unmingled with dread, and yet I found it impossible to account for +such feelings. A sensation of stupor oppressed me, as my eyes followed +her retreating steps. When a door, at length, closed upon her, my +glance sought instinctively and eagerly the countenance of the +brother; but he had buried his face in his hands, and I could only +perceive that a far more than ordinary wanness had overspread the +emaciated fingers through which trickled many passionate tears. + +The disease of the lady Madeline had long baffled the skill of her +physicians. A settled apathy, a gradual wasting away of the person, +and frequent although transient affections of a partially cataleptical +character, were the unusual diagnosis. Hitherto she had steadily +borne up against the pressure of her malady, and had not betaken +herself finally to bed; but, on the closing in of the evening of my +arrival at the house, she succumbed (as her brother told me at night +with inexpressible agitation) to the prostrating power of the +destroyer; and I learned that the glimpse I had obtained of her person +would thus probably be the last I should obtain--that the lady, at +least while living, would be seen by me no more. + +For several days ensuing, her name was unmentioned by either Usher or +myself; and during this period I was busied in earnest endeavors to +alleviate the melancholy of my friend. We painted and read together; +or I listened, as if in a dream, to the wild improvisations of his +speaking guitar. And thus, as a closer and still closer intimacy +admitted me more unreservedly into the recesses of his spirit, the +more bitterly did I perceive the futility of all attempt at cheering a +mind from which darkness, as if an inherent positive quality, poured +forth upon all objects of the moral and physical universe, in one +unceasing radiation of gloom. + +I shall ever bear about me a memory of the many solemn hours I thus +spent alone with the master of the House of Usher. Yet I should fail +in any attempt to convey an idea of the exact character of the +studies, or of the occupations, in which he involved me, or led me the +way. An excited and highly distempered ideality threw a sulphureous +lustre over all. His long improvised dirges will ring forever in my +ears. Among other things, I hold painfully in mind a certain singular +perversion and amplification of the wild air of the last waltz of Von +Weber. From the paintings over which his elaborate fancy brooded, and +which grew, touch by touch, into vaguenesses at which I shuddered the +more thrillingly because I shuddered knowing not why;--from these +paintings (vivid as their images now are before me) I would in vain +endeavor to educe more than a small portion which should lie within +the compass of merely written words. By the utter simplicity, by the +nakedness of his designs, he arrested and overawed attention. If ever +mortal painted an idea, that mortal was Roderick Usher. For me at +least, in the circumstances then surrounding me, there arose, out of +the pure abstractions which the hypochondriac contrived to throw upon +his canvas, an intensity of intolerable awe, no shadow of which felt I +ever yet in the contemplation of the certainly glowing yet too +concrete reveries of Fuseli. + +One of the phantasmagoric conceptions of my friend, partaking not so +rigidly of the spirit of abstraction, may be shadowed forth, although +feebly, in words. A small picture presented the interior of an +immensely long and rectangular vault or tunnel, with low walls, +smooth, white, and without interruption or device. Certain accessory +points of the design served well to convey the idea that this +excavation lay at an exceeding depth below the surface of the +earth. No outlet was observed in any portion of its vast extent, and +no torch or other artificial source of light was discernible; yet a +flood of intense rays rolled throughout, and bathed the whole in a +ghastly and inappropriate splendor. + +I have just spoken of that morbid condition of the auditory nerve +which rendered all music intolerable to the sufferer, with the +exception of certain effects of stringed instruments. It was, perhaps, +the narrow limits to which he thus confined himself upon the guitar, +which gave birth, in great measure, to the fantastic character of his +performances. But the fervid _facility_ of his impromptus could +not be so accounted for. They must have been, and were, in the notes, +as well as in the words of his wild fantasias (for he not unfrequently +accompanied himself with rhymed verbal improvisations), the result of +that intense mental collectedness and concentration to which I have +previously alluded as observable only in particular moments of the +highest artificial excitement. The words of one of these rhapsodies I +have easily remembered. I was, perhaps, the more forcibly impressed +with it, as he gave it, because, in the under or mystic current of its +meaning, I fancied that I perceived, and for the first time, a full +consciousness, on the part of Usher, of the tottering of his lofty +reason upon her throne. The verses, which were entitled "The Haunted +Palace," ran very nearly, if not accurately, thus:-- + + +I + +In the greenest of our valleys + By good angels tenanted, +Once a fair and stately palace-- + Radiant palace--reared its head. +In the monarch Thought's dominion, + It stood there; +Never seraph spread a pinion + Over fabric half so fair. + +II + +Banners yellow, glorious, golden, + On its roof did float and flow, +(This--all this--was in the olden + Time long ago) +And every gentle air that dallied, + In that sweet day, +Along the ramparts plumed and pallid, + A wingéd odor went away. + +III + +Wanderers in that happy valley + Through two luminous windows saw +Spirits moving musically + To a lute's well-tunéd law, +Round about a throne where, sitting, + Porphyrogene, +In state his glory well befitting, + The ruler of the realm was seen. + +IV + +And all with pearl and ruby glowing + Was the fair palace door, +Through which came flowing, flowing, flowing, + And sparkling evermore, +A troop of Echoes whose sweet duty + Was but to sing, +In voices of surpassing beauty, + The wit and wisdom of their king. + +V + +But evil things, in robes of sorrow, + Assailed the monarch's high estate; +(Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow + Shall dawn upon him, desolate!) +And round about his home the glory + That blushed and bloomed +Is but a dim-remembered story + Of the old time entombed. + +VI + +And travellers now within that valley + Through the red-litten windows see +Vast forms that move fantastically + To a discordant melody; +While, like a ghastly rapid river, + Through the pale door +A hideous throng rush out forever, + And laugh--but smile no more. + + +I well remember that suggestions arising from this ballad led us into +a train of thought, wherein there became manifest an opinion of +Usher's which I mention not so much on account of its novelty, (for +other men[1] haye thought thus,) as on account of the pertinacity with +which he maintained it. This opinion, in its general form, was that of +the sentience of all vegetable things. But in his disordered fancy the +idea had assumed a more daring character, and trespassed, under +certain conditions, upon the kingdom of inorganization. I lack words +to express the full extent, or the earnest _abandon_ of his +persuasion. The belief, however, was connected (as I have previously +hinted) with the gray stones of the home of his fore-fathers. The +conditions of the sentience had been here, he imagined, fulfilled in +the method of collocation of these stones--in the order of their +arrangement, as well as in that of the many fungi which overspread +them, and of the decayed trees which stood around--above all, in the +long undisturbed endurance of this arrangement, and in its +reduplication in the still waters of the tarn. Its evidence--the +evidence of the sentience--was to be seen, he said (and I here started +as he spoke), in the gradual yet certain condensation of an atmosphere +of their own about the waters and the walls. The result was +discoverable, he added, in that silent, yet importunate and terrible +influence which for centuries had moulded the destinies of his family, +and which made _him_ what I now saw him--what he was. Such +opinions need no comment, and I will make none. + +[Footnote 1: Watson, Dr. Percival, Spallanzani, and especially the +Bishop of Landaff.--See "Chemical Essays," Vol. V.] + +Our books--the books which, for years, had formed no small portion of +the mental existence of the invalid--were, as might be supposed, in +strict keeping with this character of phantasm. We pored together over +such works as the Ververt and Chartreuse of Gresset; the Belphegor of +Machiavelli; the Heaven and Hell of Swedenborg; the Subterranean +Voyage of Nicholas Klimm by Holberg; the Chiromancy of Robert Flud, of +Jean D'Indaginé, and of De la Chambre; the Journey into the Blue +Distance of Tieck; and the City of the Sun of Campanella. One favorite +volume was a small octavo edition of the _Directorium +Inquisitorum_, by the Dominican Eymeric de Gironne; and there were +passages in Pomponius Mela, about the old African Satyrs and Ægipans, +over which Usher would sit dreaming for hours. His chief delight, +however, was found in the perusal of an exceedingly rare and curious +book in quarto Gothic--the manual of a forgotten church--the +_Vigilice Mortuorum secundum Chorum Ecclesiæ Maguntinæ_. + +I could not help thinking of the wild ritual of this work, and of its +probable influence upon the hypochondriac, when one evening, having +informed me abruptly that the lady Madeline was no more, he stated his +intention of preserving her corpse for a fortnight, (previously to its +final interment,) in one of the numerous vaults within the main walls +of the building. The worldly reason, however, assigned for this +singular proceeding, was one which I did not feel at liberty to +dispute. The brother had been led to his resolution (so he told me) +by consideration of the unusual character of the malady of the +deceased, of certain obtrusive and eager inquiries on the part of her +medical men, and of the remote and exposed situation of the +burial-ground of the family. I will not deny that when I called to +mind the sinister countenance of the person whom I met upon the +staircase, on the day of my arrival at the house, I had no desire to +oppose what I regarded as at best but a harmless, and by no means an +unnatural, precaution. + +At the request of Usher, I personally aided him in the arrangements +for the temporary entombment. The body having been encoffined, we two +alone bore it to its rest. The vault in which we placed it (and which +had been so long unopened that our torches, half smothered in its +oppressive atmosphere, gave us little opportunity for investigation) +was small, damp, and entirely without means of admission for light; +lying, at great depth, immediately beneath that portion of the +building in which was my own sleeping apartment. It had been used, +apparently, in remote feudal times, for the worst purposes of a +donjon-keep, and in later days as a place of deposit for powder, or +some other highly combustible substance, as a portion of its floor, +and the whole interior of a long archway through which we reached it, +were carefully sheathed with copper. The door, of massive iron, had +been, also, similarly protected. Its immense weight caused an +unusually sharp grating sound, as it moved upon its hinges. + +Having deposited our mournful burden upon tressels within this region +of horror, we partially turned aside the yet unscrewed lid of the +coffin, and looked upon the face of the tenant. A striking similitude +between the brother and sister now first arrested my attention; and +Usher, divining, perhaps, my thoughts, murmured out some few words +from which I learned that the deceased and himself had been twins, and +that sympathies of a scarcely intelligible nature had always existed +between them. Our glances, however, rested not long upon the dead--for +we could not regard her unawed. The disease which had thus entombed +the lady in the maturity of youth, had left, as usual in all maladies +of a strictly cataleptical character, the mockery of a faint blush +upon the bosom and the face, and that suspiciously lingering smile +upon the lip which is so terrible in death. We replaced and screwed +down the lid, and, having secured the door of iron, made our way, with +toil, into the scarcely less gloomy apartments of the upper portion of +the house. + +And now, some days of bitter grief having elapsed, an observable +change came over the features of the mental disorder of my friend. His +ordinary manner had vanished. His ordinary occupations were neglected +or forgotten. He roamed from chamber to chamber with hurried, unequal, +and objectless step. The pallor of his countenance had assumed, if +possible, a more ghastly hue--but the luminousness of his eye had +utterly gone out. The once occasional huskiness of his tone was heard +no more; and a tremulous quaver, as if of extreme terror, habitually +characterized his utterance. There were times, indeed, when I thought +his unceasingly agitated mind was laboring with some oppressive +secret, to divulge which he struggled for the necessary courage. At +times, again, I was obliged to resolve all into the mere inexplicable +vagaries of madness, for I beheld him gazing upon vacancy for long +hours, in an attitude of the profoundest attention, as if listening to +some imaginary sound. It was no wonder that his condition +terrified--that it infected me. I felt creeping upon me, by slow yet +certain degrees, the wild influences of his own fantastic yet +impressive superstitions. + +It was, especially, upon retiring to bed late in the night of the +seventh or eighth day after the placing of the lady Madeline within +the donjon, that I experienced the full power of such feelings. Sleep +came not near my couch, while the hours waned and waned away. I +struggled to reason off the nervousness which had dominion over me. I +endeavored to believe that much, if not all, of what I felt was due to +the bewildering influence of the gloomy furniture of the room--of the +dark and tattered draperies which, tortured into motion by the breath +of a rising tempest, swayed fitfully to and fro upon the walls, and +rustled uneasily about the decorations of the bed. But my efforts were +fruitless. An irrepressible tremor gradually pervaded my frame; and at +length there sat upon my very heart an incubus of utterly causeless +alarm. Shaking this off with a gasp and a struggle, I uplifted myself +upon the pillows, and, peering earnestly within the intense darkness +of the chamber, hearkened--I know not why, except that an instinctive +spirit prompted me--to certain low and indefinite sounds which came, +through the pauses of the storm, at long intervals, I knew not +whence. Overpowered by an intense sentiment of horror, unaccountable +yet unendurable, I threw on my clothes with haste, (for I felt that I +should sleep no more during the night,) and endeavored to arouse +myself from the pitiable condition into which I had fallen, by pacing +rapidly to and fro through the apartment. + +I had taken but few turns in this manner, when a light step on an +adjoining staircase arrested my attention. I presently recognized it +as that of Usher. In an instant afterward he rapped with a gentle +touch at my door, and entered, bearing a lamp. His countenance was, as +usual, cadaverously wan--but, moreover, there was a species of mad +hilarity in his eyes--an evidently restrained hysteria in his whole +demeanor. His air appalled me--but anything was preferable to the +solitude which I had so long endured, and I even welcomed his presence +as a relief. + +"And you have not seen it?" he said abruptly, after having stared +about him for some moments in silence--"you have not then seen +it?--but, stay! you shall." Thus speaking, and having carefully shaded +his lamp, he hurried to one of the casements, and threw it freely open +to the storm. + +The impetuous fury of the entering gust nearly lifted us from our +feet. It was, indeed, a tempestuous yet sternly beautiful night, and +one wildly singular in its terror and its beauty. A whirlwind had +apparently collected its force in our vicinity; for there were +frequent and violent alterations in the direction of the wind; and the +exceeding density of the clouds (which hung so low as to press upon +the turrets of the house) did not prevent our perceiving the life-like +velocity with which they flew careering from all points against each +other, without passing away into the distance. I say that even their +exceeding density did not prevent our perceiving this; yet we had no +glimpse of the moon or stars, nor was there any flashing forth of the +lightning. But the under surfaces of the huge masses of agitated +vapor, as well as all terrestrial objects immediately around us, were +glowing in the unnatural light of a faintly luminous and distinctly +visible gaseous exhalation which hung about and enshrouded the +mansion. + +"You must not--you shall not behold this!" said I, shudderingly, to +Usher, as I led him with a gentle violence from the window to a +seat. "These appearances, which bewilder you, are merely electrical +phenomena not uncommon--or it may be that they have their ghastly +origin in the rank miasma of the tarn. Let us close this casement; the +air is chilling and dangerous to your frame. Here is one of your +favorite romances. I will read, and you shall listen;--and so we will +pass away this terrible night together." + +The antique volume which I had taken up was the "Mad Trist" of Sir +Launcelot Canning; but I had called it a favorite of Usher's more in +sad jest than in earnest; for, in truth, there is little in its +uncouth and unimaginative prolixity which could have had interest for +the lofty and spiritual ideality of my friend. It was, however, the +only book immediately at hand; and I indulged a vague hope that the +excitement which now agitated the hypochondriac might find relief (for +the history of mental disorder is full of similar anomalies) even in +the extremeness of the folly which I should read. Could I have judged, +indeed, by the wild overstrained air of vivacity with which he +hearkened, or apparently hearkened, to the words of the tale, I might +well have congratulated myself upon the success of my design. + +I had arrived at that well-known portion of the story where Ethelred, +the hero of the Trist, having sought in vain for peaceable admission +into the dwelling of the hermit, proceeds to make good an entrance by +force. Here, it will be remembered, the words of the narrative run +thus:-- + +"And Ethelred, who was by nature of a doughty heart, and who was now +mighty withal, on account of the powerfulness of the wine which he had +drunken, waited no longer to hold parley with the hermit, who, in +sooth, was of an obstinate and maliceful turn, but, feeling the rain +upon his shoulders, and fearing the rising of the tempest, uplifted +his mace outright, and with blows made quickly room in the plankings +of the door for his gauntleted hand; and now pulling therewith +sturdily, he so cracked, and ripped, and tore all asunder, that the +noise of the dry and hollow-sounding wood alarumed and reverberated +throughout the forest." + +At the termination of this sentence I started, and for a moment +paused; for it appeared to me (although I at once concluded that my +excited fancy had deceived me)--it appeared to me that from some very +remote portion of the mansion there came, indistinctly, to my ears, +what might have been, in its exact similarity of character, the echo +(but a stifled and dull one certainly) of the very cracking and +ripping sound which Sir Launcelot had so particularly described. It +was, beyond doubt, the coincidence alone which had arrested my +attention; for, amid the rattling of the sashes of the casements, and +the ordinary commingled noises of the still increasing storm, the +sound, in itself, had nothing, surely, which should have interested or +disturbed me. I continued the story:-- + +"But the good champion Ethelred, now entering within the door, was +sore enraged and amazed to perceive no signal of the maliceful hermit; +but, in the stead thereof, a dragon of a scaly and prodigious +demeanor, and of a fiery tongue, which sate in guard before a palace +of gold, with a floor of silver; and upon the wall there hung a shield +of shining brass with this legend enwritten-- + + Who entereth herein, a conqueror hath bin; + Who slayeth the dragon, the shield he shall win. + +And Ethelred uplifted his mace, and struck upon the head of the +dragon, which fell before him, and gave up his pesty breath, with a +shriek so horrid and harsh, and withal so piercing, that Ethelred had +fain to close his ears with his hands against the dreadful noise of +it, the like whereof was never before heard." + +Here again I paused abruptly, and now with a feeling of wild +amazement; for there could be no doubt whatever that, in this +instance, I did actually hear (although from what direction it +proceeded I found it impossible to say) a low and apparently distant, +but harsh, protracted, and most unusual screaming or grating +sound--the exact counterpart of what my fancy had already conjured up +for the dragon's unnatural shriek as described by the romancer. + +Oppressed, as I certainly was, upon the occurrence of this second and +most extraordinary coincidence, by a thousand conflicting sensations, +in which wonder and extreme terror were predominant, I still retained +sufficient presence of mind to avoid exciting, by any observation, the +sensitive nervousness of my companion. I was by no means certain that +he had noticed the sounds in question; although, assuredly, a strange +alteration had during the last few minutes taken place in his +demeanor. From a position fronting my own, he had gradually brought +round his chair, so as to sit with his face to the door of the +chamber; and thus I could but partially perceive his features, +although I saw that his lips trembled as if he were murmuring +inaudibly. His head had dropped upon his breast--yet I knew that he +was not asleep, from the wide and rigid opening of the eye as I caught +a glance of it in profile. The motion of his body, too, was at +variance with this idea--for he rocked from side to side with a gentle +yet constant and uniform sway. Having rapidly taken notice of all +this, I resumed the narrative of Sir Launcelot, which thus +proceeded:-- + +"And now, the champion, having escaped from the terrible fury of the +dragon, bethinking himself of the brazen shield, and of the breaking +up of the enchantment which was upon it, removed the carcass from out +of the way before him, and approached valorously over the silver +pavement of the castle to where the shield was upon the wall; which in +sooth tarried not for his full coming, but fell down at his feet upon +the silver floor, with a mighty great and terrible ringing sound." + +No sooner had these syllables passed my lips, than--as if a shield of +brass had indeed, at the moment, fallen heavily upon a floor of +silver--I became aware of a distinct, hollow, metallic and clangorous, +yet apparently muffled reverberation. Completely unnerved, I leaped +to my feet; but the measured rocking movement of Usher was +undisturbed. I rushed to the chair in which he sat. His eyes were bent +fixedly before him, and throughout his whole countenance there reigned +a stony rigidity. But, as I placed my hand upon his shoulder, there +came a strong shudder over his whole person; a sickly smile quivered +about his lips; and I saw that he spoke in a low, hurried, and +gibbering murmur, as if unconscious of my presence. Bending closely +over him, I at length drank in the hideous import of his words. + +"Not hear it?--yes, I hear it, and _have_ heard it. +Long--long--long--many minutes, many hours, many days, have I heard +it--yet I dared not--oh, pity me, miserable wretch that I am!--I dared +not--I _dared_ not speak! _We have put her living in the +tomb!_ Said I not that my senses were acute? I _now_ tell you +that I heard her first feeble movements in the hollow coffin. I heard +them--many, many days ago--yet I dared not--_I dared not speak!_ +And now--to-night--Ethelred--ha! ha!--the breaking of the hermit's +door, and the death-cry of the dragon, and the clangor of the +shield!--say, rather, the rending of her coffin, and the grating of +the iron hinges of her prison, and her struggles within the coppered +archway of the vault! Oh, whither shall I fly? Will she not be here +anon? Is she not hurrying to upbraid me for my haste? Have I not heard +her footstep on the stair? Do I not distinguish that heavy and +horrible beating of her heart? Madman!"--here he sprang furiously to +his feet, and shrieked out his syllables, as if in the effort he were +giving up his soul--"_Madman! I tell you that she now stands without +the door!_" + +As if in the superhuman energy of his utterance there had been found +the potency of a spell, the huge antique panels to hich the speaker +pointed threw slowly back, upon the instant, their ponderous and ebony +jaws. It was the work of the rushing gust--but then without those +doors there _did_ stand the lofty and enshrouded figure of the +lady Madeline of Usher. There was blood upon her white robes, and the +evidence of some bitter struggle upon every portion of her emaciated +frame. For a moment she remained trembling and reeling to and fro upon +the threshold--then, with a low moaning cry, fell heavily inward upon +the person of her brother, and, in her violent and now final +death-agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the +terrors he had anticipated. + +From that chamber, and from that mansion, I fled aghast. The storm +was still abroad in all its wrath as I found myself crossing the old +causeway. Suddenly there shot along the path a wild light, and I +turned to see whence a gleam so unusual could have issued; for the +vast house and its shadows were alone behind me. The radiance was that +of the full, setting, and blood-red moon, which now shone vividly +through that once barely-discernible fissure, of which I have before +spoken as extending from the roof of the building, in a zigzag +direction, to the base. While I gazed, this fissure rapidly +widened--there came a fierce breath of the whirlwind--the entire orb +of the satellite burst at once upon my sight--my brain reeled as I saw +the mighty walls rushing asunder--there was a long tumultuous shouting +sound like the voice of a thousand waters--and the deep and dank tarn +at my feet closed sullenly and silently over the fragments of the +"_House of Usher_." + + + +WILLIAM WILSON + + What say of it? what say of CONSCIENCE grim, + That spectre in my path? + CHAMBERLAYNE: _Pharronida_ + + +Let me call myself, for the present, William Wilson. The fair page now +lying before me need not be sullied with my real appellation. This has +been already too much an object for the scorn--for the horror--for the +detestation of my race. To the uttermost regions of the globe have not +the indignant winds bruited its unparalleled infamy? Oh, outcast of +all outcasts most abandoned!--to the earth art thou not forever dead? +to its honors, to its flowers, to its golden aspirations?--and a +cloud, dense, dismal, and limitless, does it not hang eternally +between thy hopes and heaven? + +I would not, if I could, here or to-day, embody a record of my later +years of unspeakable misery and unpardonable crime. This epoch, these +later years, took unto themselves a sudden elevation in turpitude, +whose origin alone it is my present purpose to assign. Men usually +grow base by degrees. From me, in an instant, all virtue dropped +bodily as a mantle. From comparatively trivial wickedness I passed, +with the stride of a giant, into more than the enormities of an +Elah-Gabalus. What chance--what one event brought this evil thing to +pass, bear with me while I relate. Death approaches; and the shadow +which foreruns him has thrown a softening influence over my spirit. I +long, in passing through the dim valley, for the sympathy--I had +nearly said for the pity--of my fellow-men. I would fain have them +believe that I have been, in some measure, the slave of circumstances +beyond human control. I would wish them to seek out for me, in the +details I am about to give, some little oasis of _fatality_ amid a +wilderness of error. I would have them allow--what they cannot refrain +from allowing--that, although temptation may have erewhile existed as +great, man was never _thus_, at least, tempted before--certainly, +never _thus_ fell. And is it therefore that he has never thus +suffered? Have I not indeed been living in a dream? And am I not now +dying a victim to the horror and the mystery of the wildest of all +sublunary visions? + +I am the descendant of a race whose imaginative and easily excitable +temperament has at all times rendered them remarkable; and, in my +earliest infancy, I gave evidence of having fully inherited the family +character. As I advanced in years it was more strongly developed; +becoming, for many reasons, a cause of serious disquietude to my +friends, and of positive injury to myself. I grew self-willed, +addicted to the wildest caprices, and a prey to the most ungovernable +passions. Weak-minded, and beset with constitutional infirmities akin +to my own, my parents could do but little to check the evil +propensities which distinguished me. Some feeble and ill-directed +efforts resulted in complete failure on their part, and, of course, in +total triumph on mine. Thenceforward my voice was a household law; and +at an age when few children have abandoned their leading-strings I was +left to the guidance of my own will, and became, in all but name, the +master of my own actions. + +My earliest recollections of a school-life are connected with a large, +rambling, Elizabethan house, in a misty-looking village of England, +where were a vast number of gigantic and gnarled trees, and where all +the houses were excessively ancient. In truth, it was a dream-like and +spirit-soothing place, that venerable old town. At this moment, in +fancy, I feel the refreshing chilliness of its deeply-shadowed +avenues, inhale the fragrance of its thousand shrubberies, and thrill +anew with undefinable delight at the deep hollow note of the +church-bell, breaking, each hour, with sullen and sudden roar, upon +the stillness of the dusky atmosphere in which the fretted Gothic +steeple lay imbedded and asleep. + +It gives me, perhaps, as much of pleasure as I can now in any manner +experience to dwell upon minute recollections of the school and its +concerns. Steeped in misery as I am--misery, alas! only too real--I +shall be pardoned for seeking relief, however slight and temporary, in +the weakness of a few rambling details. These, moreover, utterly +trivial, and even ridiculous in themselves, assume to my fancy +adventitious importance, as connected with a period and a locality +when and where I recognize the first ambiguous monitions of the +destiny which afterwards so fully overshadowed me. Let me then +remember. + +The house, I have said, was old and irregular. The grounds were +extensive, and a high and solid brick wall, topped with a bed of +mortar and broken glass, encompassed the whole. This prison-like +rampart formed the limit of our domain; beyond it we saw but thrice a +week--once every Saturday afternoon, when, attended by two ushers, we +were permitted to take brief walks in a body through some of the +neighboring fields--and twice during Sunday, when we were paraded in +the same formal manner to the morning and evening service in the one +church of the village. Of this church the principal of our school was +pastor. With how deep a spirit of wonder and perplexity was I wont to +regard him from our remote pew in the gallery, as, with step solemn +and slow, he ascended the pulpit! This reverend man, with countenance +so demurely benign, with robes so glossy and so clerically flowing, +with wig so minutely powdered, so rigid and so vast,--could this be he +who, of late, with sour visage, and in snuffy habiliments, +administered, ferule in hand, the Draconian Laws of the academy? Oh, +gigantic paradox, too utterly monstrous for solution! + +At an angle of the ponderous wall frowned a more ponderous gate. It +was riveted and studded with iron bolts, and surmounted with jagged +iron spikes. What impressions of deep awe did it inspire! It was never +opened save for the three periodical egressions and ingressions +already mentioned; then, in every creak of its mighty hinges, we found +a plenitude of mystery--a world of matter for solemn remark, or for +more solemn meditation. + +The extensive enclosure was irregular in form, having many capacious +recesses. Of these, three or four of the largest constituted the +play-ground. It was level, and covered with fine hard gravel. I well +remember it had no trees, nor benches, nor anything similar within +it. Of course it was in the rear of the house. In front lay a small +parterre, planted with box and other shrubs; but through this sacred +division we passed only upon rare occasions indeed--such as a first +advent to school or final departure thence, or perhaps when, a parent +or friend having called for us, we joyfully took our way home for the +Christmas or Midsummer holidays. + +But the house--how quaint an old building was this!--to me how +veritably a palace of enchantment! There was really no end to its +windings--to its incomprehensible subdivisions. It was difficult, at +any given time, to say with certainty upon which of its two stories +one happened to be. From each room to every other there were sure to +be found three or four steps either in ascent or descent. Then the +lateral branches were innumerable, inconceivable, and so returning in +upon themselves that our most exact ideas in regard to the whole +mansion were not very far different from those with which we pondered +upon infinity. During the five years of my residence here I was never +able to ascertain, with precision, in what remote locality lay the +little sleeping apartment assigned to myself and some eighteen or +twenty other scholars. + +The school-room was the largest in the house--I could not help +thinking, in the world. It was very long, narrow, and dismally low, +with pointed Gothic windows and a ceiling of oak. In a remote and +terror-inspiring angle was a square enclosure of eight or ten feet, +comprising the _sanctum_, "during hours," of our principal, the +Reverend Dr. Bransby. It was a solid structure, with massy door, +sooner than open which in the absence of the "Dominie" we would all +have willingly perished by the _peine forte et dure._ In other angles +were two other similar boxes, far less reverenced, indeed, but still +greatly matters of awe. One of these was the pulpit of the "classical" +usher; one, of the "English and mathematical." Interspersed about the +room, crossing and recrossing in endless irregularity, were +innumerable benches and desks, black, ancient, and time-worn, piled +desperately with much-be-thumbed books, and so beseamed with initial +letters, names at full length, grotesque figures, and other multiplied +efforts of the knife, as to have entirely lost what little of original +form might have been their portion in days long departed. A huge +bucket with water stood at one extremity of the room, and a clock of +stupendous dimensions at the other. + +Encompassed by the massy walls of this venerable academy, I passed, +yet not in tedium or disgust, the years of the third lustrum of my +life. The teeming brain of childhood requires no external world of +incident to occupy or amuse it; and the apparently dismal monotony of +a school was replete with more intense excitement than my riper youth +has derived from luxury, or my full manhood from crime. Yet I must +believe that my first mental development had in it much of the +uncommon--even much of the _outré_. Upon mankind at large the events +of very early existence rarely leave in mature age any definite +impression. All is gray shadow--a weak and irregular remembrance--an +indistinct regathering of feeble pleasures and phantasmagoric +pains. With me this is not so. In childhood I must have felt, with the +energy of a man, what I now find stamped upon memory in lines as +vivid, as deep, and as durable as the _exergues_ of the Carthaginian +medals. + +Yet in fact--in the fact of the world's view--how little was there to +remember! The morning's awakening, the nightly summons to bed; the +connings, the recitations; the periodical half-holidays, and +perambulations; the play-ground, with its broils, its pastimes, its +intrigues;--these, by a mental sorcery long forgotten, were made to +involve a wilderness of sensation, a world of rich incident, an +universe of varied emotion, of excitement the most passionate and +spirit-stirring. "_Oh, le bon temps, que ce siècle de fer!_" + +In truth, the ardor, the enthusiasm, and the imperiousness of my +disposition, soon rendered me a marked character among my schoolmates, +and by slow but natural gradations gave me an ascendancy over all not +greatly older than myself: over all with a single exception. This +exception was found in the person of a scholar who, although no +relation, bore the same Christian and surname as myself,--a +circumstance, in fact, little remarkable; for, notwithstanding a noble +descent, mine was one of those every-day appellations which seem by +prescriptive right to have been, time out of mind, the common property +of the mob. In this narrative I have therefore designated myself as +William Wilson,--a fictitious title not very dissimilar to the +real. My namesake alone, of those who in school-phraseology +constituted "our set," presumed to compete with me in the studies of +the class--in the sports and broils of the play-ground--to refuse +implicit belief in my assertions, and submission to my will--indeed, +to interfere with my arbitrary dictation in any respect whatsoever. +If there is on earth a supreme and unqualified despotism, it is the +despotism of a master-mind in boyhood over the less energetic spirits +of its companions. + +Wilson's rebellion was to me a source of the greatest embarrassment; +the more so as, in spite of the bravado with which in public I made a +point of treating him and his pretensions, I secretly felt that I +feared him, and could not help thinking the equality, which he +maintained so easily with myself, a proof of his true superiority; +since not to be overcome cost me a perpetual struggle. Yet this +superiority, even this equality, was in truth acknowledged by no one +but myself; our associates, by some unaccountable blindness, seemed +not even to suspect it. Indeed, his competition, his resistance, and +especially his impertinent and dogged interference with my purposes, +were not more pointed than private. He appeared to be destitute alike +of the ambition which urged, and of the passionate energy of mind +which enabled, me to excel. In his rivalry he might have been supposed +actuated solely by a whimsical desire to thwart, astonish, or mortify +myself; although there were times when I could not help observing, +with a feeling made up of wonder, abasement, and pique, that he +mingled with his injuries, his insults, or his contradictions, a +certain most inappropriate, and assuredly most unwelcome, +_affectionateness_ of manner. I could only conceive this singular +behavior to arise from a consummate self-conceit assuming the vulgar +airs of patronage and protection. + +Perhaps it was this latter trait in Wilson's conduct, conjoined with +our identity of name, and the mere accident of our having entered the +school upon the same day, which set afloat the notion that we were +brothers, among the senior classes in the academy. These do not +usually inquire with much strictness into the affairs of their +juniors. I have before said, or should have said, that Wilson was not +in the most remote degree connected with my family. But assuredly if +we _had_ been brothers we must have been twins; for, after leaving +Dr. Bransby's, I cassually learned that my namesake was born on the +nineteenth of January, 1813; and this is a somewhat remarkable +coincidence; for the day is precisely that of my own nativity. + +It may seem strange that in spite of the continual anxiety occasioned +me by the rivalry of Wilson, and his intolerable spirit of +contradiction, I could not bring myself to hate him altogether. We +had, to be sure, nearly every day a quarrel in which, yielding me +publicly the palm of victory, he, in some manner, contrieved to make +me feel that it was he who had deserved it; yet a sense of pride on my +part, and a veritable dignity on his own, kept us always upon what are +called "speaking terms," while there were many points of strong +congeniality in our tempers, operating to awake in me a sentiment +which our position alone, perhaps, prevented from ripening into +friendship. It is difficult, indeed, to define, or even to describe, +my real feelings towards him. They formed a motley and heterogeneous +admixture: some petulant animosity, which was not yet hatred, some +esteem, more respect, much fear, with a world of uneasy curiosity. To +the moralist it will be unnecessary to say, in addition, that Wilson +and myself were the most inseparable of companions. + +It was no doubt the anomalous state of affairs existing between us +which turned all my attacks upon him (and they were many, either open +or covert) into the channel of banter or practical joke (giving pain +while assuming the aspect of mere fun) rather than into a more serious +and determined hostility. But my endeavors on this head were by no +means uniformly successful, even when my plans were the most wittily +concocted; for my namesake had much about him, in character, of that +unassuming and quiet austerity which, while enjoying the poignancy of +its own jokes, has no heel of Achilles in itself, and absolutely +refuses to be laughed at. I could find, indeed, but one vulnerable +point, and that lying in a personal peculiarity arising, perhaps, from +constitutional disease, would have been spared by any antagonist less +at his wit's end than myself:--my rival had a weakness in the faucial +or guttural organs, which precluded him from raising his voice at any +time _above a very low whisper_. Of this defect I did not fail to take +what poor advantage lay in my power. + +Wilson's retaliations in kind were many; and there was one form of his +practical wit that disturbed me beyond measure. How his sagacity +first discovered at all that so petty a thing would vex me, is a +question I never could solve; but having discovered, he habitually +practised the annoyance. I had always felt aversion to my uncourtly +patronymic, and its very common, if not plebeian praenomen. The words +were venom in my ears; and when, upon the day of my arrival, a second +William Wilson came also to the academy, I felt angry with him for +bearing the name, and doubly disgusted with the name because a +stranger bore it, who would be the cause of its twofold repetition, +who would be constantly in my presence, and whose concerns, in the +ordinary routine of the school business, must inevitably, on account +of the detestable coincidence, be often confounded with my own. + +The feeling of vexation thus engendered grew stronger with every +circumstance tending to show resemblance, moral or physical, between +my rival and myself. I had not then discovered the remarkable fact +that we were of the same age; but I saw that we were of the same +height, and I perceived that we were even singularly alike in general +contour of person and outline of feature. I was galled, too, by the +rumor touching a relationship which had grown current in the upper +forms. In a word, nothing could more seriously disturb me (although I +scrupulously concealed such disturbance) than any allusion to a +similarity of mind, person, or condition existing between us. But, in +truth, I had no reason to believe that (with the exception of the +matter of relationship, and in the case of Wilson himself) this +similarity had ever been made a subject of comment, or even observed +at all by our schoolfellows. That _he_ observed it in all its +bearings, and as fixedly as I, was apparent; but that he could +discover in such circumstances so fruitful a field of annoyance can +only be attributed, as I said before, to his more than ordinary +penetration. + +His cue, which was to perfect an imitation of myself, lay both in +words and in actions; and most admirably did he play his part. My +dress it was an easy matter to copy; my gait and general manner were, +without difficulty, appropriated; in spite of his constitutional +defect, even my voice did not escape him. My louder tones were, of +course, unattempted, but then the key,--it was identical; _and his +singular whisper,--it grew the very echo of my own._ + +How greatly this most exquisite portraiture harassed me (for it could +not justly be termed a caricature) I will not now venture to describe. +I had but one consolation--in the fact that the imitation, apparently, +was noticed by myself alone, and that I had to endure only the knowing +and strangely sarcastic smiles of my namesake himself. Satisfied with +having produced in my bosom the intended effect, he seemed to chuckle +in secret over the sting he had inflicted, and was +uncharacteristically disregardful of the public applause which the +success of his witty endeavours might have so easily elicited. That +the school, indeed, did not feel his design, perceive its +accomplishment, and participate in his sneer, was, for many anxious +months, a riddle I could not resolve. Perhaps the _gradation_ of his +copy rendered it not so readily perceptible; or, more possibly, I owed +my security to the masterly air of the copyist, who, disdaining the +letter (which in a painting is all the obtuse can see) gave but the +full spirit of his original for my individual contemplation and +chagrin. + +I have already more than once spoken of the disgusting air of +patronage which he assumed toward me, and of his frequent officious +interference with my will. This interference often took the ungracious +character of advice; advice not openly given, but hinted or +insinuated. I received it with a repugnance which gained strength as I +grew in years. Yet, at this distant day, let me do him the simple +justice to acknowledge that I can recall no occasion when the +suggestions of my rival were on the side of those errors or follies so +usual to his immature age and seeming inexperience; that his moral +sense, at least, if not his general talents and worldly wisdom, was +far keener than my own; and that I might, to-day, have been a better, +and thus a happier man, had I less frequently rejected the counsels +embodied in those meaning whispers which I then but too cordially +hated and too bitterly despised. + +As it was, I at length grew restive in the extreme under his +distasteful supervision, and daily resented more and more openly what +I considered his intolerable arrogance. I have said that, in the first +years of our connection as schoolmates, my feelings in regard to him +might have been easily ripened into friendship; but, in the latter +months of my residence at the academy, although the intrusion of his +ordinary manner had, beyond doubt, in some measure abated, my +sentiments, in nearly similar proportion, partook very much of +positive hatred. Upon one occasion he saw this, I think, and +afterwards avoided or made a show of avoiding me. + +It was about the same period, if I remember aright, that, in an +altercation of violence with him, in which he was more than usually +thrown off his guard, and spoke and acted with an openness of demeanor +rather foreign to his nature, I discovered, or fancied I discovered, +in his accent, his air and general appearance, a something which first +startled, and then deeply interested me, by bringing to mind dim +visions of my earliest infancy--wild, confused and thronging memories +of a time when memory herself was yet unborn. I cannot better describe +the sensation which oppressed me than by saying that I could with +difficulty shake off the belief of my having been acquainted with the +being who stood before me, at some epoch very long ago--some point of +the past even infinitely remote. The delusion, however, faded rapidly +as it came; and I mention it at all but to define the day of the last +conversation I there held with my singular namesake. + +The huge old house, with its countless subdivisions, had several large +chambers communicating with each other, where slept the greater number +of the students. There were, however (as must necessarily happen in a +building so awkwardly planned) many little nooks or recesses, the odds +and ends of the structure; and these the economic ingenuity of Dr. +Bransby had also fitted up as dormitories; although, being the merest +closets, they were capable of accommodating but a single +individual. One of these small apartments was occupied by Wilson. + +One night, about the close of my fifth year at the school, and +immediately after the altercation just mentioned, finding every one +wrapped in sleep, I arose from bed, and, lamp in hand, stole through a +wilderness of narrow passages from my own bedroom to that of my +rival. I had long been plotting one of those ill-natured pieces of +practical wit at his expense in which I had hitherto been so uniformly +unsuccessful. It was my intention, now, to put my scheme in operation, +and I resolved to make him feel the whole extent of the malice with +which I was imbued. Having reached his closet, I noiselessly entered, +leaving the lamp, with a shade over it, on the outside. I advanced a +step, and listened to the sound of his tranquil breathing. Assured of +his being asleep, I returned, took the light, and with it again +approached the bed. Close curtains were around it, which, in the +prosecution of my plan, I slowly and quietly withdrew, when the bright +rays fell vividly upon the sleeper, and my eyes at the same moment +upon his countenance. I looked,--and a numbness, an iciness of +feeling, instantly pervaded my frame. My breast heaved, my knees +tottered, my whole spirit became possessed with an objectless yet +intolerable horror. Gasping for breath, I lowered the lamp in still +nearer proximity to the face. Were these,--_these_ the lineaments of +William Wilson? I saw, indeed, that they were his, but I shook as if +with a fit of the ague, in fancying they were not. What _was_ there +about them to confound me in this manner? I gazed,--while my brain +reeled with a multitude of incoherent thoughts. Not thus he +appeared--assuredly not _thus_--in the vivacity of his waking +hours. The same name! the same contour of person! the same day of +arrival at the academy! And then his dogged and meaningless imitation +of my gait, my voice, my habits, and my manner! Was it, in truth, +within the bounds of human possibility, that _what I now saw_ was the +result, merely, of the habitual practice of this sarcastic imitation? +Awe-stricken, and with a creeping shudder, I extinguished the lamp, +passed silently from the chamber, and left, at once, the halls of that +old academy, never to enter them again. + +After a lapse of some months, spent at home in mere idleness, I found +myself a student at Eton. The brief interval had been sufficient to +enfeeble my remembrance of the events at Dr. Bransby's, or at least to +effect a material change in the nature of the feelings with which I +remembered them. The truth--the tragedy--of the drama was no more. I +could now find room to doubt the evidence of my senses; and seldom +called up the subject at all but with wonder at the extent of human +credulity, and a smile at the vivid force of the imagination which I +hereditarily possessed. Neither was this species of scepticism likely +to be diminished by the character of the life I led at Eton. The +vortex of thoughtless folly, into which I there so immediately and so +recklessly plunged, washed away all but the froth of my past hours, +engulfed at once every solid or serious impression, and left to memory +only the veriest levities of a former existence. + +I do not wish, however, to trace the course of my miserable profligacy +here--a profligacy which set at defiance the laws, while it eluded the +vigilance, of the institution. Three years of folly, passed without +profit, had but given me rooted habits of vice, and added, in a +somewhat unusual degree, to my bodily stature, when, after a week of +soulless dissipation, I invited a small party of the most dissolute +students to a secret carousal in my chambers. We met at a late hour of +the night; for our debaucheries were to be faithfully protracted until +morning. The wine flowed freely, and there were not wanting other and +perhaps more dangerous seductions; so that the gray dawn had already +faintly appeared in the east while our delirious extravagance was at +its height. Madly flushed with cards and intoxication, I was in the +act of insisting upon a toast of more than wonted profanity, when my +attention was suddenly diverted by the violent, although partial, +unclosing of the door of the apartment, and by the eager voice of a +servant from without. He said that some person, apparently in great +haste, demanded to speak with me in the hall. + +Wildly excited with wine, the unexpected interruption rather delighted +than surprised me. I staggered forward at once, and a few steps +brought me to the vestibule of the building. In this low and small +room there hung no lamp; and now no light at all was admitted, save +that of the exceedingly feeble dawn which made its way through the +semicircular window. As I put my foot over the threshold, I became +aware of the figure of a youth about my own height, and habited in a +white kerseymere morning frock, cut in the novel fashion of the one I +myself wore at the moment. This the faint light enabled me to +perceive; but the features of his face I could not distinguish. Upon +my entering, he strode hurriedly up to me, and, seizing me by the arm +with a gesture of petulant impatience, whispered the words "William +Wilson!" in my ear. + +I grew perfectly sober in an instant. + +There was that in the manner of the stranger, and in the tremulous +shake of his uplifted finger, as he held it between my eyes and the +light, which filled me with unqualified amazement; but it was not this +which had so violently moved me. It was the pregnancy of solemn +admonition in the singular, low, hissing utterance; and, above all, it +was the character, the tone, _the key_, of those few, simple, and +familiar, yet _whispered_ syllables, which came with a thousand +thronging memories of by-gone days, and struck upon my soul with the +shock of a galvanic battery. Ere I could recover the use of my senses +he was gone. + +Although this event failed not of a vivid effect upon my disordered +imagination, yet was it evanescent as vivid. For some weeks, indeed, I +busied myself in earnest inquiry, or was wrapped in a cloud of morbid +speculation. I did not pretend to disguise from my perception the +identity of the singular individual who thus perseveringly interfered +with my affairs, and harassed me with his insinuated counsel. But who +and what was this Wilson?--and whence came he?--and what were his +purposes? Upon neither of these points could I be satisfied--merely +ascertaining, in regard to him, that a sudden accident in his family +had caused his removal from Dr. Bransby's academy on the afternoon of +the day in which I myself had eloped. But in a brief period I ceased +to think upon the subject, my attention being all absorbed in a +contemplated departure for Oxford. Thither I soon went, the +uncalculating vanity of my parents furnishing me with an outfit and +annual establishment which would enable me to indulge at will in the +luxury already so dear to my hear--to vie in profuseness of +expenditure with the haughtiest heirs of the wealthiest earldoms in +Great Britain. + +Excited by such appliances to vice, my constitutional temperament +broke forth with redoubled ardor, and I spurned even the common +restraints of decency in the mad infatuation of my revels. But it were +absurd to pause in the detail of my extravagance. Let it suffice, that +among spendthrifts I out-Heroded Herod, and that, giving name to a +multitude of novel follies, I added no brief appendix to the long +catalogue of vices then usual in the most dissolute university of +Europe. + +It could hardly be credited, however, that I had even here, so utterly +fallen from the gentlemanly estate as to seek acquaintance with the +vilest arts of the gambler by profession, and, having become an adept +in his despicable science, to practise it habitually as a means of +increasing my already enormous income at the expense of the +weak-minded among my fellow-collegians. Such, nevertheless, was the +fact. And the very enormity of this offence against all manly and +honorable sentiment proved, beyond doubt, the main if not the sole +reason of the impunity with which it was committed. Who, indeed, +among my most abandoned associates, would not rather have disputed the +clearest evidence of his senses, than have suspected of such courses +the gay, the frank, the generous William Wilson--the noblest and most +liberal commoner at Oxford: him whose follies (said his parasites) +were but the follies of youth and unbridled fancy--whose errors but +inimitable whim--whose darkest vice but a careless and dashing +extravagance? + +I had been now two years successfully busied in this way, when there +came to the university a young _parvenu_ nobleman, Glendinning--rich, +said report, as Herodes Atticus--his riches, too, as easily +acquired. I soon found him of weak intellect, and of course marked him +as a fitting subject for my skill. I frequently engaged him in play, +and contrived, with the gambler's usual art, to let him win +considerable sums, the more effectually to entangle him in my +snares. At length, my schemes being ripe, I met him (with the full +intention that this meeting should be final and decisive) at the +chambers of a fellow-commoner (Mr. Preston) equally intimate with +both, but who, to do him justice, entertained not even a remote +suspicion of my design. To give to this a better coloring, I had +contrived to have assembled a party of some eight or ten, and was +solicitously careful that the introduction of cards should appear +accidental, and originate in the proposal of my contemplated dupe +himself. To be brief upon a vile topic, none of the low finesse was +omitted, so customary upon similar occasions that it is a just matter +for wonder how any are still found so besotted as to fall its victim. + +We had protracted our sitting far into the night, and I had at length +effected the manoeuvre of getting Glendinning as my sole +antagonist. The game, too, was my favorite _écarté_. The rest of the +company, interested in the extent of our play, had abandoned their own +cards, and were standing around us as spectators. The _parvenu_, who +had been induced, by my artifices in the early part of the evening, to +drink deeply, now shuffled, dealt, or played, with a wild nervousness +of manner for which his intoxication, I thought, might partially but +could not altogether account. In a very short period he had become my +debtor to a large amount, when, having taken a long draught of port, +he did precisely what I had been coolly anticipating--he proposed to +double our already extravagant stakes. With a well-feigned show of +reluctance, and not until after my repeated refusal had seduced him +into some angry words which gave a color of pique to my compliance, +did I finally comply. The result, of course, did but prove how +entirely the prey was in my toils; in less than an hour he had +quadrupled his debt. For some time his countenance had been losing +the florid tinge lent it by the wine; but now, to my astonishment, I +perceived that it had grown to a pallor truly fearful. I say, to my +astonishment. Glendinning had been represented to my eager inquiries +as immeasurably wealthy; and the sums which he had as yet lost, +although in themselves vast, could not, I supposed, very seriously +annoy, much less so violently affect him. That he was overcome by the +wine just swallowed, was the idea which most readily presented itself; +and, rather with a view to the preservation of my own character in the +eyes of my associates, than from any less interested motive, I was +about to insist, peremptorily, upon a discontinuance of the play, when +some expressions at my elbow from among the company, and an +ejaculation evincing utter despair on the part of Glendinning, gave me +to understand that I had effected his total ruin under circumstances +which, rendering him an object for the pity of all, should have +protected him from the ill offices even of a fiend. + +What now might have been my conduct it is difficult to say. The +pitiable condition of my dupe had thrown an air of embarrassed gloom +over all; and for some moments a profound silence was maintained, +during which I could not help feeling my cheeks tingle with the many +burning glances of scorn or reproach cast upon me by the less +abandoned of the party. I will even own that an intolerable weight of +anxiety was for a brief instant lifted from my bosom by the sudden and +extraordinary interruption which ensued. The wide, heavy folding-doors +of the apartment were all at once thrown open, to their full extent, +with a vigorous and rushing impetuosity that extinguished, as if by +magic, every candle in the room. Their light, in dying, enabled us +just to perceive that a stranger had entered, about my own height, and +closely muffled in a cloak. The darkness, however, was now total; and +we could only _feel_ that he was standing in our midst. Before any one +of us could recover from the extreme astonishment into which this +rudeness had thrown all, we heard the voice of the intruder. + +"Gentlemen," he said, in a low, distinct, and never-to-be-forgotten +_whisper_ which thrilled to the very marrow of my bones, "gentlmen, I +make no apology for this behavior, because, in thus behaving, I am but +fulfilling a duty. You are, beyond doubt, uninformed of the true +character of the person who has to-night won at _écarté_ a large sum +of money from Lord Glendinning. I will therefore put you upon an +expeditious and decisive plan of obtaining this very necessary +information. Please to examine, at your leisure, the inner linings of +the cuff of his left sleeve, and the several little packages which may +be found in the somewhat capacious pockets of his embroidered morning +wrapper." + +While he spoke, so profound was the stillness that one might have +heard a pin drop upon the floor. In ceasing, he departed at once, and +as abruptly as he had entered. Can I--shall I describe my sensations? +Must I say that I felt all the horrors of the damned? Most assuredly I +had little time for reflection. Many hands roughly seized me upon the +spot, and lights were immediately re-procured. A search ensued. In the +lining of my sleeve were found all the court cards essential in +_écarté_, and, in the pockets of my wrapper, a number of packs, +facsimiles of those used at our sittings, with the single exception +that mine were of the species called, technically, _arrondis_; the +honors being slightly convex at the ends, the lower cards slightly +convex at the sides. In this disposition, the dupe who cuts, as +customary, at the length of the pack, will invariably find that he +cuts his antagonist an honor; while the gambler, cutting at the +breadth, will, as certainly, cut nothing for his victim which may +count in the records of the game. + +Any burst of indignation upon this discovery would have affected me +less than the silent contempt, or the sarcastic composure, with which +it was received. + +"Mr. Wilson," said our host, stooping to remove from beneath his feet +an exceedingly luxurious cloak of rare furs, "Mr. Wilson, this is your +property." (The weather was cold; and, upon quitting my own room, I +had thrown a cloak over my dressing wrapper, putting it off upon +reaching the scene of play.) "I presume it is supererogatory to seek +here" (eying the folds of the garment with a bitter smile) "for any +farther evidence of your skill. Indeed, we have had enough. You will +see the necessity, I hope, of quitting Oxford--at all events, of +quitting instantly my chambers." + +Abased, humbled to the dust as I then was, it is probable that I +should have resented this galling language by immediate personal +violence, had not my whole attention been at the moment arrested by a +fact of the most startling character. The cloak which I had worn was +of a rare description of fur; how rare, how extravagantly costly, I +shall not venture to say. Its fashion, too, was of my own fantastic +invention; for I was fastidious to an absurd degree of coxcombry, in +matters of this frivolous nature. When, therefore, Mr. Preston reached +me that which he had picked up upon the floor, and near the +folding-doors of the apartment, it was with an astonishment nearly +bordering upon terror, that I perceived my own already hanging on my +arm, (where I had no doubt unwittingly placed it) and that the one +presented me was but its exact counterpart in every, in even the +minutest possible particular. The singular being who had so +disastrously exposed me, had been muffled, I remembered, in a cloak; +and none had been worn at all by any of the members of our party, with +the exception of myself. Retaining some presence of mind, I took the +one offered me by Preston; placed it, unnoticed, over my own; left the +apartment with a resolute scowl of defiance; and, next morning ere +dawn of day, commenced a hurried journey from Oxford to the continent, +in a perfect agony of horror and of shame. + + +_I fled in vain._ My evil destiny pursued me as if in exultation, and +proved, indeed, that the exercise of its mysterious dominion had as +yet only begun. Scarcely had I set foot in Paris, ere I had fresh +evidence of the detestable interest taken by this Wilson in my +concerns. Years flew, while I experienced no relief. Villain!--at +Rome, with how untimely, yet with how spectral an officiousness, +stepped he in between me and my ambition! At Vienna, too--at +Berlin--and at Moscow! Where, in truth, had I _not_ bitter cause to +curse him within my heart? From his inscrutable tyranny did I at +length flee, panic-stricken, as from a pestilence; and to the very +ends of the earth _I fled in vain._ + +And again, and again, in secret communion with my own spirit, would I +demand the questions, "Who is he?--whence came he?--and what are his +objects?" But no answer was there found. And now I scrutinized, with a +minute scrutiny, the forms, and the methods, and the leading traits of +his impertinent supervision. But even here there was very little upon +which to base a conjecture. It was noticeable, indeed, that, in no one +of the multiplied instances in which he had of late crossed my path, +had he so crossed it except to frustrate those schemes, or to disturb +those actions, which, if fully carried out, might have resulted in +bitter mischief. Poor justification this, in truth, for an authority +so imperiously assumed! Poor indemnity for natural rights of +self-agency so pertinaciously, so insultingly denied! + +I had also been forced to notice that my tormentor, for a very long +period of time (while scrupulously and with miraculous dexterity +maintaining his whim of an identity of apparel with myself) had so +contrived it, in the execution of his varied interference with my +will, that I saw not, at any moment, the features of his face. Be +Wilson what he might, _this_, at least, was but the veriest of +affectation, or of folly. Could he, for an instant, have supposed +that, in my admonisher at Eton--in the destroyer of my honor at +Oxford,--in him who thwarted my ambition at Rome, my revenge at Paris, +my passionate love at Naples, or what he falsely termed my avarice in +Egypt,--that in this, my arch-enemy and evil genius, I could fail to +recognize the William Wilson of my schoolboy days: the namesake, the +companion, the rival, the hated and dreaded rival at Dr. Bransby's? +Impossible!--but let me hasten to the last eventful scene of the +drama. + +Thus far I had succumbed suginely to this imperious domination. The +sentiment of deep awe with which I habitually regarded the elevated +character, the majestic wisdom, the apparent omnipresence and +omnipotence of Wilson, added to a feeling of even terror, with which +certain other traits in his nature and assumptions inspired me, had +operated, hitherto, to impress me with an idea of my own utter +weakness and helplessness, and to suggest an implicit, although +bitterly reluctant submission to his arbitrary will. But, of late +days, I had given myself up entirely to wine; and its maddening +influence upon my hereditary temper rendered me more and more +impatient of control. I began to murmur, to hesitate, to resist. And +was it only fancy which induced me to believe that, with the increase +of my own firmness, that of my tormentor underwent a proportional +diminution? Be this as it may, I now began to feel the inspiration of +a burning hope, and at length nurtured in my secret thoughts a stern +and desperate resolution that I would submit no longer to be enslaved. + +It was at Rome, during the Carnival of 18--, that I attended a +masquerade in the palazzo of the Neapolitan Duke Di Broglio. I had +indulged more freely than usual in the excesses of the wine-table; and +now the suffocating atmosphere of the crowded rooms irritated me +beyond endurance. The difficulty, too, of forcing my way through the +mazes of the company contributed not a little to the ruffling of my +temper; for I was anxiously seeking (let me not say with what unworthy +motive) the young, the gay, the beautiful wife of the aged and doting +Di Broglio. With a too unscrupulous confidence she had previously +communicated to me the secret of the costume in which she would be +habited, and now, having caught a glimpse of her person, I was +hurrying to make my way into her presence. At this moment I felt a +light hand placed upon my shoulder, and that ever-remembered, low, +damnable _whisper_ within my ear. + +In an absolute frenzy of wrath, I turned at once upon him who had thus +interrupted me, and seized him violently by the collar. He was +attired, as I had expected, in a costume altogether similar to my own; +wearing a Spanish cloak of blue velvet, begirt about the waist with a +crimson belt sustaining a rapier. A mask of black silk entirely +covered his face. + +"Scoundrel!" I said, in a voice husky with rage, while every syllable +I uttered seemed as new fuel to my fury; "scoundrel! impostor! +accursed villain! you shall not--you _shall not_ dog me unto death! +Follow me, or I stab you where you stand!"--and I broke my way from +the ball-room into a small ante-chamber adjoining, dragging him +unresistingly with me as I went. + +Upon entering, I thrust him furiously from me. He staggered against +the wall, while I closed the door with an oath, and commanded him to +draw. He hesitated but for an instant; then, with a slight sigh, drew +in silence, and put himself upon his defence. + +The contest was brief indeed. I was frantic with every species of wild +excitement, and felt within my single arm the energy and power of a +multitude. In a few seconds I forced him by sheer strength against the +wainscoting, and thus, getting him at mercy, plunged my sword, with +brute ferocity, repeatedly through and through his bosom. + +At that instant some person tried the latch of the door. I hastened to +prevent an intrusion, and then immediately returned to my dying +antagonist. But what human language can adequately portray _that_ +astonishment, _that_ horror which possessed me at the spectacle then +presented to view? The brief moment in which I averted my eyes had +been sufficient to produce, apparently, a material change in the +arrangements at the upper or farther end of the room. A large +mirror--so at first it seemed to me in my confusion--now stood where +none had been perceptible before; and, as I stepped up to it in +extremity of terror, mine own image, but with features all pale and +dabbled in blood, advanced to meet me with a feeble and tottering +gait. + +Thus it appeared, I say, but was not. It was my antagonist--it was +Wilson, who then stood before me in the agonies of his dissolution. +His mask and cloak lay, where he had thrown them, upon the floor. Not +a thread in all his raiment--not a line in all the marked and singular +lineaments of his face which was not, even in the most absolute +identity, _mine own_! + +It was Wilson; but he spoke no longer in a whisper, and I could have +fancied that I myself was speaking while he said:-- + +_"You have conquered, and I yield. Yet, henceforward art thou also +dead--dead to the World, to Heaven and to Hope! In me didst thou +exist--and, in my death, see by this image, which is thine own, how +utterly thou hast murdered thyself."_ + + + +A DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTRÖM + + The ways of God in Nature, as in Providence, are not as _our_ ways; + nor are the models that we frame any way commensurate to the + vastness, profundity, and unsearchableness of His works, _which have + a depth in them greater than the well of Democritus_. + JOSEPH GLANVILLE + + +We had now reached the summit of the loftiest crag. For some minutes +the old man seemed too much exhausted to speak. + +"Not long ago," said he at length, "and I could have guided you on +this route as well as the youngest of my sons; but, about three years +past, there happened to me an event such as never happened before to +mortal man--or at least such as no man ever survived to tell of--and +the six hours of deadly terror which I then endured have broken me up +body and soul. You suppose me a _very_ old man--but I am not. It took +less than a single day to change these hairs from a jetty black to +white, to weaken my limbs, and to unstring my nerves, so that I +tremble at the least exertion, and am frightened at a shadow. Do you +know I can scarcely look over this little cliff without getting +giddy?" + +The "little cliff," upon whose edge he had so carelessly thrown +himself down to rest that the weightier portion of his body hung over +it, while he was only kept from falling by the tenure of his elbow on +its extreme and slippery edge--this "little cliff" arose, a sheer +unobstructed precipice of black shining rock, some fifteen or sixteen +hundred feet from the world of crags beneath us. Nothing would have +tempted me to within half a dozen yards of its brink. In truth so +deeply was I excited by the perilous position of my companion, that I +fell at full length upon the ground, clung to the shrubs around me, +and dared not even glance upward at the sky--while I struggled in vain +to divest myself of the idea that the very foundations of the mountain +were in danger from the fury of the winds. It was long before I could +reason myself into sufficient courage to sit up and look out into the +distance. + +"You must get over these fancies," said the guide, "for I have brought +you here that you might have the best possible view of the scene of +that event I mentioned--and to tell you the whole story with the spot +just under your eye. + +"We are now," he continued, in that particularizing manner which +distinguished him--"we are now close upon the Norwegian coast--in the +sixty-eighth degree of latitude--in the great province of +Nordland--and in the dreary district of Lofoden. The mountain upon +whose top we sit is Helseggen, the Cloudy. Now raise yourself up a +little higher--hold on to the grass if you feel giddy--so--and look +out, beyond the belt of vapor beneath us, into the sea." + +I looked dizzily, and beheld a wide expanse of ocean, whose waters +wore so inky a hue as to bring at once to my mind the Nubian +geographer's account of the _Mare Tenebrarum_. A panorama more +deplorably desolate no human imagination can conceive. To the right +and left, as far as the eye could reach, there lay outstretched, like +ramparts of the world, lines of horridly black and beetling cliff, +whose character of gloom was but the more forcibly illustrated by the +surf which reared high up against it its white and ghastly crest, +howling and shrieking forever. Just opposite the promontory upon whose +apex we were placed, and at a distance of some five or six miles out +at sea, there was visible a small, bleak-looking island; or, more +properly, its position was discernible through the wilderness of surge +in which it was enveloped. About two miles nearer the land arose +another of smaller size, hideously craggy and barren, and encompassed +at various intervals by a cluster of dark rocks. + +The appearance of the ocean, in the space between the more distant +island and the shore, had something very unusual about it. Although, +at the time, so strong a gale was blowing landward that a brig in the +remote offing lay to under a double-reefed trysail, and constantly +plunged her whole hull out of sight, still there was here nothing like +a regular swell, but only a short, quick, angry cross dashing of water +in every direction--as well in the teeth of the wind as otherwise. Of +foam there was little except in the immediate vicinity of the rocks. + +"The island in the distance," resumed the old man, "is called by the +Norwegians Vurrgh. The one midway is Moskoe. That a mile to the +northward is Ambaaren. Yonder are Iflesen, Hoeyholm, Kieldholm, +Suarven, and Buckholm. Farther off--between Moskoe and Vurrgh--are +Otterholm, Flimen, Sandflesen, and Skarholm. These are the true names +of the places--but why it has been thought necessary to name them at +all is more than either you or I can understand. Do you hear anything? +Do you see any change in the water?" + +We had now been about ten minutes upon the top of Helseggen, to which +we had ascended from the interior of Lofoden, so that we had caught no +glimpse of the sea until it had burst upon us from the summit. As the +old man spoke, I became aware of a loud and gradually increasing +sound, like the moaning of a vast herd of buffaloes upon an American +prairie; and at the same moment I perceived that what seamen term the +_chopping_ character of the ocean beneath us, was rapidly changing +into a current which set to the eastward. Even while I gazed, this +current acquired a monstrous velocity. Each moment added to its +speed--to its headlong impetuosity. In five minutes the whole sea, as +far as Vurrgh, was lashed into ungovernable fury; but it was between +Moskoe and the coast that the main uproar held its sway. Here the vast +bed of the waters, seamed and scarred into a thousand conflicting +channels, burst suddenly into frenzied convulsion--heaving, boiling, +hissing--gyrating in gigantic and innumerable vortices, and all +whirling and plunging on to the eastward with a rapidity which water +never elsewhere assumes, except in precipitous descents. + +In a few minutes more, there came over the scene another radical +alteration. The general surface grew somewhat more smooth, and the +whirlpools, one by one, disappeared, while prodigious streaks of foam +became apparent where none had been seen before. These streaks, at +length, spreading out to a great distance, and entering into +combination, took unto themselves the gyratory motion of the subsided +vortices, and seemed to form the germ of another more +vast. Suddenly--very suddenly--this assumed a distinct and definite +existence, in a circle of more than a mile in diameter. The edge of +the whirl was represented by a broad belt of gleaming spray; but no +particle of this slipped into the mouth of the terrific funnel, whose +interior, as far as the eye could fathom it, was a smooth, shining, +and jet-black wall of water, inclined to the horizon at an angle of +some forty-five degrees, speeding dizzily round and round with a +swaying and sweltering motion, and sending forth to the winds an +appalling voice, half shriek, half roar, such as not even the mighty +cataract of Niagara ever lifts up in its agony to Heaven. + +The mountain trembled to its very base, and the rock rocked. I threw +myself upon my face, and clung to the scant herbage in an excess of +nervous agitation. + +"This," said I at length, to the old man--"this _can_ be nothing else +than the great whirlpool of the Maelström." + +"So it is sometimes termed," said he. "We Norwegians call it the +Moskoe-ström, from the island of Moskoe in the midway." The ordinary +accounts of this vortex had by no means prepared me for what I +saw. That of Jonas Ramus, which is perhaps the most circumstantial of +any, cannot impart the faintest conception either of the magnificence +or of the horror of the scene--or of the wild bewildering sense of +_the novel_ which confounds the beholder. I am not sure from what +point of view the writer in question surveyed it, nor at what time; +but it could neither have been from the summit of Helseggen, nor +during a storm. There are some passages of his description, +nevertheless, which may be quoted for their details, although their +effect is exceedingly feeble in conveying an impression of the +spectacle. + +"Between Lofoden and Moskoe," he says, "the depth of the water is +between thirty-six and forty fathoms; but on the other side, toward +Ver (Vurrgh), this depth decreases so as not to afford a convenient +passage for a vessel, without the risk of splitting on the rocks, +which happens even in the calmest weather. When it is flood, the +stream runs up the country between Lofoden and Moskoe with a +boisterous rapidity; but the roar of its impetuous ebb to the sea is +scarce equalled by the loudest and most dreadful cataracts, the noise +being heard several leagues Off; and the vortices or pits are of such +an extent and depth, that if a ship comes within its attraction, it is +inevitably absorbed and carried down to the bottom, and there beat to +pieces against the rocks; and when the water relaxes, the fragments +thereof are thrown up again. But these intervals of tranquillity are +only at the turn of the ebb and flood, and in calm weather, and last +but a quarter of an hour, its violence gradually returning. When the +stream is most boisterous, and its fury heightened by a storm, it is +dangerous to come within a Norway mile of it. Boats, yachts, and ships +have been carried away by not guarding against it before they were +within its reach. It likewise happens frequently that whales come too +near the stream, and are overpowered by its violence; and then it is +impossible to describe their howlings and bellowings in their +fruitless struggles to disengage themselves. A bear once, attempting +to swim from Lofoden to Moskoe, was caught by the stream and borne +down, while he roared terribly, so as to be heard on shore. Large +stocks of firs and pine trees, after being absorbed by the current, +rise again broken and torn to such a degree as if bristles grew upon +them. This plainly shows the bottom to consist of craggy rocks, among +which they are whirled to and fro. This stream is regulated by the +flux and reflux of the sea--it being constantly high and low water +every six hours. In the year 1645, early in the morning of Sexagesima +Sunday, it raged with such noise and impetuosity that the very stones +of the houses on the coast fell to the ground." + +In regard to the depth of the water, I could not see how this could +have been ascertained at all in the immediate vicinity of the +vortex. The "forty fathoms" must have reference only to portions of +the channel close upon the shore either of Moskoe or Lofoden. The +depth in the centre of the Moskoe-ström must be immeasurably greater; +and no better proof of this fact is necessary than can be obtained +from even the sidelong glance into the abyss of the whirl which may be +had from the highest crag of Helseggen. Looking down from this +pinnacle upon the howling Phlegethon below, I could not help smiling +at the simplicity with which the honest Jonas Ramus records, as a +matter difficult of belief, the anecdotes of the whales and the bears; +for it appeared to me, in fact, a self-evident thing that the largest +ships of the line in existence, coming within the influence of that +deadly attraction, could resist it as little as a feather the +hurricane, and must disappear bodily and at once. + +The attempts to account for the phenomenon--some of which, I remember, +seemed to me sufficiently plausible in perusal--now wore a very +different and unsatisfactory aspect. The idea generally received is +that this, as well as three smaller vortices among the Feroe Islands, +"have no other cause than the collision of waves rising and falling, +at flux and reflux, against a ridge of rocks and shelves, which +confines the water so that it precipitates itself like a cataract; and +thus the higher the flood rises, the deeper must the fall be, and the +natural result of all is a whirlpool or vortex, the prodigious suction +of which is sufficiently known by lesser experiments."--These are the +words of the "Encyclopædia Britannica." Kircher and others imagine +that in the centre of the channel of the Maelström is an abyss +penetrating the globe, and issuing in some very remote part--the Gulf +of Bothnia being somewhat decidedly named in one instance. This +opinion, idle in itself, was the one to which, as I gazed, my +imagination most readily assented; and, mentioning it to the guide, I +was rather surprised to hear him say that, although it was the view +almost universally entertained of the subject by the Norwegians, it +nevertheless was not his own. As to the former notion he confessed his +inability to comprehend it; and here I agreed with him--for, however +conclusive on paper, it becomes altogether unintelligible, and even +absurd, amid the thunder of the abyss. + +"You have had a good look at the whirl now," said the old man, "and if +you will creep round this crag, so as to get in its lee, and deaden +the roar of the water, I will tell you a story that will convince you +I ought to know something of the Moskoe-ström." + +I placed myself as desired, and he proceeded. + +"Myself and my two brothers once owned a schooner-rigged smack of +about seventy tons burden, with which we were in the habit of fishing +among the islands beyond Moskoe, nearly to Vurrgh. In all violent +eddies at sea there is good fishing, at proper opportunities, if one +has only the courage to attempt it; but among the whole of the Lofoden +coastmen we three were the only ones who made a regular business of +going out to the islands, as I tell you. The usual grounds are a great +way lower down to the southward. There fish can be got at all hours, +without much risk, and therefore these places are preferred. The +choice spots over here among the rocks, however, not only yield the +finest variety, but in far greater abundance; so that we often got in +a single day what the more timid of the craft could not scrape +together in a week. In fact, we made it a matter of desperate +speculation--the risk of life standing instead of labor, and courage +answering for capital. + +"We kept the smack in a cove about five miles higher up the coast than +this; and it was our practice, in fine weather, to take advantage of +the fifteen minutes' slack to push across the main channel of the +Moskoe-ström, far above the pool, and then drop down upon anchorage +somewhere near Otterholm, or Sandflesen, where the eddies are not so +violent as elsewhere. Here we used to remain until nearly time for +slack-water again, when we weighed and made for home. We never set out +upon this expedition without a steady side wind for going and +coming--one that we felt sure would not fail us before our return--and +we seldom made a miscalculation upon this point. Twice, during six +years, we were forced to stay all night at anchor on account of a dead +calm, which is a rare thing indeed just about here; and once we had to +remain on the grounds nearly a week, starving to death, owing to a +gale which blew up shortly after our arrival, and made the channel too +boisterous to be thought of. Upon this occasion we should have been +driven out to sea in spite of everything (for the whirlpools threw us +round and round so violently, that, at length, we fouled our anchor +and dragged it) if it had not been that we drifted into one of the +innumerable cross currents--here to-day and gone to-morrow--which +drove us under the lee of Flimen, where, by good luck, we brought up. + +"I could not tell you the twentieth part of the difficulties we +encountered 'on the ground'--it is a bad spot to be in, even in good +weather--but we made shift always to run the gauntlet of the +Moskoe-ström itself without accident; although at times my heart has +been in my mouth when we happened to be a minute or so behind or +before the slack. The wind sometimes was not as strong as we thought +it at starting, and then we made rather less way than we could wish, +while the current rendered the smack unmanageable. My eldest brother +had a son eighteen years old, and I had two stout boys of my +own. These would have been of great assistance at such times, in using +the sweeps, as well as afterward in fishing--but, somehow, although we +ran the risk ourselves, we had not the heart to let the young ones get +into the danger--for, after all said and done, it _was_ a horrible +danger, and that is the truth. + +"It is now within a few days of three years since what I am going to +tell you occurred. It was on the tenth of July, 18--, a day which the +people of this part of the world will never forget--for it was one in +which blew the most terrible hurricane that ever came out of the +heavens. And yet all the morning, and indeed until late in the +afternoon, there was a gentle and steady breeze from the south-west, +while the sun shone brightly, so that the oldest seamen among us could +not have forseen what was to follow. + +"The three of us--my two brothers and myself--had crossed over to the +islands about two o'clock P.M., and soon nearly loaded the smack with +fine fish, which, we all remarked, were more plenty that day than we +had ever known them. It was just seven, _by my watch,_ when we weighed +and started for home, so as to make the worst of the Ström at slack +water, which we knew would be at eight. + +"We set out with a fresh wind on our starboard quarter, and for some +time spanked along at a great rate, never dreaming of danger, for +indeed we saw not the slightest reason to apprehend it. All at once we +were taken aback by a breeze from over Helseggen. This was most +unusual--something that had never happened to us before--and I began +to feel a little uneasy, without exactly knowing why. We put the boat +on the wind, but could make no headway at all for the eddies, and I +was upon the point of proposing to return to the anchorage, when, +looking astern, we saw the whole horizon covered with a singular +copper-colored cloud that rose with the most amazing velocity. + +"In the meantime the breeze that had headed us off fell away, and we +were dead becalmed, drifting about in every direction. This state of +things, however, did not last long enough to give us time to think +about it. In less than a minute the storm was upon us--in less than +two the sky was entirely overcast--and what with this and the driving +spray, it became suddenly so dark that we could not see each other in +the smack. + +"Such a hurricane as then blew it is folly to attempt describing. The +oldest seaman in Norway never experienced anything like it. We had let +our sails go by the run before it cleverly took us; but, at the first +puff, both our masts went by the board as if they had been sawed +off--the mainmast taking with it my youngest brother, who had lashed +himself to it for safety. + +"Our boat was the lightest feather of a thing that ever sat upon +water. It had a complete flush deck, with only a small hatch near the +bow, and this hatch it had always been our custom to batten down when +about to cross the Ström, by way of precaution against the chopping +seas. But for this circumstance we should have foundered at once--for +we lay entirely buried for some moments. How my elder brother escaped +destruction I cannot say, for I never had an opportunity of +ascertaining. For my part, as soon as I had let the foresail run, I +threw myself flat on deck, with my feet against the narrow gunwale of +the bow, and with my hands grasping a ring-bolt near the foot of the +foremast. It was mere instinct that prompted me to do this--which was +undoubtedly the very best thing I could have done--for I was too much +flurried to think. + +"For some moments we were completely deluged, as I say, and all this +time I held my breath, and clung to the bolt. When I could stand it +no longer I raised myself upon my knees, still keeping hold with my +hands, and thus got my head clear. Presently our little boat gave +herself a shake, just as a dog does in coming out of the water, and +thus rid herself, in some measure, of the seas. I was now trying to +get the better of the stupor that had come over me, and to collect my +senses so as to see what was to be done, when I felt somebody grasp my +arm. It was my elder brother, and my heart leaped for joy, for I had +made sure that he was overboard--but the next moment all this joy was +turned into horror--for he put his mouth close to my ear, and screamed +out the word '_Moskoe-ström_!' + +"No one-will ever know what my feelings were at that moment. I shook +from head to foot as if I had had the most violent fit of the ague. I +knew what he meant by that one word well enough--I knew what he wished +to make me understand. With the wind that now drove us on, we were +bound for the whirl of the Ström, and nothing could save us! + +"You perceive that in crossing the Ström _channel_, we always went a +long way up above the whirl, even in the calmest weather, and then had +to wait and watch carefully for the slack--but now we were driving +right upon the pool itself, and in such a hurricane as this! 'To be +sure,' I thought, 'we shall get there just about the slack--there is +some little hope in that--but in the next moment I cursed myself for +being so great a fool as to dream of hope at all. I knew very well +that we were doomed, had we been ten times a ninety-gun ship. + +"By this time the first fury of the tempest had spent itself, or +perhaps we did not feel it so much as we scudded before it; but at all +events the seas, which at first had been kept down by the wind, and +lay flat and frothing, now got up into absolute mountains. A singular +change, too, had come over the heavens. Around in every direction it +was still as black as pitch, but nearly overhead there burst out, all +at once, a circular rift of clear sky--as clear as I ever saw--and of +a deep bright blue--and through it there blazed forth the full moon +with a lustre that I never before knew her to wear. She lit up +everything about us with the greatest distinctness--but, oh God, what +a scene it was to light up! + +"I now made one or two attempts to speak to my brother--but, in some +manner which I could not understand, the din had so increased that I +could not make him hear a single word, although I screamed at the top +of my voice in his ear. Presently he shook his head, looking as pale +as death, and held up one of his fingers, as if to say _listen_! + +"At first I could not make out what he meant--but soon a hideous +thought flashed upon me. I dragged my watch from its fob. It was not +going. I glanced at its face by the moonlight, and then burst into +tears as I flung it far away into the ocean. _It had run down at seven +o'clock! We were behind the time of the slack, and the whirl of the +Ström was in full fury!_ + +"When a boat is well built, properly trimmed, and not deep laden, the +waves in a strong gale, when she is going large, seem always to slip +from beneath her--which appears very strange to a landsman--and this +is what is called _riding_ in sea phrase. + +"Well, so far we had ridden the swells very cleverly; but presently a +gigantic sea happened to take us right under the counter, and bore us +with it as it rose--up--up--as if into the sky. I would not have +believed that any wave could rise so high. And then down we came with +a sweep, a slide, and a plunge, that made me feel sick and dizzy, as +if I was falling from some lofty mountain-top in a dream. But while we +were up I had thrown a quick glance around--and that one glance was +all sufficient. I saw our exact position in an instant. The +Moskoe-ström whirlpool was about a quarter of a mile dead ahead--but +no more like the every-day Moskoe-ström, than the whirl as you now see +it is like a mill-race. If I had not known where we were, and what we +had to expect, I should not have recognized the place at all. As it +was, I involuntarily closed my eyes in horror. The lids clenched +themselves together as if in a spasm. + +"It could not have been more than two minutes afterwards until we +suddenly felt the waves subside, and were enveloped in foam. The boat +made a sharp half turn to larboard, and then shot off in its new +direction like a thunderbolt. At the same moment the roaring noise of +the water was completely drowned in a kind of shrill shriek--such a +sound as you might imagine given out by the water-pipes of many +thousand steam-vessels, letting off their steam all together. We were +now in the belt of surf that always surrounds the whirl; and I +thought, of course, that another moment would plunge us into the +abyss--down which we could only see indistinctly on account of the +amazing velocity with which we were borne along. The boat did not seem +to sink into the water at all, but to skim like an air-bubble upon the +surface of the surge. Her starboard side was next the whirl, and on +the larboard arose the world of ocean we had left. It stood like a +huge writhing wall between us and the horizon. + +"It may appear strange, but now, when we were in the very jaws of the +gulf, I felt more composed than when we were only approaching +it. Having made up my mind to hope no more, I got rid of a great deal +of that terror which unmanned me at first. I suppose it was despair +that strung my nerves. + +"It may look like boasting--but what I tell you is truth--I began to +reflect how magnificent a thing it was to die in such a manner, and +how foolish it was in me to think of so paltry a consideration as my +own individual life, in view of so wonderful a manifestation of God's +power. I do believe that I blushed with shame when this idea crossed +my mind. After a little while I became possessed with the keenest +curiosity about the whirl itself. I positively felt a _wish_ to +explore its depths, even at the sacrifice I was going to make; and my +principal grief was that I should never be able to tell my old +companions on shore about the mysteries I should see. These, no doubt, +were singular fancies to occupy a man's mind in such extremity--and I +have often thought, since, that the revolutions of the boat around the +pool might have rendered me a little light-headed. + +"There was another circumstance which tended to restore my +self-possession; and this was the cessation of the wind, which could +not reach us in our present situation--for, as you saw yourself, the +belt of surf is considerably lower than the general bed of the ocean, +and this latter now towered above us, a high, black, mountainous +ridge. If you have never been at sea in a heavy gale, you can form no +idea of the confusion of mind occasioned by the wind and spray +together. They blind, deafen, and strangle you, and take away all +power of action or reflection. But we were now, in a great measure, +rid of these annoyances--just as death-condemned felons in prison are +allowed petty indulgences, forbidden them while their doom is yet +uncertain. + +"How often we made the circuit of the belt it is impossible to say. We +careered round and round for perhaps an hour, flying rather than +floating, getting gradually more and more into the middle of the +surge, and then nearer and nearer to its horrible inner edge. All this +time I had never let go of the ring-bolt. My brother was at stern, +holding on to a small empty water-cask which had been securely lashed +under the coop of the counter, and was the only thing on deck that had +not been swept overboard when the gale first took us. As we approached +the brink of the pit he let go his hold upon this, and made for the +ring, from which, in the agony of his terror, he endeavored to force +my hands, as it was not large enough to afford us both a secure +grasp. I never felt deeper grief than when I saw him attempt this +act--although I new he was a madman when he did it--a raving maniac +through sheer fright. I did not care, however, to contest the point +with him. I knew it could make no diference whether either of us held +on at all; so I let him have the bolt, and went astern to the +cask. This there was no great difficulty in doing; for the smack flew +round steadily enough, and upon an even keel--only swaying to and fro, +with the immense sweeps and swelters of the whirl. Scarcely had I +secured myself in my new position, when we gave a wild lurch to +starboard, and rushed headlong into the abyss. I muttered a hurried +prayer to God, and thought all was over. + +"As I felt the sickening sweep of the descent, I had instinctively +tightened my hold upon the barrel, and closed my eyes. For some +seconds I dared not open them--while I expected instant destruction, +and wondered that I was not already in my death-struggles with the +water. But moment after moment elapsed. I still lived. The sense of +falling had ceased; and the motion of the vessel seemed much as it had +been before, while in the belt of foam, with the exception that she +now lay more along. I took courage and looked once again upon the +scene. + +"Never shall I forget the sensations of awe, horror, and admiration +with which I gazed about me. The boat appeared to be hanging, as if by +magic, midway down, upon the interior surface of a funnel vast in +circumference, prodigious in depth, and whose perfectly smooth sides +might have been mistaken for ebony, but for the bewildering rapidity +with which they spun around, and for the gleaming and ghastly radiance +they shot forth, as the rays of the full moon, from that circular rift +amid the clouds, which I have already described, streamed in a flood +of golden glory along the black walls, and far away down into the +inmost recesses of the abyss. + +"At first I was too much confused to observe anything accurately. The +general burst of terrific grandeur was all that I beheld. When I +recovered myself a little, however, my gaze fell instinctively +downward. In this direction I was able to obtain an unobstructed view, +from the manner in which the smack hung on the inclined surface of the +pool. She was quite upon an even keel--that is to say, her deck lay in +a plane parallel with that of the water--but this latter sloped at an +angle of more than forty-five degrees, so that we seemed to be lying +upon our beam-ends. I could not help observing, nevertheless, that I +had scarcely more difficulty in maintaining my hold and footing in +this situation, than if we had been upon a dead level; and this, I +suppose, was owing to the speed at which we revolved. + +"The rays of the moon seemed to search the very bottom of the profound +gulf; but still I could make out nothing distinctly, on account of a +thick mist in which everything there was enveloped, and over which +there hung a magnificent rainbow, like that narrow and tottering +bridge which Mussulmans say is the only pathway between Time and +Eternity. This mist, or spray, was no doubt occasioned by the clashing +of the great walls of the funnel, as they all met together at the +bottom--but the yell that went up to the heavens from out of that +mist, I dare not attempt to describe. + +"Our first slide into the abyss itself, from the belt of foam above, +had carried us to a great distance down the slope; but our farther +descent was by no means proportionate. Round and round we swept--not +with any uniform movement but in dizzying swings and jerks, that sent +us sometimes only a few hundred yards--sometimes nearly the complete +circuit of the whirl. Our progress downward, at each revolution, was +slow, but very perceptible. + +"Looking about me upon the wide waste of liquid ebony on which we were +thus borne, I perceived that our boat was not the only object in the +embrace of the whirl. Both above and below us were visible fragments +of vessels, large masses of building timber and trunks of trees, with +many smaller articles, such as pieces of house furniture, broken +boxes, barrels, and staves. I have already described the unnatural +curiosity which had taken the place of my original terrors. It +appeared to grow upon me as I drew nearer and nearer to my dreadful +doom. I now began to watch, with a strange interest, the numerous +things that floated in our company. I _must_ have been delirious--for +I even sought _amusement_ in speculating upon the relative velocities +of their several descents toward the foam below. 'This fir tree,' I +found myself at one time saying, 'will certainly be the next thing +that takes the awful plunge and disappears,'--and then I was +disappointed to find that the wreck of a Dutch merchant ship overtook +it and went down before. At length, after making several guesses of +this nature, and being deceived in all--this fact--the fact of my +invariable miscalculation, set me upon a train of reflection that made +my limbs again tremble, and my heart beat heavily once more. + +"It was not a new terror that thus affected me, but the dawn of a more +exciting _hope_. This hope arose partly from memory, and partly from +present observation. I called to mind the great variety of buoyant +matter that strewed the coast of Lofoden, having been absorbed and +then thrown forth by the Moskoe-ström. By far the greater number of +the articles were shattered in the most extraordinary way--so chafed +and roughened as to have the appearance of being stuck full of +splinters--but then I distinctly recollected that there were _some_ of +them which were not disfigured at all. Now I could not account for +this difference except by supposing that the roughened fragments were +the only ones which had been _completely absorbed_--that the others +had entered the whirl at so late a period of the tide, or, from some +reason, had descended so slowly after entering, that they did not +reach the bottom before the turn of the flood came, or of the ebb, as +the case might be. I conceived it possible, in either instance, that +they might thus be whirled up again to the level of the ocean, without +undergoing the fate of those which had been drawn in more early or +absorbed more rapidly. I made, also, three important observations. The +first was, that as a general rule, the larger the bodies were, the +more rapid their descent; the second, that, between two masses of +equal extent, the one spherical, and the other _of any other shape,_ +the superiority in speed of descent was with the sphere; the third, +that, between two masses of equal size, the one cylindrical, and the +other of any other shape, the cylinder was absorbed the more slowly. +Since my escape, I have had several conversations on this subject with +an old schoolmaster of the district; and it was from him that I +learned the use of the words 'cylinder' and 'sphere.' He explained to +me--although I have forgotten the explanation--how what I observed +was, in fact, the natural consequence of the forms of the floating +fragments, and showed me how it happened that a cylinder, swimming in +a vortex, offered more resistance to its suction, and was drawn in +with greater difficulty, than an equally bulky body, of any form +whatever.[1] + +[Footnote 1: See Archimedes, _De iis Ques in Humido Vehuntur_, lib +ii.] + +"There was one startling circumstance which went a great way in +enforcing these observations, and rendering me anxious to turn them to +account, and this was that, at every revolution, we passed something +like a barrel, or else the yard or the mast of a vessel, while many of +these things, which had been on our level when I first opened my eyes +upon the wonders of the whirlpool, were now high up above us, and +seemed to have moved but little from their original station. + +"I no longer hesitated what to do. I resolved to lash myself securely +to the water cask upon which I now held, to cut it loose from the +counter, and to throw myself with it into the water. I attracted my +brother's attention by signs, pointed to the floating barrels that +came near us, and did everything in my power to make him understand +what I was about to do. I thought at length that he comprehended my +design--but, whether this was the case or not, he shook his head +despairingly, and refused to move from his station by the ring-bolt. +It was impossible to reach him; the emergency admitted of no delay; +and so, with a bitter struggle, I resigned him to his fate, fastened +myself to the cask by means of the lashings which secured it to the +counter, and precipitated myself with it into the sea, without another +moment's hesitation. + +"The result was precisely what I had hoped it might be. As it is +myself who now tell you this tale--as you see that I _did_ escape--and +as you are already in possession of the mode in which this escape was +effected, and must therefore anticipate all that I have farther to +say--I will bring my story quickly to conclusion. It might have been +an hour, or thereabout, after my quitting the smack, when, having +descended to a vast distance beneath me, it made three or four wild +gyrations in rapid succession, and, bearing my loved brother with it, +plunged headlong, at once and forever, into the chaos of foam +below. The barrel to which I was attached sunk very little farther +than half the distance between the bottom of the gulf and the spot at +which I leaped overboard, before a great change took place in the +character of the whirlpool. The slope of the sides of the vast funnel +became momently less and less steep. The gyrations of the whirl grew, +gradually, less and less violent. By degrees, the froth and the +rainbow disappeared, and the bottom of the gulf seemed slowly to +uprise. The sky was clear, the winds had gone down, and the full moon +was setting radiantly in the west, when I found myself on the surface +of the ocean, in full view of the shores of Lofoden, and above the +spot where the pool of the Moskoe-ström _had been._ It was the 20 hour +of the slack, but the sea still heaved in mountainous waves from the +effects of the hurricane. I was borne violently into the channel of +the Ström, and in a few minutes was hurried down the coast into the +'grounds' of the fishermen. A boat picked me up--exhausted from +fatigue--and (now that the danger was removed) speechless from the +memory of its horror. Those who drew me on board were my old mates +and daily companions, but they knew me no more than they would have +known a traveller from the spirit-land. My hair, which had been +raven-black the day before, was as white as you see it now. They say +too that the whole expression of my countenance had changed. I told +them my story--they did not believe it. I now tell it to you--and I +can scarcely expect you to put more faith in it than did the merry +fishermen of Lofoden." + + + +THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH + + +(NORTHERN ITALY) + +The "Red Death" had long devastated the country. No pestilence had +ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its avatar and its +seal--the redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, +and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with +dissolution. The scarlet stains upon the body, and especially upon the +face, of the victim were the pest ban which shut him out from the aid +and from the sympathy of his fellow-men. And the whole seizure, +progress, and termination of the disease were the incidents of half an +hour. + +But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious. When +his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a +thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and +dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of +one of his castellated abbeys. This was an extensive and magnificent +structure, the creation of the Prince's own eccentric yet august +taste. A strong and lofty wall girdled it in. This wall had gates of +iron. The courtiers, having entered, brought furnaces and massy +hammers, and welded the bolts. They resolved to leave means neither of +ingress or egress to the sudden impulses of despair or of frenzy from +within. The abbey was amply provisioned. With such precautions the +courtiers might bid defiance to contagion. The external world could +take care of itself. In the meantime it was folly to grieve, or to +think. The Prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure. There +were buffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballet-dancers, +there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine. All these and +security were within. Without was the "Red Death." + +It was toward the close of the fifth or sixth month of his seclusion, +and while the pestilence raged most furiously abroad, that the Prince +Prospero entertained his thousand friends at a masked ball of the most +unusual magnificence. + +It was a voluptuous scene, that masquerade. But first let me tell of +the rooms in which it was held. There were seven--an imperial +suite. In many palaces, however, such suites form a long and straight +vista, while the folding-doors slide back nearly to the walls on +either hand, so that the view of the whole extent is scarcely +impeded. Here the case was very different, as might have been expected +from the Prince's love of the bizarre. The apartments were so +irregularly disposed that the vision embraced but little more than one +at a time. There was a sharp turn at every twenty or thirty yards, +and at each turn a novel effect. To the right and left, in the middle +of each wall, a tall and narrow Gothic window looked out upon a closed +corridor which pursued the windings of the suite. These windows were +of stained glass, whose color varied in accordance with the prevailing +hue of the decorations of the chamber into which it opened. That at +the eastern extremity was hung, for example, in blue--and vividly blue +were its windows. The second chamber was purple in its ornaments and +tapestries, and here the panes were purple. The third was green +throughout, and so were the casements. The fourth was furnished and +lighted with orange, the fifth with white, the sixth with violet. The +seventh apartment was closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that +hung all over the ceiling and down the walls, falling in heavy folds +upon a carpet of the same material and hue. But, in this chamber only, +the color of the windows failed to correspond with the decorations. +The panes here were scarlet--a deep blood-color. Now in no one of the +seven apartments was there any lamp or candelabrum, amid the profusion +of golden ornaments that lay scattered to and fro or depended from the +roof. There was no light of any kind emanating from lamp or candle +within the suite of chambers. But in the corridors that followed the +suite there stood, opposite to each window, a heavy tripod, bearing a +brazier of fire, that projected its rays through the tinted glass and +so glaringly illumined the room. And thus were produced a multitude of +gaudy and fantastic appearances. But in the western or black chamber +the effect of the firelight that streamed upon the dark hangings +through the blood-tinted panes was ghastly in the extreme, and +produced so wild a look upon the countenances of those who entered +that there were few of the company bold enough to set foot within its +precincts at all. + +It was in this apartment, also, that there stood against the western +wall a gigantic clock of ebony. Its pendulum swung to and fro with a +dull, heavy, monotonous clang; and when the minute-hand made the +circuit of the face, and the hour was to be stricken, there came from +the brazen lungs of the clock a sounct which was clear and loud and +deep and exceedingly musical, but of so peculiars note and emphasis +that, at each lapse of an hour, the musicians of the orchestra were +constrained to pause, momentarily, in their performance, to hearken to +the sound; and thus the waltzers perforce ceased their evolutions; and +there was a brief disconcert of the whole gay company; and, while the +chimes of the clock yet rang, it was observed that the giddiest grew +pale, and the more aged and sedate passed their hands over their brows +as if in confused revery or meditation. But when the echoes had fully +ceased, a light laughter at once pervaded the assembly; the musicians +looked at each other and smiled as if at their own nervousness and +folly, and made whispering vows, each to the other, that the next +chiming of the clock should produce in them no similar emotion; and +then, after the lapse of sixty minutes (which embrace three thousand +and six hundred seconds of the Time that flies) there came yet another +chiming of the clock, and then were the same disconcert and +tremulousness and meditation as before. + +But, in spite of these things, it was a gay and magnificent revel. The +tastes of the Prince were peculiar. He had a fine eye for colors and +effects. He disregarded the _decora_ of mere fashion. His plans were +bold and fiery, and his conceptions glowed with barbaric lustre. There +are some who would have thought him mad. His followers felt that he +was not. It was necessary to hear and see and touch him to be _sure_ +that he was not. + +He had directed, in great part, the movable embellishments of the +seven chambers, upon occasion of this great _fête_; and it was his own +guiding taste which had given character to the masqueraders. Be sure +they were grotesque. There were much glare and glitter and piquancy +and phantasm--much of what has been since seen in _Hernani_. There +were arabesque figures with unsuited limbs and appointments. There +were delirious fancies such as the madman fashions. There was much of +the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of +the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited +disgust. To and fro in the seven chambers there stalked, in fact, a +multitude of dreams. And these--the dreams--writhed in and about, +taking hue from the rooms, and causing the wild music of the orchestra +to seem as the echo of their steps. And, anon, there strikes the ebony +clock which stands in the hall of the velvet. And then, for a moment, +all is still, and all is silent save the voice of the clock. The +dreams are stiff-frozen as they stand. But the echoes of the chime die +away--they have endured but an instant--and a light, half-subdued +laughter floats after them as they depart. And now again the music +swells, and the dreams live, and writhe to and fro more merrily than +ever, taking hue from the many tinted windows through which stream the +rays from the tripods. But to the chamber which lies most westwardly +of the seven, there are now none of the maskers who venture; for the +night is waning away, and there flows a ruddier light through the +blood-colored panes; and the blackness of the sable drapery appalls; +and to him whose foot falls upon the sable carpet, there comes from +the near clock of ebony a muffled peal more solemnly emphatic than any +which reaches _their_ ears who indulge in the more remote gayeties of +the other apartments. + +But these other apartments were densely crowded, and in them beat +feverishly the heart of life. And the revel went whirlingly on, until +at length there commenced the sounding of midnight upon the clock. And +then the music ceased, as I have told; and the evolutions of the +waltzers were quieted; and there was an uneasy cessation of all things +as before. But now there were twelve strokes to be sounded by the bell +of the clock; and thus it happened, perhaps, that more of thought +crept, with more of time, into the meditations of the thoughtful among +those who revelled. And thus too it happened, perhaps, that before the +last echoes of the last chime had utterly sunk into silence, there +were many individuals in the crowd who had found leisure to become +aware of the presence of a masked figure which had arrested the +attention of no single individual before. And the rumor of this new +presence having spread itself whisperingly around, there arose at +length from the whole company a buzz, or murmur, expressive of +disapprobation and surprise--then, finally, of terror, of horror, and +of disgust. + +In an assembly of phantasms such as I have painted, it may well be +supposed that no ordinary appearance could have excited such +sensation. In truth the masquerade license of the night was nearly +unlimited; but the figure in question had out-Heroded Herod, and gone +beyond the bounds of even the Prince's indefinite decorum. There are +chords in the hearts of the most reckless which cannot be touched +without emotion. Even with the utterly lost, to whom life and death +are equally jests, there are matters of which no jest can be made. The +whole company, indeed, seemed now deeply to feel that in the costume +and bearing of the stranger neither wit nor propriety existed. The +figure was tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the +habiliments of the grave. The mask which concealed the visage was made +so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse that the +closest scrutiny must have had difficulty in detecting the cheat. And +yet all this might have been endured, if not approved, by the mad +revellers around. But the mummer had gone so far as to assume the type +of the Red Death. His vesture was dabbled in _blood_--and his broad +brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the +scarlet horror. + +When the eyes of Prince Prospero fell upon this spectral image (which +with a slow and solemn movement, as if more fully to sustain its +_role_, stalked to and fro among the waltzers) he was seen to be +convulsed, in the first moment, with a strong shudder either of terror +or distaste; but, in the next, his brow reddened with rage. + +"Who dares?" he demanded hoarsely of the courtiers who stood near +him--"who dares insult us with this blasphemous mockery? Seize him and +unmask him--that we may know whom we have to hang at sunrise, from the +battlements!" + +It was in the eastern or blue chamber in which stood the Prince +Prospero as he uttered these words. They rang throughout the seven +rooms loudly and clearly--for the Prince was a bold and robust man, +and the music had become hushed at the waving of his hand. + +It was in the blue room where stood the Prince, with a group of pale +courtiers by his side. At first, as he spoke, there was a slight +rushing movement of this group in the direction of the intruder, who +at the moment was also near at hand, and now, with deliberate and +stately step, made closer approach to the speaker. But from a certain +nameless awe with which the mad assumptions of the mummer had inspired +the whole party, there were found none who put forth hand to seize +him; so that, unimpeded, he passed within a yard of the Prince's +person; and, while the vast assembly, as if with one impulse, shrank +from the centres of the rooms to the walls, he made his way +uninterruptedly, but with the same solemn and measured step which had +distinguished him from the first, through the blue chamber to the +purple--through the purple to the green--through the green to the +orange--through this again to the white--and even thence to the +violet, ere a decided movement had been made to arrest him. It was +then, however, that the Prince Prospero, maddening with rage and the +shame of his own momentary cowardice, rushed hurriedly through the six +chambers, while none followed him on account of a deadly terror that +had seized upon all. He bore aloft a drawn dagger, and had approached, +in rapid impetuosity, to within three or four feet of the retreating +figure, when the latter, having attained the extremity of the velvet +apartment, turned suddenly and confronted his pursuer. There was a +sharp cry--and the dagger dropped gleaming upon the sable carpet, +upon which, instantly afterwards, fell prostrate in death the Prince +Prospero. Then, summoning the wild courage of despair, a throng of the +revellers at once threw themselves into the black apartment, and, +seizing the mummer, whose tall figure stood erect and motionless +within the shadow of the ebony clock, gasped in unutterable horror at +finding the grave cerements and corpse-like mask, which they handled +with so violent a rudeness, untenanted by any tangible form. + +And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come +like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the +blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing +posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with +that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. +And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion +over all. + + +THE GOLD BUG + + What ho! what ho! this fellow is dancing mad! + He hath been bitten by the Tarantula. + _All in the Wrong_ + + +Many years ago, I contracted an intimacy with a Mr. William Legrand. +He was of an ancient Huguenot family, and had once been wealthy; but a +series of misfortunes had reduced him to want. To avoid the +mortification consequent upon his disasters, he left New Orleans, the +city of his fore-fathers, and took up his residence at Sullivan's +Island, near Charleston, South Carolina. + +This island is a very singular one. It consists of little else than +the sea sand, and is about three miles long. Its breadth at no point +exceeds a quarter of a mile. It is separated from the mainland by a +scarcely perceptible creek, oozing its way through a wilderness of +reeds and slime, a favorite resort of the marsh-hen. The vegetation, +as might be supposed, is scant, or at least dwarfish. No trees of any +magnitude are to be seen. Near the western extremity, where Fort +Moultrie stands, and where are some miserable frame buildings, +tenanted during summer by the fugitives from Charleston dust and +fever, may be found, indeed, the bristly palmetto; but the whole +island, with the exception of this western point, and a line of hard +white beach on the seacoast, is covered with a dense undergrowth of +the sweet myrtle, so much prized by the horticulturists of England. +The shrub here often attains the height of fifteen or twenty feet, and +forms an almost impenetrable coppice, burdening the air with its +fragrance. + +In the utmost recesses of this coppice, not far from the eastern or +more remote end of the island, Legrand had built himself a small hut, +which he occupied when I first, by mere accident, made his +acquaintance. This soon ripened into, friendship--for there was much +in the recluse to excite interest and esteem. I found him well +educated, with unusual powers of mind, but infected with misanthropy, +and subject to perverse moods of alternate enthusiasm and melancholy. +He had with him many books, but rarely employed them. His chief +amusements were gunning and fishing, or sauntering along the beach and +through the myrtles in quest of shells or entomological +specimens;--his collection of the latter might have been envied by a +Swammerdamm. In these excursions he was usually accompanied by an old +negro, called Jupiter, who had been manumitted before the reverses of +the family, but who could be induced, neither by threats nor by +promises, to abandon what he considered his right of attendance upon +the footsteps of his young "Massa Will." It is not improbable that the +relatives of Legrand, conceiving him to be somewhat unsettled in +intellect, had contrived to instil this obstinacy into Jupiter, with a +view to the supervision and guardianship of the wanderer. + +The winters in the latitude of Sullivan's Island are seldom very +severe, and in the fall of the year it is a rare event indeed when a +fire is considered necessary. About the middle of October, 18--, there +occurred, however, a day of remarkable chilliness. Just before sunset +I scrambled my way through the evergreens to the hut of my friend, +whom I had not visited for several weeks--my residence being at that +time in Charleston, a distance of nine miles from the island, while +the facilities of passage and re-passage were very far behind those of +the present day. Upon reaching the hut I rapped, as was my custom, +and, getting no reply, sought for the key where I knew it was +secreted, unlocked the door and went in. A fine fire was blazing upon +the hearth. It was a novelty, and by no means an ungrateful one. I +threw off an overcoat, took an armchair by the crackling logs, and +awaited patiently the arrival of my hosts. + +Soon after dark they arrived, and gave me a most cordial +welcome. Jupiter, grinning from ear to ear, bustled about to prepare +some marsh-hens for supper. Legrand was in one of his fits--how else +shall I term them?--of enthusiasm. He had found an unknown bivalve, +forming a new genus, and, more than this, he had hunted down and +secured, with Jupiter's assistance, a _scarabæus_ which he believed to +be totally new, but in respect to which he wished to have my opinion +on the morrow. + +"And why not to-night?" I asked, rubbing my hands over the blaze, and +wishing the whole tribe of _scarabæi_ at the devil. + +"Ah, if I had only known you were here!" said Legrand, "but it's so +long since I saw you; and how could I foresee that you would pay me a +visit this very night of all others? As I was coming home I met +Lieutenant G----, from the fort, and, very foolishly, I lent him the +bug; so it will be impossible for you to see it until the +morning. Stay here to-night, and I will send Jup down for it at +sunrise. It is the loveliest thing in creation!" + +"What?--sunrise?" + +"Nonsense! no!--the bug. It is of a brilliant gold color--about the +size of a large hickory-nut--with two jet black spots near one +extremity of the back, and another, somewhat longer, at the other. The +_antennæ_ are--" + +"Dey aint _no_ tin in him, Massa Will, I keep a tellin on you," here +interrupted Jupiter; "de bug is a goole-bug, solid, ebery bit of him, +inside and all, sep him wing--neber-feel half so hebby a bug in my +life." + +"Well, suppose it is, Jup," replied Legrand, somewhat more earnestly, +it seemed to me, than the case demanded, "is that any reason for your +letting the birds burn? The color"--here he turned to me--"is really +almost enough to warrant Jupiter's idea. You never saw a more +brilliant metallic lustre than the scales emit--but of this you cannot +judge till to-morrow. In the meantime I can give you some idea of the +shape." Saying this, he seated himself at a small table, on which were +a pen and ink, but no paper. He looked for some in a drawer, but found +none. + +"Never mind," said he at length, "this will answer;" and he drew from +his waistcoat pocket a scrap of what I took to be very dirty foolscap, +and made upon it a rough drawing with the pen. While he did this, I +retained my seat by the fire, for I was still chilly. When the design +was complete, he handed it to me without rising. As I received it, a +low growl was heard, succeeded by a scratching at the door. Jupiter +opened it, and a large Newfoundland, belonging to Legrand, rushed in, +leaped upon my shoulders, and loaded me with caresses; for I had shown +him much attention during previous visits. When his gambols were +over, I looked at the paper, and, to speak the truth, found myself not +a little puzzled at what my friend had depicted. + +"Well!" I said, after contemplating it for some minutes, "this _is_ a +strange _scarabæus_, I must confess; new to me: never saw anything +like it before--unless it was a skull, or a death's-head, which it +more nearly resembles than anything else that has come under _my_ +observation." + +"A death's-head!" echoed Legrand--"oh--yes--well, it has something of +that appearance upon paper, no doubt. The two upper black spots look +like eyes, eh? and the longer one at the bottom like a mouth--and then +the shape of the whole is oval." + +"Perhaps so," said I; "but, Legrand, I fear you are no artist. I must +wait until I see the beetle itself, if I am to form any idea of its +personal appearance." + +"We'll, I don't know," said he, a little nettled, "I draw +tolerably--_should_ do it at least--have had good masters, and flatter +myself that I am not quite a blockhead." + +"But, my dear fellow, you are joking then," said I; "this is a very +passable _skull_,--indeed, I may say that it is a very _excellent_ +skull, according to the vulgar notions about such specimens of +physiology--and your _scarabæus_ must be the queerest _scarabæus_ +in the world if it resembles it. Why, we may get up a very thrilling +bit of superstition upon this hint. I presume you will call the bug +_scarabæus caput hominis_, or something of that kind--there are +many similar titles in the Natural Histories. But where are the +_antennae_ you spoke of?" "The _antennae_!" said Legrand, who seemed +to be getting unaccountably warm upon the subject; "I am sure you must +see the _antennae_. I made them as distinct as they are in the +original insect, and I presume that is sufficient." + +"Well, well," I said, "perhaps you have--still I don't see them;" and +I handed him the paper without additional remark, not wishing to +ruffle his temper, but I was much surprised at the turn affairs had +taken; his ill humor puzzled me--and as for the drawing of the +beetle, there were positively _no antennae_ visible, and the whole +_did_ bear a very close resemblance to the ordinary cuts of a +death's-head. + +He received the paper very peevishly, and was about to crumple it, +apparently to throw it in the fire, when a casual glance at the design +seemed suddenly to rivet his attention. In an instant his face grew +violently red--in another as excessively pale. For some minutes he +continued to scrutinize the drawing minutely where he sat. At length +he arose, took a candle from the table, and proceeded to seat himself +upon a sea-chest in the farthest corner of the room. Here again he +made an anxious examination of the paper; turning it in all +directions. He said nothing, however, and his conduct greatly +astonished me; yet I thought it prudent not to exacerbate the growing +moodiness of his temper by any comment. Presently he took from his +coat pocket a wallet, placed the paper carefully in it, and deposited +both in a writing-desk, which he locked. He now grew more composed in +his demeanor; but his original air of enthusiasm had quite +disappeared. Yet he seemed not so much sulky as abstracted. As the +evening wore away he became more and more absorbed in revery, from +which no sallies of mine could arouse him. It had been my intention to +pass the night at the hut, as I had frequently done before, but, +seeing my host in this mood, I deemed it proper to take leave. He did +not press me to remain, but, as I departed, he shook my hand with even +more than his usual cordiality. + +It was about a month after this (and during the interval I had seen +nothing of Legrand) when I received a visit, at Charleston, from his +man, Jupiter. I had never seen the good old negro look so dispirited, +and I feared that some serious disaster had befallen my friend. + +"Well, Jup," said I, "what is the matter now?--how is your master?" + +"Why, to speak de troof, massa, him not so berry well as mought be." + +"Not well! I am truly sorry to hear it. What does he complain of?" + +"Dar! dat's it!--him neber plain of notin--but him berry sick for all +dat." + +"_Very_ sick, Jupiter!--why didn't you say so at once? Is he confined +to bed?" + +"No, dat he aint!--he aint find nowhar--dat's just whar de shoe +pinch--my mind is got to be berry hebby bout poor Massa Will." + +"Jupiter, I should like to understand what it is you are talking +about. You say your master is sick. Hasn't he told you what ails +him?" + +"Why, massa, taint worf while for to git mad bout de matter--Massa +Will say noffin at all aint de matter wid him--but den what make him +go about looking dis here way, wid he head down and he soldiers up, +and as white as a gose? And den he keep a syphon all de time--" + +"Keeps a what, Jupiter?" + +"Keeps a syphon wid de figgurs on de slate--de queerest figgurs I +ebber did see. Ise gittin to be skeered, I tell you. Hab for to keep +mighty tight eye pon him noovers. Todder day he gib me slip fore de +sun up and was gone de whole ob de blessed day. I had a big stick +ready cut for to gib him d------d good beating when he did come--but +Ise sich a fool dat I hadn't de heart arter all--he look so berry +poorly." + +"Eh?--what?--ah yes!--upon the whole I think you had better not be too +severe with the poor fellow--don't flog him, Jupiter--he can't very +well stand it--but can you form no idea of what has occasioned this +illness, or rather this change of conduct? Has anything unpleasant +happened since I saw you?" + +"No, massa, dey aint bin noffin onpleasant _since_ den--it 'twas +_fore_ den I'm feared--'twas de berry day you was dare." + +"How? what do you mean?" + +"Why, massa, I mean de bug--dare now." + +"The what?" + +"De bug--I'm berry sartin dat Massa Will bin bit somewhere bout de +head by dat goole-bug." + +"And what cause have you, Jupiter, for such a supposition?" + +"Claws enuff, massa, and mouff too. I nebber did see sich a d------d +bug--he kick and he bite ebery ting what cum near him. Massa Will +cotch him fuss, but had for to let him go gin mighty quick, I tell +you--den was de time he must ha got de bite. I didn't like de look ob +de bug mouff, myself, no how, so I wouldn't take hold ob him wid my +finger, but I cotch him wid a piece ob paper dat I found. I rap him up +in de paper and stuff piece of it in he mouff--dat was de way." + +"And you think, then, that your master was really bitten by the +beetle, and that the bite made him sick?" + +"I don't tink noffin about it--I nose it. What make him dream bout de +goole so much, if taint cause he bit by de goole-bug? Ise heerd bout +dem goole-bugs fore dis." + +"But how do you know he dreams about gold?" + +"How I know? why, cause he talk about it in he sleep--dat's how I +nose." + +"Well, Jup, perhaps you are right; but to what fortunate circumstance +am I to attribute the honor of a visit from you to-day?" + +"What de matter, massa?" + +"Did you bring any message from Mr. Legrand?" + +"No, massa, I bring dis here pissel;" and here Jupiter handed me a +note which ran thus: + + +"MY DEAR ----, Why have I not seen you for so long a time? I hope you +have not been so foolish as to take offence at any little _brusquerie_ +of mine; but no, that is improbable. + +"Since I saw you I have had great cause for anxiety. I have something +to tell you, yet scarcely know how to tell it, or whether I should +tell it at all. + +"I have not been quite well for some days past, and poor old Jup +annoys me, almost beyond endurance, by his well-meant attentions. +Would you believe it?--he had prepared a huge stick, the other day, +with which to chastise me for giving him the slip, and spending the +day, _solus_, among the hills on the mainland. I verily believe that +my ill looks alone saved me a flogging. + +"I have made no addition to my cabinet since we met. + +"If you can, in any way, make it convenient, come over with Jupiter. +_Do_ come. I wish to see you _to-night_, upon business of importance. +I assure you that it is of the _highest_ importance. + +"Ever yours, +"WILLIAM LEGRAND." + + +There was something in the tone of this note which gave me great +uneasiness. Its whole style differed materially from that of Legrand. +What could he be dreaming of? What new crotchet possessed his +excitable brain? What "business of the highest importance" could _he_ +possibly have to transact? Jupiter's account of him boded no good. I +dreaded lest the continued pressure of misfortune had, at length, +fairly unsettled the reason of my friend. Without a moment's +hesitation, therefore, I prepared to accompany the negro. + +Upon reaching the wharf, I noticed a scythe and three spades, all +apparently new, lying in the bottom of the boat in which we were to +embark. + +"What is the meaning of all this, Jup?" I inquired. + +"Him syfe, massa, and spade." + +"Very true; but what are they doing here? + +"Him de syfe and de spade what Massa Will sis pon my buying for him in +de town, and de debbil's own lot of money I had to gib for em." + +"But what, in the name of all that is mysterious, is your 'Massa Will' +going to do with scythes and spades?" + +"Dat's more dan _I_ know, and debbil take me if I don't blieve 'tis +more dan he know, too. But it's all cum ob de bug." + +Finding that no satisfaction was to be obtained of Jupiter, whose +whole intellect seemed to be absorbed by "de bug," I now stepped into +the boat and made sail. With a fair and strong breeze we soon ran into +the little cove to the northward of Fort Moultrie, and a walk of some +two miles brought us to the hut. It was about three in the afternoon +when we arrived. Legrand had been awaiting us in eager expectation. +He grasped my hand with a nervous _empressement_, which alarmed me and +strengthened the suspicions already entertained. His countenance was +pale even to ghastliness, and his deep-set eyes glared with unnatural +lustre. After some inquiries respecting his health, I asked him, not +knowing what better to say, if he had yet obtained the _scarabæus_ +from Lieutenant G----. + +"Oh, yes," he replied, coloring violently, "I got it from him the next +morning. Nothing should tempt me to part with that _scarabæus_. Do +you know that Jupiter is quite right about it?" + +"In what way?" I asked, with a sad foreboding at heart. + +"In supposing it to be a bug of _real gold_." He said this with an air +of profound seriousness, and I felt inexpressibly shocked. + +"This bug is to make my fortune," he continued, with a triumphant +smile, "to reinstate me in my family possessions. Is it any wonder, +then, that I prize it? Since Fortune has thought fit to bestow it upon +me, I have only to use it properly and I shall arrive at the gold of +which it is the index. Jupiter, bring me that _scarabæus_!" + +"What! de bug, massa? I'd rudder not go fer trubble dat bug--you mus +git him for your own self." Hereupon Legrand arose, with a grave and +stately air, and brought me the beetle from a glass case in which it +was enclosed. It was a beautiful _scarabæus_, and, at that time, +unknown to naturalists--of course a great prize in a scientific point +of view. There were two round, black spots near one extremity of the +back, and a long one near the other. The scales were exceedingly hard +and glossy, with all the appearance of burnished gold. The weight of +the insect was very remarkable, and, taking all things into +consideration, I could hardly blame Jupiter for his opinion respecting +it; but what to make of Legrand's agreement with that opinion, I could +not, for the life of me, tell. + +"I sent for you," said he, in a grandiloquent tone, when I had +completed my examination of the beetle, "I sent for you that I might +have your counsel and assistance in furthering the views of Fate and +of the bug--" + +"My dear Legrand," I cried, interrupting him, "you are certainly +unwell, and had better use some little precautions. You shall go to +bed, and I will remain with you a few days, until you get over +this. You are feverish and--" + +"Feel my pulse," said he. + +I felt it, and, to say the truth, found not the slightest indication +of fever. + +"But you may be ill, and yet have no fever. Allow me this once to +prescribe for you. In the first place, go to bed. In the next--" + +"You are mistaken," he interposed, "I am as well as I can expect to be +under the excitement which I suffer. If you really wish me well, you +will relieve this excitement." + +"And how is this to be done?" + +"Very easily. Jupiter and myself are going upon an expedition into the +hills, upon the mainland, and, in this expedition, we shall need the +aid of some person in whom we can confide. You are the only one we can +trust. Whether we succeed or fail, the excitement which you now +perceive in me will be equally allayed." + +"I am anxious to oblige you in any way," I replied; "but do you mean +to say that this infernal beetle has any connection with your +expedition into the hills?" + +"It has." + +"Then, Legrand, I can become a party to no such absurd proceeding." + +"I am sorry--very sorry--for we shall have to try it by ourselves." + +"Try it by yourselves! The man is surely mad!--but stay--how long do +you propose to be absent?" + +"Probably all night. We shall start immediately, and be back, at all +events, by sunrise." + +"And will you promise me, upon your honor, that when this freak of +yours is over, and the bug business (good God!) settled to your +satisfaction, you will then return home and follow my advice +implicitly, as that of your physician?" + +"Yes; I promise; and now let us be off, for we have no time to lose." + +With a heavy heart I accompanied my friend. We started about four +o'clock--Legrand, Jupiter, the dog, and myself. Jupiter had with him +the scythe and spades--the whole of which he insisted upon carrying, +more through fear, it seemed to me, of trusting either of the +implements within reach of his master, than from any excess of +industry or complaisance His demeanor was dogged in the extreme, and +"dat d----d bug" were the sole words which escaped his lips during the +journey. For my own part, I had charge of a couple of dark lanterns, +while Legrand contented himself with the _scarabæus,_ which he +carried attached to the end of a bit of whip-cord; twirling it to and +fro, with the air of a conjurer, as he went. When I observed this +last, plain evidence of my friend's aberation of mind, I could +scarcely refrain from tears. I thought it best, however, to humor his +fancy, at least for the present, or until I could adopt some more +energetic measures with a chance of success. In the meantime I +endeavored, but all in vain, to sound him in regard to the object of +the expedition. Having succeeded in inducing me to accompany him, he +seemed unwilling to hold conversation upon any topic of minor +importance, and to all my questions vouchsafed no other reply than "we +shall see!" + +We crossed the creek at the head of the island by means of a skiff, +and, ascending the high grounds on the shore of the mainland, +proceeded in a northwesterly direction, through a tract of country +excessively wild and desolate, where no trace of a human footstep was +to be seen. Legrand led the way with decision; pausing only for an +instant, here and there, to consult what appeared to be certain +landmarks of his own contrivance upon a former occasion. + +In this manner we journeyed for about two hours, and the sun was just +setting when we entered a region infinitely more dreary than any yet +seen. It was a species of tableland, near the summit of an almost +inaccessible hill, densely wooded from base to pinnacle, and +interspersed with huge crags that appeared to lie loosely upon the +soil, and in many cases were prevented from precipitating themselves +into the valleys below merely by the support of the trees against +which they reclined. Deep ravines, in various directions, gave an air +of still sterner solemnity to the scene. + +The natural platform to which we had clambered was thickly overgrown +with brambles, through which we soon discovered that it would have +been impossible to force our way but for the scythe; and Jupiter, by +direction of his master, proceeded to clear for us a path to the foot +of an enormously tall tulip tree, which stood, with some eight or ten +oaks, upon the level, and far surpassed them all, and all other trees +which I had then ever seen, in the beauty of its foliage and form, in +the wide spread of its branches, and in the general majesty of its +appearance. When we reached this tree, Legrand turned to Jupiter, and +asked him if he thought he could climb it. The old man seemed a little +staggered by the question, and for some moments made no reply. At +length he approached the huge trunk, walked slowly around it, and +examined it with minute attention. When he had completed his scrutiny, +he merely said: + +"Yes, massa, Jup climb any tree he ebber see in he life." + +"Then up with you as soon as possible, for it will soon be too dark to +see what we are about." + +"How far mus go up, massa?" inquired Jupiter. + +"Get up the main trunk first, and then I will tell you which way to +go--and here--stop! take this beetle with you." + +"De bug, Massa Will!--de goole-bug!" cried the negro, drawing back in +dismay--"what for mus tote de bug way up de tree?--d--n if I do!" + +"If you are afraid, Jup, a great big negro like you, to take hold of a +harmless little dead beetle, why, you can carry it up by this +string--but, if you do not take it up with you in some way, I shall be +under the necessity of breaking your head with this shovel." + +"What de matter now, massa?" said Jup, evidently shamed into +compliance; "always want fur to raise fuss wid old nigger. Was only +funnin anyhow. _Me_ feered de bug! what I keer for de bug?" Here he +took cautiously hold of the extreme end of the string, and, +maintaining the insect as far from his person as circumstances would +permit, prepared to ascend the tree. + +In youth, the tulip tree, or _Liriodendron Tulipifera_, the most +magnificent of American foresters, has a trunk peculiarly smooth, and +often rises to a great height without lateral branches; but, in its +riper age, the bark becomes gnarled and uneven, while many short limbs +make their appearance on the stem. Thus the difficulty of ascension, +in the present case, lay more in semblance than in reality. Embracing +the huge cylinder, as closely as possible, with his arms and knees, +seizing with his hands some projections, and resting his naked toes +upon others, Jupiter, after one or two narrow escapes from falling, at +length wriggled himself into the first great fork, and seemed to +consider the whole business as virtually accomplished. The _risk_ of +the achievement was, in fact, now over, although the climber was some +sixty or seventy feet from the ground. + +"Which way mus go now, Massa Will?" he asked. + +"Keep up the largest branch,--the one on this side," said Legrand. The +negro obeyed him promptly, and apparently with but little trouble, +ascending higher and higher, until no glimpse of his squat figure +could be obtained through the dense foliage which enveloped it. +Presently his voice was heard in a sort of halloo. + +"How much fudder is got for go?" + +"How high up are you?" asked Legrand. + +"Ebber so fur," replied the negro; "can see de sky fru de top ob de +tree." + +"Never mind the sky, but attend to what I say. Look down the trunk and +count the limbs below you on this side. How many limbs have you +passed?" + +"One, two, tree, four, fibe--I done pass fibe big limb, massa, pon dis +side." + +"Then go one limb higher." + +In a few minutes the voice was heard again, announcing that the +seventh limb was attained. + +"Now, Jup," cried Legrand, evidently much excited, "I want you to work +your way out upon that limb as far as you can. If you see anything +strange, let me know." + +By this time what little doubt I might have entertained of my poor +friend's insanity was put finally at rest. I had no alternative but to +conclude him stricken with lunacy, and I became seriously anxious +about getting him home. While I was pondering upon what was best to be +done, Jupiter's voice was again heard. + +"Mos feerd for to ventur pon dis limb berry far--'tis dead limb putty +much all de way." + +"Did you say it was a _dead_ limb, Jupiter?" cried Legrand in a +quavering voice. + +"Yes, massa, him dead as de door-nail--done up for sartain--done +departed dis here life." + +"What in the name of heaven shall I do?" asked Legrand, seemingly in +the greatest distress. + +"Do!" said I, glad of an opportunity to interpose a word, "why come +home and go to bed. Come now!--that's a fine fellow. It's getting +late, and, besides, you remember your promise." + +"Jupiter," cried he, without heeding me in the least, "do you hear +me?" + +"Yes, Massa Will, hear you ebber so plain." + +"Try the wood well, then, with your knife, and see if you think it +_very_ rotten." + +"Him rotten, massa, sure nuff," replied the negro in a few moments, +"but not so berry rotten as mought be. Mought ventur out leetle way +pon de limb by myself, dat's true." + +"By yourself?--what do you mean?" + +"Why, I mean de bug. 'Tis _berry_ hebby bug. Spose I drop him down +fuss, and den de limb won't break wid just de weight ob one nigger." + +"You infernal scoundrel!" cried Legrand, apparently much relieved, +"what do you mean by telling me such nonsense as that? As sure as you +let that beetle fall, I'll break your neck. Look here, Jupiter! do +you hear me?" + +"Yes, massa, needn't hollo at poor nigger dat style." + +"Well! now listen!--if you will venture out on the limb as far as you +think safe, and not let go the beetle, I'll make you a present of a +silver dollar as soon as you get down." + +"I'm gwine, Massa Will--deed I is," replied the negro very +promptly--"mos out to the eend now." + +"_Out to the end!_" here fairly screamed Legrand, "do you say you are +out to the end of that limb?" + +"Soon be to de eend, massa,--o-o-o-o-oh! Lor-gol-a-marcy! what _is_ +dis here pon de tree?" + +"Well!" cried Legrand, highly delighted, "what is it?" + +"Why taint noffin but a skull--somebody bin lef him head up de tree, +and de crows done gobble ebery bit ob de meat off." + +"A skull, you say!--very well!--how is it fastened to the limb?--what +holds it on?" + +"Sure nuff, massa; mus look. Why, dis berry curous sarcumstance, pon +my word--dare's a great big nail in de skull, what fastens ob it on to +de tree." + +"Well now, Jupiter, do exactly as I tell you--do you hear?" + +"Yes, massa." + +"Pay attention, then!--find the left eye of the skull." + +"Hum! hoo! dat 's good! why, dar ain't no eye lef at all." + +"Curse your stupidity! do you know your right hand from your left?" + +Yes, I nose dat--nose all bout dat--'tis my lef hand what I chops de +wood wid." + +"To be sure! you are left-handed; and your left eye is on the same +side as your left hand. Now, I suppose, you can find the left eye of +the skull, or the place where the left eye has been. Have you found +it?" + +Here was a long pause. At length the negro asked, "Is de lef eye of de +skull pon de same side as de lef hand of de skull, too?--cause de +skull ain't got not a bit ob a hand at all--nebber mind! I got de lef +eye now--here de lef eye! what mus do wid it?" + +"Let the beetle drop through it, as far as the string will reach--but +be careful and not let go your hold of the string." + +"All dat done, Massa Will; mighty easy ting for to put de bug fru de +hole--look out for him dar below!" + +During this colloquy no portion of Jupiter's person could be seen; but +the beetle, which he had suffered to descend, was now visible at the +end of the string, and glistened like a globe of burnished gold in the +last rays of the setting sun, some of which still faintly illumined +the eminence upon which we stood. The _scarabæus_ hung quite clear of +any branches, and, if allowed to fall, would have fallen at our +feet. Legrand immediately took the scythe, and cleared with it a +circular space, three or four yards in diameter, just beneath the +insect, and, having accomplished this, ordered Jupiter to let go the +string and come down from the tree. + +Driving a peg, with great nicety, into the ground at the precise spot +where the beetle fell, my friend now produced from his pocket a +tape-measure. Fastening one end of this at that point of the trunk of +the tree which was nearest the peg, he unrolled it till it reached the +peg, and thence farther unrolled it, in the direction already +established by the two points of the tree and the peg, for the +distance of fifty feet--Jupiter clearing away the brambles with the +scythe. At the spot thus attained a second peg was driven, and about +this, as a centre, a rude circle, about four feet in diameter, +described. Taking now a spade himself, and giving one to Jupiter and +one to me, Legrand begged us to set about digging as quickly as +possible. + +To speak the truth, I had no especial relish for such amusement at any +time, and, at that particular moment, would most willingly have +declined it; for the night was coming on, and I felt much fatigued +with the exercise already taken; but I saw no mode of escape, and was +fearful of disturbing my poor friend's equanimity by a refusal. Could +I have depended, indeed, upon Jupiter's aid, I would have had no +hesitation in attempting to get the lunatic home by force; but I was +too well assured of the old negro's disposition to hope that he would +assist me, under any circumstances, in a personal contest with his +master. I made no doubt that the latter had been infected with some of +the innumerable Southern superstitions about money buried, and that +his fantasy had received confirmation by the finding of the +_scarabæus_, or, perhaps, by Jupiter's obstinacy in maintaining it to +be "a bug of real gold." A mind disposed to lunacy would readily be +led away by such suggestions, especially if chiming in with favorite +preconceived ideas; and then I called to mind the poor fellow's speech +about the beetle's being "the index of his fortune." Upon the whole, I +was sadly vexed and puzzled, but at length I concluded to make a +virtue of necessity--to dig with a good will, and thus the sooner to +convince the visionary, by ocular demonstration, of the fallacy of the +opinions he entertained. + +The lanterns having been lit, we all fell to work with a zeal worthy a +more rational cause; and, as the glare fell upon our persons and +implements, I could not help thinking how picturesque a group we +composed, and how strange and suspicious our labors must have appeared +to any interloper who, by chance, might have stumbled upon our +whereabouts. + +We dug very steadily for two hours. Little was said; and our chief +embarrassment lay in the yelpings of the dog, who took exceeding +interest in our proceedings. He, at length, became so obstreperous +that we grew fearful of his giving the alarm to some stragglers in the +vicinity; or, rather, this was the apprehension of Legrand; for +myself, I should have rejoiced at any interruption which might have +enabled me to get the wanderer home. The noise was, at length, very +effectually silenced by Jupiter, who, getting out of the hole with a +dogged air of deliberation, tied the brute's mouth up with one of his +suspenders, and then returned, with a grave chuckle, to his task. + +When the time mentioned had expired, we had reached a depth of five +feet, and yet no signs of any treasure became manifest. A general +pause ensued, and I began to hope that the farce was at an end. +Legrand, however, although evidently much disconcerted, wiped his brow +thoughtfully and recommenced. We had excavated the entire circle of +four feet diameter, and now we slightly enlarged the limit, and went +to the farther depth of two feet. Still nothing appeared. The +gold-seeker, whom I sincerely pitied, at length clambered from the +pit, with the bitterest disappointment imprinted upon every feature, +and proceeded, slowly and reluctantly, to put on his coat, which he +had thrown off at the beginning of his labor. In the meantime I made +no remark. Jupiter, at a signal from his master, began to gather up +his tools. This done, and the dog having been unmuzzled, we turned in +profound silence towards home. + +We had taken, perhaps, a dozen steps in this direction, when, with a +loud oath, Legrand strode up to Jupiter, and seized him by the collar. +The astonished negro opened his eyes and mouth to the fullest extent, +let fall the spades, and fell upon his knees. + +"You scoundrel," said Legrand, hissing out the syllables from between +his clenched teeth--"you infernal black villain!--speak, I tell +you!--answer me this instant, without prevarication!--which--which is +your left eye?" + +"Oh, my golly, Massa Will! aint dis here my lef eye for sartain?" +roared the terrified Jupiter, placing his hand upon his _right_ organ +of vision, and holding it there with a desperate pertinacity, as if in +immediate dread of his master's attempt at a gouge. + +"I thought so! I knew it! Hurrah!" vociferated Legrand, letting the +negro go, and executing a series of curvets and caracoles, much to the +astonishment of his valet, who, arising from his knees, looked mutely +from his master to myself, and then from myself to his master. + +"Come! we must go back," said the latter, "the game's not up yet;" and +he again led the way to the tulip tree. + +"Jupiter," said he, when we reached its foot, "come here! Was the +skull nailed to the limb with the face outward, or with the face to +the limb?" + +"De face was out, massa, so dat de crows could get at de eyes good, +widout any trouble." + +"Well, then, was it this eye or that through which you dropped the +beetle?" here Legrand touched each of Jupiter's eyes. + +"'Twas dis eye, massa--de lef eye--jis as you tell me," and here it +was his right eye that the negro indicated. + +"That will do--we must try it again." + +Here my friend, about whose madness I now saw, or fancied that I saw, +certain indications of method, removed the peg which marked the spot +where the beetle fell, to a spot about three inches to the westward of +its former position. Taking, now, the tape-measure from the nearest +point of the trunk to the peg, as before, and continuing the extension +in a straight line to the distance of fifty feet, a spot was +indicated, removed, by several yards, from the point at which we had +been digging. + +Around the new position a circle, somewhat larger than in the former +instance, was now described, and we again set to work with the spades. +I was dreadfully weary, but, scarcely understanding what had +occasioned the change in my thoughts, I felt no longer any great +aversion from the labor imposed. I had become most unaccountably +interested--nay, even excited. Perhaps there was something, amid all +the extravagant demeanor of Legrand--some air of forethought, or of +deliberation--which impressed me. I dug eagerly, and now and then +caught myself actually looking, with something that very much +resembled expectation, for the fancied treasure, the vision of which +had demented my unfortunate companion. At a period when such vagaries +of thought most fully possessed me, and when we had been at work +perhaps an hour and a half, we were again interrupted by the violent +howlings of the dog. His uneasiness, in the first instance, had been +evidently but the result of playfulness or caprice, but he now assumed +a bitter and serious tone. Upon Jupiter's again attempting to muzzle +him, he made furious resistance, and, leaping into the hole, tore up +the mould frantically with his claws. In a few seconds he had +uncovered a mass of human bones, forming two complete skeletons, +intermingled with several buttons of metal, and what appeared to be +the dust of decayed woollen. One or two strokes of a spade upturned +the blade of a large Spanish knife, and, as he dug farther, three or +four loose pieces of gold and silver coin came to light. + +At sight of these the joy of Jupiter could scarcely be restrained, but +the countenance of his master wore an air of extreme +disappointment. He urged us, however, to continue our exertions, and +the words were hardly uttered when I stumbled and fell forward, having +caught the toe of my boot in a large ring of iron that lay half buried +in the loose earth. + +We now worked in earnest, and never did I pass ten minutes of more +intense excitement. During this interval we had fairly unearthed an +oblong chest of wood, which, from its perfect preservation and +wonderful hardness, had plainly been subjected to some mineralizing +process--perhaps that of the bichloride of mercury. This box was three +feet and a half long, three feet broad, and two and a half feet +deep. It was firmly secured by bands of wrought iron, riveted, and +forming a kind of trellis-work over the whole. On each side of the +chest, near the top, were three rings of iron--six in all--by means of +which a firm hold could be obtained by six persons. Our utmost united +endeavors served only to disturb the coffer very slightly in its +bed. We at once saw the impossibility of removing so great a weight. +Luckily, the sole fastenings of the lid consisted of two sliding +bolts. These we drew back--trembling and panting with anxiety. In an +instant, a treasure of incalculable value lay gleaming before us. As +the rays of the lanterns fell within the pit, there flashed upwards, +from a confused heap of gold and of jewels, a glow and a glare that +absolutely dazzled our eyes. + +I shall not pretend to describe the feelings with which I +gazed. Amazement was, of course, predominant. Legrand appeared +exhausted with excitement, and spoke very few words. Jupiter's +countenance wore, for some minutes, as deadly a pallor as it is +possible, in the nature of things, for any negro's visage to assume. +He seemed stupified--thunder-stricken. Presently he fell upon his +knees in the pit, and, burying his naked arms up to the elbows in +gold, let them there remain, as if enjoying the luxury of a bath. At +length, with a deep sigh, he exclaimed, as if in a soliloquy: + +"And dis all cum ob de goole-bug! de putty goole-bug! de poor little +goole-bug, what I boosed in dat sabage kind ob style! Aint you shamed +ob yourself, nigger?--answer me dat!" + +It became necessary, at last, that I should arouse both master and +valet to the expediency of removing the treasure. It was growing late, +and it behooved us to make exertion, that we might get everything +housed before daylight. It was difficult to say what should be done, +and much time was spent in deliberation--so confused were the ideas of +all. We finally lightened the box by removing two-thirds of its +contents, when we were enabled, with some trouble, to raise it from +the hole. The articles taken out were deposited among the brambles, +and the dog left to guard them, with strict orders from Jupiter +neither, upon any pretence, to stir from the spot, nor to open his +mouth until our return. We then hurriedly made for home with the +chest; reaching the hut in safety, but after excessive toil, at one +o'clock in the morning. Worn out as we were, it was not in human +nature to do more just now. We rested until two, and had supper; +starting for the hills immediately afterwards, armed with three stout +sacks, which by good luck were upon the premises. A little before four +we arrived at the pit, divided the remainder of the booty, as equally +as might be, among us, and, leaving the holes unfilled, again set out +for the hut, at which, for the second time, we deposited our golden +burdens, just as the first streaks of the dawn gleamed from over the +tree-tops in the East. + +We were now thoroughly broken down; but the intense excitement of the +time denied us repose. After an unquiet slumber of some three or four +hours' duration, we arose, as if by preconcert, to make examination of +our treasure. + +The chest had been full to the brim, and we spent the whole day, and +the greater part of the next night, in a scrutiny of its contents. +There had been nothing like order or arrangement. Everything had been +heaped in promiscuously. Having assorted all with care, we found +ourselves possessed of even vaster wealth than we had at first +supposed. In coin there was rather more than four hundred and fifty +thousand dollars: estimating the value of the pieces, as accurately as +we could, by the tables of the period. There was not a particle of +silver. All was gold of antique date and of great variety: French, +Spanish, and German money, with a few English guineas, and some +counters, of which we had never seen specimens before. There were +several very large and heavy coins, so worn that we could make nothing +of their inscriptions. There was no American money. The value of the +jewels we found more difficulty in estimating. There were +diamonds--some of them exceedingly large and fine--a hundred and ten +in all, and not one of them small; eighteen rubies of remarkable +brilliancy; three hundred and ten emeralds, all very beautiful; and +twenty-one sapphires, with an opal. These stones had all been broken +from their settings and thrown loose in the chest. The settings +themselves, which we picked out from among the other gold, appeared to +have been beaten up with hammers, as if to prevent identification. +Besides all this, there was a vast quantity of solid gold ornaments: +nearly two hundred massive finger and ear-rings; rich chains--thirty +of these, if I remember; eighty-three very large and heavy crucifixes; +five gold censers of great value; a prodigious golden punch-bowl, +ornamented with richly chased vine-leaves and Bacchanalian figures; +with two sword-handles exquisitely embossed, and many other smaller +articles which I cannot recollect. The weight of these valuables +exceeded three hundred and fifty pounds avoirdupois; and in this +estimate I have not included one hundred and ninety-seven superb gold +watches; three of the number being worth each five hundred dollars, if +one. Many of them were very old, and as time-keepers valueless, the +works having suffered more or less from corrosion; but all were richly +jewelled and in cases of great worth. We estimated the entire contents +of the chest, that night, at a million and a half of dollars; and, +upon the subsequent disposal of the trinkets and jewels (a few being +retained for our own use), it was found that we had greatly +undervalued the treasure. + + +When, at length, we had concluded our examination, and the intense +excitement of the time had in some measure subsided, Legrand, who saw +that I was dying with impatience for a solution of this most +extraordinary riddle, entered into a full detail of all the +circumstances connected with it. + +"You remember," said he, "the night when I handed you the rough sketch +I had made of the _scarabæus_. You recollect, also, that I became +quite vexed at you for insisting that my drawing resembled a +death's-head. When you first made this assertion I thought you were +jesting; but afterwards I called to mind the peculiar spots on the +back of the insect, and admitted to myself that your remark had some +little foundation in fact. Still, the sneer at my graphic powers +irritated me--for I am considered a good artist--and, therefore, when +you handed me the scrap of parchment, I was about to crumple it up and +throw it angrily into the fire." + +"The scrap of paper, you mean," said I. + +"No: it had much of the appearance of paper, and at first I supposed +it to be such, but when I came to draw upon it, I discovered it, at +once, to be a piece of very thin parchment. It was quite dirty, you +remember. Well, as I was in the very act of crumpling it up, my glance +fell upon the sketch at which you had been looking, and you may +imagine my astonishment when I perceived, in, fact, the figure of a +death's-head just where, it seemed to me, I had made the drawing of +the beetle. For a moment I was too much amazed to think with accuracy. +I knew that my design was very different in detail from this--although +there was a certain similarity in general outline. Presently I took a +candle and, seating myself at the other end of the room, proceeded to +scrutinize the parchment more closely. Upon turning it over, I saw my +own sketch upon the reverse, just as I had made it. My first idea, +now, was mere surprise at the really remarkable similarity of +outline--at the singular coincidence involved in the fact that, +unknown to me, there should have been a skull upon the other side of +the parchment, immediately beneath my figure of the _scarabæus_, and +that this skull, not only in outline, but in size, should so closely +resemble my drawing. I say the singularity of this coincidence +absolutely stupified me for a time. This is the usual effect of such +coincidences. The mind struggles to establish a connection--a sequence +of cause and effect--and, being unable to do so, suffers a species of +temporary paralysis. But, when I recovered from this stupor, there +dawned upon me gradually a conviction which startled me even far more +than the coincidence. I began distinctly, positively, to remember +that there had been _no_ drawing on the parchment when I made my +sketch of the _scarabæus_. I became perfectly certain of this; for I +recollected turning up first one side and then the other, in search of +the cleanest spot. Had the skull been then there, of course I could +not have failed to notice it. Here was indeed a mystery which I felt +it impossible to explain; but, even at that early moment, there seemed +to glimmer, faintly, within the most remote and secret chambers of my +intellect, a glow-worm-like conception of that truth which last +night's adventure brought to so magnificent a demonstration. I arose +at once, and, putting the parchment securely away, dismissed all +farther reflection until I should be alone. + +"When you had gone, and when Jupiter was fast asleep, I betook myself +to a more methodical investigation of the affair. In the first place I +considered the manner in which the parchment had come into my +possession. The spot where we discovered the _scarabæus_ was on the +coast of the mainland, about a mile eastward of the island, and but a +short distance above high-water mark. Upon my taking hold of it, it +gave me a sharp bite, which caused me to let it drop. Jupiter, with +his accustomed caution, before seizing the insect, which had flown +towards him, looked about him for a leaf, or something of that nature, +by which to take hold of it. It was at this moment that his eyes, and +mine also, fell upon the scrap of parchment, which I then supposed to +be paper. It was lying half-buried in the sand, a corner sticking +up. Near the spot where we found it, I observed the remnants of the +hull of what appeared to have been a ship's long boat. The wreck +seemed to have been there for a very great while; for the resemblance +to boat timbers could scarcely be traced. + +"Well, Jupiter picked up the parchment, wrapped the beetle in it, and +gave it to me. Soon afterwards we turned to go home, and on the way +met Lieutenant G----. I showed him the insect, and he begged me to +let him take it to the fort. On my consenting, he thrust it forthwith +into his waistcoat pocket, without the parchment in which it had been +wrapped, and which I had continued to hold in my hand during his +inspection. Perhaps he dreaded my changing my mind, and thought it +best to make sure of the prize at once--you know how enthusiastic he +is on all subjects connected with Natural History. At the same time, +without being conscious of it, I must have deposited the parchment in +my own pocket. + +"You remember that when I went to the table, for the purpose of making +a sketch of the beetle, I found no paper where it was usually kept. I +looked in the drawer, and found none there. I searched my pockets, +hoping to find an old letter, and then my hand fell upon the +parchment. I thus detail the precise mode in which it came into my +possession; for the circumstances impressed me with peculiar force. + +"No doubt you will think me fanciful--but I had already established a +kind of _connection_. I had put together two links of a great chain. +There was a boat lying on a seacoast, and not far from the boat was a +parchment--_not a paper_--with a skull depicted on it. You will, of +course, ask 'where is the connection?' I reply that the skull, or +death's-head, is the well-known emblem of the pirate. The flag of the +death's-head is hoisted in all engagements. + +"I have said that the scrap was parchment, and not paper. Parchment +is durable--almost imperishable. Matters of little moment are rarely +consigned to parchment; since, for the mere ordinary purposes of +drawing or writing, it is not nearly so well adapted as paper. This +reflection suggested some meaning--some relevancy--in the deaths-head. +I did not fail to observe, also, the _form_ of the parchment. Although +one of its corners had been, by some accident, destroyed, it could be +seen that the original form was oblong. It was just such a slip, +indeed, as might have been chosen for a memorandum--for a record of +something to be long remembered and carefully preserved." + +"But," I interposed, "you say that the skull, was _not_ upon the +parchment when you made the drawing of the beetle. How then do you +trace any connection between the boat and the skull--since this +latter, according to your own admission, must have been designed (God +only knows how or by whom) at some period subsequent to your sketching +the _scarabæus_?" + +"Ah, hereupon turns the whole mystery; although the secret, at this +point, I had comparatively little difficulty in solving. My steps were +sure, and could afford but a single result. I reasoned, for example, +thus: When I drew the _scarabæus,_ there was no skull apparent on the +parchment. When I had completed the drawing I gave it to you, and +observed you narrowly until you returned it. _You_, therefore, did not +design the skull, and no one else was present to do it. Then it was +not done by human agency. And nevertheless it was done. + +"At this stage of my reflections I endeavored to remember, and _did_ +remember, with entire distinctness, every incident which occurred +about the period in question. The weather was chilly (O rare and happy +accident!), and a fire was blazing on the hearth. I was heated with +exercise and sat near the table. You, however, had drawn a chair close +to the chimney. Just as I placed the parchment in your hand, and as +you were in the act of inspecting it, Wolf, the Newfoundland, entered, +and leaped upon your shoulders. With your left hand you caressed him +and kept him off, while your right, holding the parchment, was +permitted, to fall listlessly between your knees, and in close +proximity to the fire. At one moment I thought the blaze had caught +it, and was about to caution you, but, before I could speak, you had +withdrawn it, and were engaged in its examination. When I considered +all these particulars, I doubted not for a moment that _heat_ had been +the agent in bringing to light, on the parchment, the skull which I +saw designed on it. You are well aware that chemical preparations +exist, and have existed time out of mind, by means of which it is +possible to write on either paper or vellum, so that the characters +shall become visible only when subjected to the action of fire. +Zaffre, digested in _aqua regia_, and diluted with four times its +weight of water, is sometimes employed; a green tint results. The +regulus of cobalt, dissolved in spirit of nitre, gives a red. These +colors disappear at longer or shorter intervals after the material +written upon cools, but again become apparent upon the re-application +of heat. + +"I now scrutinized the death's-head with care. Its outer edges--the +edges of the drawing nearest the edge of the vellum--were far more +_distinct_ than the others. It was clear that the action of the +caloric had been imperfect or unequal. I immediately kindled a fire, +and subjected every portion of the parchment to a glowing heat. At +first, the only effect was the strengthening of the faint lines in the +skull; but, on persevering in the experiment, there became visible at +the corner of the slip, diagonally opposite to the spot in which the +death's-head was delineated, the figure of what I at first supposed to +be a goat. A closer scrutiny, however, satisfied me that it was +intended for a kid." + +"Ha! ha!" said I, "to be sure I have no right to laugh at you--a +million and a half of money is too serious a matter for mirth--but you +are not about to establish a third link in your chain: you will not +find any especial connection between your pirates and a goat; pirates, +you know, have nothing to do with goats; they appertain to the farming +interest." + +"But I have just said that the figure was _not_ that of a goat." + +"Well, a kid, then--pretty much the same thing." + +"Pretty much, but not altogether," said Legrand. "You may have heard +of one _Captain_ Kidd. I at once looked on the figure of the animal as +a kind of punning or hieroglyphical signature. I say signature, +because its position on the vellum suggested this idea. The +death's-head at the corner diagonally opposite had, in the same +manner, the air of a stamp, or seal. But I was sorely put out by the +absence of all else--of the body to my imagined instrument--of the +text for my context." + +"I presume you expected to find a letter between the stamp and the +signature." + +"Something of that kind. The fact is, I felt irresistibly impressed +with a presentiment of some vast good fortune impending. I can +scarcely say why. Perhaps, after all, it was rather a desire than an +actual belief;--but do you know that Jupiter's silly words, about the +bug being of solid gold, had a remarkable effect on my fancy? And then +the series of accidents and coincidences--these were so _very_ +extraordinary. Do you observe how mere an accident it was that these +events should have occurred on the _sole_ day of all the year in which +it has been, or may be, sufficiently cool for fire, and that without +the fire, or without the intervention of the dog at the precise moment +in which he appeared, I should never have become aware of the +death's-head, and so never the possessor of the treasure?" + +"But proceed--I am all impatience." + +"Well; you have heard, of course, the many stories current--the +thousand vague rumors afloat about money buried, somewhere on the +Atlantic coast, by Kidd and his associates. These rumors must have +had some foundation in fact. And that the rumors have existed so long +and so continuously, could have resulted, it appeared to me, only from +the circumstance of the buried treasure still _remaining_ entombed. +Had Kidd concealed his plunder for a time, and afterwards reclaimed +it, the rumors would scarcely have reached us in their present +unvarying form. You will observe that the stories told are all about +money-seekers, not about money-finders. Had the pirate recovered his +money, there the affair would have dropped. It seemed to me that some +accident--say the loss of a memorandum indicating its locality--had +deprived him of the means of recovering it, and that this accident had +become known to his followers, who otherwise might never have heard +that treasure had been concealed at all, and who, busying themselves +in vain, because unguided, attempts to regain it, had given first +birth, and then universal currency, to the reports which are now so +common. Have you ever heard of any important treasure being unearthed +along the coast?" + +"Never." + +"But that Kidd's accumulations were immense is well known. I took it +for granted, therefore, that the earth still held them; and you will +scarcely be surprised when I tell you that I felt a hope, nearly +amounting to certainty, that the parchment so strangely found involved +a lost record of the place of deposit." + +"But how did you proceed?" + +"I held the vellum again to the fire, after increasing the heat, but +nothing appeared. I now thought it possible that the coating of dirt +might have something to do with the failure; so I carefully rinsed the +parchment by pouring warm water over it, and, having done this, I +placed it in a tin pan, with the skull downwards, and put the pan upon +a furnace of lighted charcoal. In a few minutes, the pan having become +thoroughly heated, I removed the slip, and, to my inexpressible joy, +found it spotted, in several places, with what appeared to be figures +arranged in lines. Again I placed it in the pan, and suffered it to +remain another minute. Upon taking it off, the whole was just as you +see it now." + +Here Legrand, having reheated the parchment, submitted it to my +inspection. The following characters were rudely traced, in a red +tint, between the death's-head and the goat:-- + +53‡‡†305))6*;4826)4‡.)4‡);806*;48†8¶60))85;;]8*;:‡*8†83(8 +8)5*†;46(;88*96*?;8)*‡(;485);5*†2:*‡(;4956*2(5*--4)8¶8*;4069 +285);)6†8)4‡‡;1(‡9;48081;8:8‡1;48†85;4)485†528806*81(‡9;48;(8 +8;4(‡?34;48)4‡;161;:188;‡?; + +"But," said I, returning him the slip, "I am as much in the dark as +ever. Were all the jewels of Golconda awaiting me on my solution of +this enigma, I am quite sure, that I should be unable to earn them." + +"And yet," said Legrand, "the solution is by no means so difficult as +you might be led to imagine from the first hasty inspection of the +characters. These characters, as any one might readily guess, form a +cipher--that is to say, they convey a meaning; but then, from what is +known of Kidd, I could not suppose, him capable of constructing any of +the more abstruse cryptographs. I made up my mind, at once, that this +was of a simple species--such, however, as would appear, to the crude +intellect of the sailor, absolutely insoluble without the key." + +"And you really solved it?" + +"Readily; I have solved others of an abstruseness ten thousand times +greater. Circumstances, and a certain bias of mind, have led me to +take interest in such riddles, and it may well be doubted whether +human ingenuity can construct an enigma of the kind which human +ingenuity may not, by proper application, resolve. In fact, having +once established connected and legible characters, I scarcely gave a +thought to the mere difficulty of developing their import. + +"In the present case--indeed in all cases of secret writing--the first +question regards the _language_ of the cipher; for the principles of +solution, so far, especially, as the more simple ciphers are +concerned, depend on, and are varied by, the genius of the particular +idiom. In general, there is no alternative but experiment (directed by +probabilities) of every tongue known to him who attempts the solution, +until the true one be attained. But, with the cipher now before us, +all difficulty is removed by the signature. The pun upon the word +'Kidd' is appreciable in no other language than the English. But for +this consideration I should have begun my attempts with the Spanish +and French, as the tongues in which a secret of this kind would most +naturally have been written by a pirate of the Spanish main. As it +was, I assumed the cryptograph to be English. + +"You observe there are no divisions between the words. Had there been +divisions, the task would have been comparatively easy. In such case +I should have commenced with a collation and analysis of the shorter +words, and, had a word of a single letter occurred, as is most likely +(_a_ or _I_, for example), I should have considered the solution as +assured. But, there being no division, my first step was to ascertain +the predominant letters, as well as the least frequent. Counting all, +I constructed a table, thus: + +Of the character 8 there are 33 + ; " 26 + 4 " 19 + ‡) " 16 + * " 13 + 5 " 12 + 6 " 11 + †1 " 8 + 0 " 6 + 92 " 5 + :3 " 4 + ? " 3 + ¶ " 2 + ] " 1 + +"Now, in English, the letter which most frequently occurs is _e_. +Afterwards the succession runs thus: _a o i d h n r s t u y c f g l m +w b k p q x z. E_ predominates, however, so remarkably that an +individual sentence of any length is rarely seen, in which it is not +the prevailing character. + +"Here, then, we have, in the very beginning, the groundwork for +something more than a mere guess. The general use which may be made of +the table is obvious--but, in this particular cipher, we shall only +very partially require its aid. As our predominant character is 8, we +will commence by assuming it as the _e_ of the natural alphabet. To +verify the supposition, let us observe if the 8 be seen often in +couples--for _e_ is doubled with great frequency in English--in such +words, for example, as 'meet,' 'fleet,' 'speed,' 'seen,' 'been,' +'agree,' etc. In the present instance we see it doubled no less than +five times, although the cryptograph is brief. + +"Let us assume 8, then, as _e_. Now, of all _words_ in the language, +'the' is most usual; let us see, therefore, whether there are not +repetitions of any three characters, in the same order of collocation, +the last of them being 8. If we discover repetitions of such letters, +so arranged, they will most probably represent the word 'the.' On +inspection, we find no less than seven such arrangements, the +characters being ;48. We may, therefore, assume that the semicolon +represents _t_, that 4 represents _h_, and that 8 represents _e_--the +last being now well confirmed. Thus a great step has been taken. + +"But, having established a single word, we are enabled to establish a +vastly important point; that is to say, several commencements and +terminations of other words. Let us refer, for example, to the last +instance but one, in which combination ;48 occurs--not far from the +end of the cipher. We know that the semicolon immediately ensuing is +the commencement of a word, and, of the six characters succeeding this +'the,' we are cognizant of no less than five. Let us set these +characters down, thus, by the letters we know them to represent, +leaving a space for the unknown-- + + t eeth + +"Here we are enabled, at once, to discard the '_th_,' as forming no +portion of the word commencing with the first _t_; since, by +experiment of the entire alphabet for a letter adapted to the vacancy, +we perceive that no word can be formed of which this _th_ can be a +part. We are thus narrowed into + + t ee, + +and, going through the alphabet, if necessary, as before, we arrive at +the word 'tree' as the sole possible reading. We thus gain another +letter _r_, represented by (, with the words 'the tree' in +juxtaposition. + +"Looking beyond these words, for a short distance, we again see the +combination ;48, and employ it by way of _termination_ to what +immediately precedes. We have thus this arrangement: + + the tree ;4(‡?34 the, + +or, substituting the natural letters, where known, it reads thus: + + the tree thr‡?3h the. + +"Now, if, in place of the unknown characters, we leave blank spaces, +or substitute dots, we read thus: + + the tree thr . . . h the, + +when the word '_through_' makes itself evident at once. But this +discovery gives us three new letters, _o, u_, and _g_, represented by +‡ ? and 3. + +"Looking now, narrowly, through the cipher for combinations of known +characters, we find, not very far from the beginning, this +arrangement, + + 83(88, or egree, + +which, plainly, is the conclusion of the word 'degree,' and gives us +another letter, _d_, represented by †. + +"Four letters beyond the word 'degree,' we perceive the combination + + ;46(;88* + +"Translating the known characters, and representing the unknown by +dots, as before, we read thus: + + th . rtee, + +an arrangement immediately suggestive of the word 'thirteen,' and +again furnishing us with two new characters, _i_ and _n_, represented +by 6 and *. + +"Referring, now, to the beginning of the cryptograph, we find the +combination, + + 53‡‡†, + +"Translating as before, we obtain + + good, + +which assures us that the first letter is _A_, and that the first two +words are 'A good.' + +"To avoid confusion, it is now time that we arrange our key, as far as +discovered, in a tabular form. It will stand thus: + +5 represents a +† " d +8 " e +3 " g +4 " h +6 " i +* " n +‡ " o +( " r +; " t + +"We have, therefore, no less than ten of the most important letters +represented, and it will be unnecessary to proceed with the details of +the solution. I have said enough to convince you that ciphers of this +nature are readily soluble, and to give you some insight into the +rationale of their development. But be assured that the specimen +before us appertains to the very simplest species of cryptograph. It +now only remains to give you the full translation of the characters +upon the parchment, 5 as unriddled. Here it is: + +"'_A good glass in the bishop's hostel in the devil's seat twenty-one +degrees and thirteen minutes northeast and by north main branch +seventh limb east side shoot from the left eye of the death's-head a +bee line from the tree through the shot fifty feet out_.'" + +"But," said I, "the enigma seems still in as bad a condition as +ever. How is it possible to extort a meaning from all this jargon +about 'devil's seats,' 'death's-heads,' and 'bishop's hotels'?" + +"I confess," replied Legrand, "that the matter still wears a serious +aspect, when regarded with a casual glance. My first endeavor was to +divide the sentence into the natural division intended by the +cryptographist." + +"You mean, to punctuate it?" + +"Something of that kind." + +"But how was it possible to effect this?" + +"I reflected that it had been a _point_ with the writer to run his +words together without division, so as to increase the difficulty of +solution. Now, a not over-acute man, in pursuing such an object, +would be nearly certain to overdo the matter. When, in the course of +his composition, he arrived at a break in his subject which would +naturally require a pause, or a point, he would be exceedingly apt to +run his characters, at this place, more than usually close +together. If you will observe the MS., in the present instance, you +will easily detect five such cases of unusual crowding. Acting on this +hint, I made the division thus: + +"'_A good glass in the bishop's hostel in the devil's seat--twenty-one +degrees and thirteen minutes--northeast and by north--main branch +seventh limb east side--shoot from the left eye of the deaths-head--a + +bee line from the tree through the shot fifty feet out_.'" + +"Even this division," said I, "leaves me still in the dark." + +"It left me also in the dark," replied Legrand, "for a few days; +during which I made diligent inquiry, in the neighborhood of +Sullivan's Island, for any building which went by the name of the +'Bishop's Hotel'; for, of course, I dropped the obsolete word +'hostel.' Gaining no information on the subject, I was on the point of +extending my sphere of search, and proceeding in a more systematic +manner, when one morning it entered into my head, quite suddenly, that +this 'Bishop's Hostel' might have some reference to an old family, of +the name of Bessop, which, time out of mind, had held possession of an +ancient manor-house, about four miles to the northward of the +island. I accordingly went over to the plantation, and reinstituted my +inquiries among the older negroes of the place. At length one of the +most aged of the women said that she had heard of such a place as +_Bessop's Castle_, and thought that she could guide me to it, but that +it was not a castle, nor a tavern, but a high rock. + +"I offered to pay her well for her trouble, and, after some demur, she +consented to accompany me to the spot. We found it without much +difficulty, when, dismissing her, I proceeded to examine the place. +The 'castle' consisted of an irregular assemblage of cliffs and +rocks--one of the latter being quite remarkable for its height as well +as for its insulated and artificial appearance. I clambered to its +apex, and then felt much at a loss as to what should be next done. + +"While I was busied in reflection, my eyes fell on a narrow ledge in +the eastern face of the rock, perhaps a yard below the summit upon +which I stood. This ledge projected about eighteen inches, and was not +more than a foot wide, while a niche in the cliff just above it gave +it a rude resemblance to one of the hollow-backed chairs used by our +ancestors. I made no doubt that here was the 'devil's seat' alluded to +in the MS., and now I seemed to grasp the full secret of the riddle. + +"The 'good glass,' I knew, could have reference to nothing but a +telescope; for the word 'glass' is rarely employed in any other sense +by seamen. Now here, I at once saw, was a telescope to be used, and a +definite point of view, _admitting no variation_, from which to use +it. Nor did I hesitate to believe that the phrases, 'twenty-one +degrees and thirteen minutes,' and 'northeast and by north,' were +intended as directions for the levelling of the glass. Greatly excited +by these discoveries, I hurried home, procured a telescope, and +returned to the rock. + +"I let myself down to the ledge, and found that it was impossible to +retain a seat on it unless in one particular position. This fact +confirmed my preconceived idea. I proceeded to use the glass. Of +course, the 'twenty-one degrees and thirteen minutes' could allude to +nothing but elevation above the visible horizon, since the horizontal +direction was clearly indicated by the words, 'northeast and by +north.' This latter direction I at once established by means of a +pocket-compass; then, pointing the glass as nearly at an angle of +twenty-one degrees of elevation as I could do it by guess, I moved it +cautiously up or down, until my attention was arrested by a circular +rift or opening in the foliage of a large tree that over-topped its +fellows in the distance. In the centre of this rift I perceived a +white spot, but could not, at first, distinguish what it was. +Adjusting the focus of the telescope, I again looked, and now made it +out to be a human skull. + +"On this discovery I was so sanguine as to consider the enigma solved; +for the phrase 'main branch, seventh limb, east side,' could refer +only to the position of the skull on the tree, while 'shoot from the +left eye of the death's-head' admitted, also, of but one +interpretation, in regard to a search for buried treasure. I perceived +that the design was to drop a bullet from the left eye of the skull, +and that a bee-line, or, in other words, a straight line, drawn from +the nearest point of the trunk through 'the shot' (or the spot where +the bullet fell), and thence extended to a distance of fifty feet, +would indicate a definite point--and beneath this point I thought it +at least _possible_ that a deposit of value lay concealed." + +"All this," I said, "is exceedingly clear, and, although ingenious, +still simple and explicit. When you left the Bishop's Hotel, what +then?" + +"Why, having carefully taken the bearings of the tree, I turned +homewards. The instant that I left 'the devil's seat,' however, the +circular rift vanished; nor could I get a glimpse of it afterwards, +turn as I would. What seems to me the chief ingenuity in this whole +business, is the fact (for repeated experiment has convinced me it +_is_ a fact) that the circular opening in question is visible from no +other attainable point of view than that afforded by the narrow ledge +on the face of the rock. + +"In this expedition to the 'Bishop's Hotel' I had been attended by +Jupiter, who had no doubt observed, for some weeks past, the +abstraction of my demeanor, and took especial care not to leave me +alone. But on the next day, getting up very early, I contrived to give +him the slip, and went into the hills in search of the tree. After +much toil I found it. When I came home at night my valet proposed to +give me a flogging. With the rest of the adventure I believe you are +as well acquainted as myself." + +"I suppose," said I, "you missed the spot, in the first attempt at +digging, through Jupiter's stupidity in letting the bug fall through +the right instead of through the left eye of the skull." + +"Precisely. This mistake made a difference of about two inches and a +half in the 'shot'--that is to say, in the position of the peg nearest +the tree; and had the treasure been _beneath_ the 'shot,' the error +would have been of little moment; but 'the shot,' together with the +nearest point of the tree, were merely two points for the +establishment of a line of direction; of course the error, however +trivial in the beginning, increased as we proceeded with the line, +and, by the time we had gone fifty feet, threw us quite off the +scent. But for my deep-seated convictions that treasure was here +somewhere actually buried, we might have had all our labor in vain." + +"I presume the fancy of _the skull_--of letting fall a bullet through +the skull's eye--was suggested to Kidd by the piratical flag. No doubt +he felt a kind of poetical consistency in recovering his money through +this ominous insignium." + +"Perhaps so; still, I cannot help thinking that common sense had quite +as much to do with the matter as poetical consistency. To be visible +from the devil's seat, it was necessary that the object, if small, +should be _white_; and there is nothing like your human skull for +retaining and even increasing its whiteness under exposure to all +vicissitudes of weather." + +"But your grandiloquence, and your conduct in swinging the beetle--how +excessively odd! I was sure you were mad. And why did you insist on +letting fall the bug, instead of a bullet, from the skull?" + +"Why, to be frank, I felt somewhat annoyed by your evident suspicions +touching my sanity, and so resolved to punish you quietly, in my own +way, by a little bit of sober mystification. For this reason I swung +the beetle, and for this reason I let it fall from the tree. An +observation of yours about its great weight suggested the latter +idea." + +"Yes, I perceive; and now there is only one point which puzzles +me. What are we to make of the skeletons found in the hole?" + +"That is a question I am no more able to answer than yourself. There +seems, however, only one plausible way of accounting for them--and yet +it is dreadful to believe in such atrocity as my suggestion would +imply. It is clear that Kidd--if Kidd indeed secreted this treasure, +which I doubt not--it is clear 30 that he must have had assistance in +the labor. But, the worst of this labor concluded, he may have thought +it expedient to remove all participants in his secret. Perhaps a +couple of blows with a mattock were sufficient, while his coadjutors +were busy in the pit; perhaps it required a dozen--who shall tell?" + + + +THE PURLOINED LETTER + + Nil sapientiæ odiosius acumine nimio. + SENECA + + +At Paris, just after dark one gusty evening in the autumn of 18--, I +was enjoying the twofold luxury of meditation and a meerschaum, in +company with my friend C. Auguste Dupin, in his little back library, +or book closet, _au troisième_, No. 33, Rue Dunôt, Faubourg St. +Germain. For one hour at least we had maintained a profound silence; +while each, to any casual observer, might have seemed intently and +exclusively occupied with the curling eddies of smoke that oppressed +the atmosphere of the chamber. For myself, however, I was mentally +discussing certain topics which had formed matter for conversation +between us at an earlier period of the evening; I mean the affair of +the Rue Morgue, and the mystery attending the murder of Marie Rogêt. I +looked upon it, therefore, as something of a coincidence, when the +door of our apartment was thrown open and admitted our old +acquaintance, Monsieur G----, the Prefect of the Parisian police. + +We gave him a hearty welcome; for there was nearly half as much of the +entertaining as of the contemptible about the man, and we had not seen +him for several years. We had been sitting in the dark, and Dupin now +arose for the purpose of lighting a lamp, but sat down again, without +doing so, upon G----'s saying that he had called to consult us, or +rather to ask the opinion of my friend, about some official business +which had occasioned a great deal of trouble. + +"If it is any point requiring reflection," observed Dupin, as he +forebore to enkindle the wick, "we shall examine it to better purpose +in the dark." + +"That is another of your odd notions," said the Prefect, who had a +fashion of calling everything "odd" that was beyond his comprehension, +and thus lived amid an absolute legion of "oddities." + +"Very true," said Dupin, as he supplied his visitor with a pipe, and +rolled towards him a comfortable chair. + +"And what is the difficulty now?" I asked. "Nothing more in the +assassination way, I hope?" + +"Oh, no; nothing of that nature. The fact is, the business is _very_ +simple indeed, and I make no doubt that we can manage it sufficiently +well ourselves; but then I thought Dupin would like to hear the +details of it, because it is so excessively _odd_." + +"Simple and odd," said Dupin. + +"Why, yes; and not exactly that, either. The fact is, we have all been +a good deal puzzled because the affair _is_ so simple, and yet baffles +us altogether." + +"Perhaps it is the very simplicity of the thing which puts you at +fault," said my friend. + +"What nonsense you _do_ talk!" replied the Prefect, laughing heartily. + +"Perhaps the mystery is a little _too_ plain," said Dupin. + +"Oh, good Heavens! who ever heard of such an idea?" + +"A little _too_ self-evident." + +"Ha! ha! ha!--ha! ha! ha!--ho! ho! ho!" roared our visitor, profoundly +amused. "O Dupin, you will be the death of me yet!" + +"And what, after all, _is_ the matter on hand?" I asked. + +"Why, I will tell you," replied the Prefect, as he gave a long, +steady, and contemplative puff, and settle'd himself in his chair. "I +will tell you in a few words; but, before I begin, let me caution you +that this is an affair demanding the greatest secrecy, and that I +should most probably lose the position I now hold were it known that I +confided it to any one." + +"Proceed," said I. + +"Or not," said Dupin. + +"Well, then; I have received personal information, from a very high +quarter, that a certain document of the last importance has been +purloined from the royal apartments. The individual who purloined it +is known; this beyond a doubt; he was seen to take it. It is known, +also, that it still remains in his possession." + +"How is this known?" asked Dupin. + +"It is clearly inferred," replied the Prefect, "from the nature of the +document, and from the non-appearance of certain results which would +at once arise from its passing _out_ of the robber's possession; that +is to say, from his employing it as he must design in the end to +employ it." + +"Be a little more explicit," I said. + +"Well, I may venture so far as to say that the paper gives its holder +a certain power in a certain quarter where such power is immensely +valuable." The Prefect was fond of the cant of diplomacy. + +"Still I do not quite understand," said Dupin. + +"No? well; the disclosure of the document to a third person, who +shall be nameless, would bring in question the honor of a personage of +most exalted station; and this fact gives the holder of the document +an ascendency over the illustrious personage whose honor and peace are +so jeopardized." + +"But this ascendency," I interposed, "would depend upon the robber's +knowledge of the loser's knowledge of the robber. Who would dare--" + +"The thief," said G-------, "is the Minister D------, who dares all +things, those unbecoming as well as those becoming a man. The method +of the theft was not less ingenious than bold. The document in +question--a letter, to be frank--had been received by the +personage robbed while alone in the royal boudoir. During its perusal +she was suddenly interrupted by the entrance of the other exalted +personage, from whom especially it was her wish to conceal it. After +a hurried and vain endeavor to thrust it in a drawer, she was forced +to place it, open as it was, upon a table. The address, however, was +uppermost, and, the contents thus unexposed, the letter escaped +notice. At this juncture enters the Minister D----. His lynx eye +immediately perceives the paper, recognizes the handwriting of the +address, observes the confusion of the personage addressed, and +fathoms her secret. After some business transactions, hurried through +in his ordinary manner, he produces a letter somewhat similar to the +one in question, opens it, pretends to read it, and then places it in +close juxtaposition to the other. Again he converses for some fifteen +minutes upon the public affairs. At length, in taking leave, he takes +also from the table the letter to which he had no claim. Its rightful +owner saw, but, of course, dared not call attention to the act, in the +presence of the third personage, who stood at her elbow. The Minister +decamped, leaving his own letter--one of no importance--upon the +table." + +"Here, then," said Dupin to me, "you have precisely what you demand to +make the ascendancy complete--the robber's knowledge of the loser's +knowledge of the robber." + +"Yes," replied the Prefect; "and the power thus attained has, for some +months past, been wielded, for political purposes, to a very dangerous +extent. The personage robbed is more thoroughly convinced, every day, +of the necessity of reclaiming her letter. But this, of course, cannot +be done openly. In fine, driven to despair, she has committed the +matter to me." + +"Than whom," said Dupin, amid a perfect whirlwind of smoke, "no more +sagacious agent could, I suppose, be desired, or even imagined." + +"You flatter me," replied the Prefect; "but it is possible that some +such opinion may have been entertained." + +"It is clear," said I, "as you observe, that the letter is still in +possession of the Minister; since it is this possession, and not any +employment of the letter, which bestows the power. With the +employment the power departs." + +"True," said G----; "and upon this conviction I proceeded. My first +care was to make thorough search of the Minister's Hotel; and here my +chief embarrassment lay in the necessity of searching without his +knowledge. Beyond all things, I have been warned of the danger which +would result from giving him reason to suspect our design." + +"But," said I, "you are quite _au fait_ in these investigations. The +Parisian police have done this thing often before." + +"Oh, yes; and for this reason I did not despair. The habits of the +Minister gave me, too, a great advantage. He is frequently absent from +home all night. His servants are by no means numerous. They sleep at a +distance from their master's apartment, and, being chiefly +Neapolitans, are readily made drunk. I have keys, as you know, with +which I can open any chamber or cabinet in Paris. For three months a +night has not passed, during the greater part of which I have not been +engaged, personally, in ransacking the D---- Hotel. My honor is +interested, and, to mention a great secret, the reward is enormous. So +I did not abandon the search until I had become fully satisfied the +thief is a more astute man than myself. I fancy that I have +investigated every nook and corner of the premises in which it is +possible that the paper can be concealed." + +"But is it not possible," I suggested, "that although the letter may +be in possession of the Minister, as it unquestionably is, he may have +concealed it elsewhere than upon his own premises?" + +"This is barely possible," said Dupin. "The present peculiar condition +of affairs at court, and especially of those intrigues in which D---- +is known to be involved, would render the instant availability of the +document--its susceptibility of being produced at a moment's notice--a +point of nearly equal importance with its possession." + +"Its susceptibility of being produced?" said I. + +"That is to say, of being _destroyed_," said Dupin. + +"True," I observed; "the paper is clearly then upon the premises. As +for its being upon the person of the Minister, we may consider that as +out of the question." + +"Entirely," said the Prefect. "He has been twice waylaid, as if by +footpads, and his person rigorously searched under my own inspection." + +"You might have spared yourself this trouble," said Dupin. "D----, I +presume, is not altogether a fool, and, if not, must have anticipated +these waylayings, as a matter of course." + +"Not _altogether_ a fool," said G----, "but then he's a poet, which I +take to be only one remove from a fool." + +"True," said Dupin, after a long and thoughtful whiff from his +meerschaum, "although I have been guilty of certain doggerel myself." + +"Suppose you detail," said I, "the particulars of your search." + +"Why, the fact is, we took our time, and we searched _everywhere_. I +have had long experience in these affairs. I took the entire building, +room by room, devoting the nights of a whole week to each. We +examined, first, the furniture of each apartment. We opened every +possible drawer; and I presume you know that, to a properly trained +police agent, such a thing as a _secret_ drawer is impossible. Any man +is a dolt who permits a 'secret' drawer to escape him in a search of +this kind. The thing is _so_ plain. There is a certain amount of +bulk--of space--to be accounted for in every cabinet. Then we have +accurate rules. The fiftieth part of a line could not escape us. After +the cabinets we took the chairs. The cushions we probed with the fine +long needles you have seen me employ. From the tables we removed the +tops." + +"Why so?" + +"Sometimes the top of a table, or other similarly arranged piece of +furniture, is removed by the person wishing to conceal an article; +then the leg is excavated, the article deposited within the cavity, +and the top replaced. The bottoms and tops of bedposts are employed in +the same way." + +"But could not the cavity be detected by sounding?" I asked. + +"By no means, if, when the article is deposited, a sufficient wadding +of cotton be placed around it. Besides, in our case we were obliged to +proceed without noise." + +"But you could not have removed--you could not have taken to pieces +_all_ articles of furniture in which it would have been possible to +make a deposit in the manner you mention. A letter may be compressed +into a thin spiral roll, not differing much in shape or bulk from a +large knitting-needle, and in this form it might be inserted into the +rung of a chair, for example. You did not take to pieces all the +chairs?" + +"Certainly not; but we did better--we examined the rungs of every +chair in the Hotel, and indeed, the jointings of every description of +furniture, by the aid of a most powerful microscope. Had there been +any traces of recent disturbance we should not have failed to detect +it instantly. A single grain of gimlet-dust, for example, would have +been as obvious as an apple. Any disorder in the gluing--any unusual +gaping in the joints--would have sufficed to insure detection." + +"I presume you looked to the mirrors, between the boards and the +plates, and you probed the beds and the bedclothes, as well as the +curtains and carpets?" + +"That, of course; and when we had absolutely completed every particle +of the furniture in this way, then we examined the house itself. We +divided its entire surface into compartments, which we numbered, so +that none might be missed; then we scrutinized each individual square +inch throughout the premises, including the two houses immediately +adjoining, with the microscope, as before." + +"The two houses adjoining!" I exclaimed; "you must have had a great +deal of trouble." + +"We had; but the reward offered is prodigious." + +"You include the _grounds_ about the houses?" + +"All the grounds are paved with bricks. They gave us comparatively +little trouble. We examined the moss between the bricks, and found it +undisturbed." + +"You looked among D----'s papers, of course, and into the books of the +library?" + +"Certainly; we opened every package and parcel; we not only opened +every book, but we turned over every leaf in each volume, not +contenting ourselves with a mere shake, according to the fashion of +some of our police officers. We also measured the thickness of every +book-_cover_, with the most accurate admeasurement, and applied to +each the most jealous scrutiny of the microscope. Had any of the +bindings been recently meddled with, it would have been utterly +impossible that the fact should have escaped observation. Some five or +six volumes, just from the hands of the binder, we carefully probed, +longitudinally, with the needles." + +"You explored the floors beneath the carpets?" + +"Beyond doubt. We removed every carpet, and examined the boards with +the microscope." + +"And the paper on the walls?" + +"Yes." + +"You looked into the cellars?" + +"We did." + +"Then," I said, "you have been making a miscalculation, and the letter +is _not_ upon the premises, as you suppose." + +"I fear you are right there," said the Prefect. "And now, Dupin, what +would you advise me to do?" + +"To make a thorough re-search of the premises." + +"That is absolutely needless," replied G----. "I am not more sure that +I breathe than I am that the letter is not at the Hotel." + +"I have no better advice to give you," said Dupin. + +"You have, of course, an accurate description of the letter?" + +"Oh, yes!"--And here the Prefect, producing a memorandum-book, +proceeded to read aloud a minute account of the internal, and +especially of the external appearance of the missing document. Soon +after finishing the perusal of this description, he took his +departure, more entirely depressed in spirits than I had ever known +the good gentleman before. + +In about a month afterwards he paid us another visit, and found us +occupied very nearly as before. He took a pipe and a chair and entered +into some ordinary conversation. At length I said,-- + +"Well, but, G----, what of the purloined letter? I presume you have at +last made up your mind that there is no such thing as overreaching the +Minister?" + +"Confound him, say I--yes; I made the re-examination, however, as +Dupin suggested--but it was all labor lost, as I knew it would be." + +"How much was the reward offered, did you say?" asked Dupin. + +"Why, a very great deal--a _very_ liberal reward--I don't like to say +how much, precisely; but one thing I _will_ say, that I wouldn't mind +giving my individual check for fifty thousand francs to any one who +could obtain me that letter. The fact is, it is becoming of more and +more importance every day; and the reward has been lately doubled. If +it were trebled, however, I could do no more than I have done." + +"Why, yes," said Dupin, drawlingly, between the whiffs of his +meerschaum, "I really--think, G----, you have not exerted yourself--to +the utmost in this matter. You might--do a little more, I think, eh?" + +"How?--in what way?" + +"Why--puff, puff--you might--puff, puff--employ counsel in the matter, +eh?--puff, puff, puff. Do you remember the story they tell of +Abernethy?" + +"No; hang Abernethy!" + +"To be sure! hang him and welcome. But, once upon a time, a certain +rich miser conceived the design of sponging upon this Abernethy for a +medical opinion. Getting up, for this purpose, an ordinary +conversation in a private company, he insinuated his case to the +physician, as that of an imaginary individual. + +"'We will suppose,' said the miser, 'that his symptoms are such and +such; now, doctor, what would _you_ have directed him to take?' + +"'Take!' said Abernethy, 'why, take _advice_, to be sure.'" + +"But," said the Prefect, a little discomposed, "I am _perfectly_ +willing to take advice, and to pay for it. I would _really_ give fifty +thousand francs to any one who would aid me in the matter." + +"In that case," replied Dupin, opening a drawer, and producing a +check-book, "you may as well fill me up a check for the amount +mentioned. When you have signed it, I will hand you the letter." + +I was astounded. The Prefect appeared absolutely thunder-stricken. For +some minutes he remained speechless and motionless, looking +incredulously at my friend with open mouth, and eyes that seemed +starting from their sockets; then, apparently recovering himself in +some measure, he seized a pen, and after several pauses and vacant +stares, finally filled up and signed a check for fifty thousand +francs, and handed it across the table to Dupin. The latter examined +it carefully and deposited it in his pocketbook; then, unlocking an +_escritoire_, took thence a letter and gave it to the Prefect. This +functionary grasped it in a perfect agony of joy, opened it with a +trembling hand, cast a rapid glance at its contents, and then, +scrambling and struggling to the door, rushed at length +unceremoniously from the room and from the house, without having +uttered a syllable since Dupin had requested him to fill up the check. + +When he had gone, my friend entered into some explanations. + +"The Parisian police," he said, "are exceedingly able in their +way. They are persevering, ingenious, cunning, and thoroughly versed +in the knowledge which their duties seem chiefly to demand. Thus, when +G---- detailed to us his mode of searching the premises at the Hotel +D----, I felt entire confidence in his having made a satisfactory +investigation--so far as his labors extended." + +"So far as his labors extended?" said I. + +"Yes," said Dupin. "The measures adopted were not only the best of +their kind, but carried out to absolute perfection. Had the letter +been deposited within the range of their search, these fellows would, +beyond a question, have found it." + +I merely laughed--but he seemed quite serious in all that he said. + +"The measures, then," he continued, "were good in their kind, and well +executed; their defect lay in their being inapplicable to the case, +and to the man. A certain set of highly ingenious resources are, with +the Prefect, a sort of Procrustean bed to which he forcibly adapts his +designs. But he perpetually errs by being too deep or too shallow, for +the matter in hand; and many a schoolboy is a better reasoner than +he. I knew one about eight years of age, whose success at guessing in +the game of 'even and odd' attracted universal admiration. This game +_is_ simple, and is played with marbles. One player holds in his hand +a number of these toys, and demands of another whether that number is +even or odd. If the guess is right, the guesser wins one; if wrong, he +loses one. The boy to whom I allude won all the marbles of the +school. Of course he had some principle of guessing; and this lay in +mere observation and admeasurement of the astuteness of his +opponents. For example, an arrant simpleton is his opponent, and, +holding up his closed hand asks, 'Are they even or odd?' Our schoolboy +replies, 'Odd' and loses; but upon the second trial he wins, for he +then says to himself, 'the simpleton had them even upon the first +trial, and his amount of cunning is just sufficient to make him have +them odd upon the second; I will therefore guess odd;' he guesses odd, +and wins. Now, with a simpleton a degree above the first he would have +reasoned thus: 'This fellow finds that in the first instance I guessed +odd, and, in the second, he will propose to himself, upon the first +impulse, a simple variation from even to odd, as did the first +simpleton; but then a second thought will suggest that this is too +simple a variation, and finally he will decide upon putting it even as +before. I will therefore guess even;' he guesses even, and wins. Now +this mode of reasoning in the schoolboy, whom his fellows term +'lucky,'--what, in its last analysis, is it?" + +"It is merely," I said, "an identification of the reasoner's intellect +with that of his opponent." + +"It is," said Dupin; "and, upon inquiring of the boy by what means he +effected the _thorough_ identification in which his success consisted, +I received answer as follows: 'When I wish to find out how wise, or +how stupid, or how good, or how wicked is any one, or what are his +thoughts at the moment, I fashion the expression of my face, as +accurately as possible, in accordance with the expression of his, and +then wait to see what thoughts or sentiments arise in my mind or +heart, as if to match or correspond with the expression.' This +response of the schoolboy lies at the bottom of all the spurious +profundity which has been attributed to Rochefoucauld, to La Bruyère, +to Machiavelli, and to Campanella." + +"And the identification," I said, "of the reasoner's intellect with +that of his opponent, depends, if I understand you aright, upon the +accuracy with which the opponent's intellect is admeasured." + +"For its practical value it depends upon this," replied Dupin, "and +the Prefect and his cohort fail so frequently, first, by default of +this identification, and, secondly, by ill-admeasurement, or rather +through non-admeasurement, of the intellect with which they are +engaged. They consider only their _own_ ideas of ingenuity; and, in +searching for anything hidden, advert only to the modes in which +_they_ would have hidden it. They are right in this much--that their +own ingenuity is a faithful representative of that of _the mass_: but +when the cunning of the individual felon is diverse in character from +their own, the felon foils them, of course. This always happens when +it is above their own, and very usually when it is below. They have no +variation of principle in their investigations; at best, when urged by +some unusual emergency--by some extraordinary reward--they extend or +exaggerate their old modes of _practice_, without touching their +principles. What, for example, in this case of D----, has been done +to vary the principle of action? What is all this boring, and probing, +and sounding, and scrutinizing with the microscope, and dividing the +surface of the building into registered square inches--what is it all +but an exaggeration _of the application_ of the one principle or set +of principles of search, which are based upon the one set of notions +regarding human ingenuity, to which the Prefect, in the long routine +of his duty, has been accustomed? Do you not see he has taken it for +granted that _all_ men proceed to conceal a letter,--not exactly in a +gimlet-hole bored in a chair leg--but, at least, in _some_ +out-of-the-way hole or corner suggested by the same tenor of thought +which would urge a man to secrete a letter in a gimlet-hole bored in a +chair-leg? And do you not see, also, that such _recherchés_ nooks for +concealment are adapted only for ordinary occasions and would be +adopted only by ordinary intellects; for, in all cases of concealment, +a disposal of the article concealed--a disposal of it in this +_recherché_ manner--is, in the very first instance, presumable and +presumed; and thus its discovery depends, not at all upon the acumen, +but altogether upon the mere care, patience, and determination of the +seekers; and where the case is of importance--or, what amounts to the +same thing in policial eyes, when the reward is of magnitude--the +qualities in question have _never_ been known to fail. You will now +understand what I meant in suggesting that, had the purloined letter +been hidden anywhere within the limits of the Prefect's +examination--in other words, had the principle of its concealment been +comprehended within the principles of the Prefect--its discovery would +have been a matter altogether beyond question. This functionary, +however, has been thoroughly mystified; and the remote source of his +defeat lies in the supposition that the Minister is a fool, because he +has acquired renown as a poet. All fools are poets; this the Prefect +_feels_; and he is merely guilty of a _non distributio medii_ in +thence inferring that all poets are fools." + +"But is this really the poet?" I asked. "There are two brothers, I +know; and both have attained reputation in letters. The Minister, I +believe, has written learnedly on the Differential Calculus. He is a +mathematician, and no poet" + +"You are mistaken; I know him well; he is both. As poet _and_ +mathematician, he would reason well; as mere mathematician, he could +not have reasoned at all, and thus would have been at the mercy of the +Prefect." + +"You surprise me," I said, "by these opinions, which have been +contradicted by the voice of the world. You do not mean to set at +naught the well-digested idea of centuries. The mathematical reason +has long been regarded as _the_ reason _par excellence_." + +"'_Il-y-a à parier_,'" replied Dupin, quoting from Chamfort, "'_que +toute idée publique, toute convention reçue, est une sottise, car elle +a convenue au plus grand nombre_.' The mathematicians, I grant you, +have done their best to promulgate the popular error to which you +allude, and which is none the less an error for its promulgation as +truth. With an art worthy a better cause, for example, they have +insinuated the term 'analysis' into application to algebra. The French +are the originators of this particular deception ; but if a term is of +any importance--if words derive any value from applicability--then +'analysis' conveys 'algebra,' about as much as, in Latin, '_ambitus_' +implies 'ambition,' '_religio_,' 'religion,' or '_homines honesti_,'a +set of honorable men." + +"You have a quarrel on hand, I see," said I, "with some of the +algebraists of Paris; but proceed." + +"I dispute the availability, and thus the value, of that reason which +is cultivated in any especial form other than the abstractly +logical. I dispute, in particular, the reason educed by mathematical +study. The mathematics are the science of form and quantity; +mathematical reasoning is merely logic applied to observation upon +form and quantity. The great error lies in supposing that even the +truths of what is called _pure_ algebra are abstract or general +truths. And this error is so egregious that I am confounded at the +universality with which it has been received. Mathematical axioms are +_not_ axioms of general truth. What is true of _relation_--of form and +quantity--is often grossly false in regard to morals, for example. In +this latter science it is very usually _un_true that the aggregated +parts are equal to the whole. In chemistry also the axiom fails. In +the consideration of motive it fails; for two motives, each of a given +value, have not, necessarily, a value when united, equal to the sum of +their values apart. There are numerous other mathematical truths which +are only truths within the limits of _relation_. But the mathematician +argues, from his _finite truths_, through habit, as if they were of an +absolutely general applicability--as the world indeed imagines them to +be. Bryant, in his very learned 'Mythology,' mentions an analogous +source of error, when he says that 'although the Pagan fables are not +believed, yet we forget ourselves continually, and make inferences +from them as existing realities.' With the algebraists, however, who +are Pagans themselves, the 'Pagan fables' _are_ believed, and the +inferences are made, not so much through lapse of memory, as through +an unaccountable addling of the brains. In short, I neyer yet +encountered the mere mathematician who could be trusted out of equal +roots, or one who did not clandestinely hold it as a point of his +faith that _x²+px_ was absolutely and unconditionally equal to _q_. +Say to one of these gentlemen, by way of experiment, if you please, +that you believe occasions may occur where _x²+px_ is _not_ +altogether equal to _q_, and, having made him understand what you +mean, get out of his reach as speedily as convenient, for, beyond +doubt, he will endeavor to knock you down. + +"I mean to say," continued Dupin, while I merely laughed at his last +observations, "that if the Minister had been no more than a +mathematician, the Prefect would have been under no necessity of +giving me this check. I knew him, however, as both mathematician and +poet, and my measures were adapted to his capacity, with reference to +the circumstances by which he was surrounded. I knew him as courtier, +too, and as a bold _intriguant_. Such a man, I considered, could not +fail to be aware of the ordinary policial modes of action. He could +not have failed to anticipate--and events have proved that he did not +fail to anticipate--the waylayings to which he was subjected. He must +have foreseen, I reflected, the secret investigations of his +premises. His frequent absences from home at night, which were hailed +by the Prefect as certain aids to his success, I regarded only as +ruses, to afford opportunity for thorough search to the police, and +thus the sooner to impress them with the conviction to which G----, in +fact, did finally arrive--the conviction that the letter was not upon +the premises. I felt, also, that the whole train of thought, which I +was at some pains in detailing to you just now, concerning the +invariable principle of policial action in searches for articles +concealed--I felt that this whole train of thought would necessarily +pass through the mind of the Minister. It would imperatively lead him +to despise all the ordinary _nooks_ of concealment. _He_ could not, I +reflected, be so weak as not to see that the most intricate and remote +recess of his Hotel would be as open as his commonest closets to the +eyes, to the probes, to the gimlets, and to the microscopes of the +Prefect. I saw, in fine, that he would be driven, as a matter of +course, to _simplicity_, if not deliberately induced to it as a matter +of choice. You will remember, perhaps, how desperately the Prefect +laughed when I suggested, upon our first interview, that it was just +possible this mystery troubled him so much on account of its being so +_very_ self-evident." + +"Yes," said I, "I remember his merriment well. I really thought he +would have fallen into convulsions." + +"The material world," continued Dupin, "abounds with very strict +analogies to the immaterial; and thus some color of truth has been +given to the rhetorical dogma, that metaphor, or simile, may be made +to strengthen an argument, as well as to embellish a description. The +principle of the _vis inertiæ_, for example, seems to be identical in +physics and metaphysics. It is not more true in the former, that a +large body is with more difficulty set in motion than a smaller one, +and that its subsequent momentum is commensurate with this difficulty, +than it is, in the latter, that intellects of the vaster capacity, +while more forcible, more constant, and more eventful in their +movements than those of inferior grade, are yet the less readily +moved, and more embarrassed and full of hesitation in the first few +steps of their progress. Again: have you ever noticed which of the +street signs, over the shop-doors, are the most attractive of +attention?" + +"I have never given the matter a thought," I said. + +"There is a game of puzzles," he resumed, "which is played upon a +map. One party playing requires another to find a given word--the name +of town, river, state, or empire--any word, in short, upon the motley +and perplexed surface of the chart. A novice in the game generally +seeks to embarrass his opponents by giving them the most minutely +lettered names; but the adept selects such words as stretch, in large +characters, from one end of the chart to the other. These, like the +over-largely lettered signs and placards of the street, escape +observation by dint of being excessively obvious; and here the +physical oversight is precisely analogous with the moral +inapprehension by which the intellect suffers to pass unnoticed those +considerations which are too obtrusively and too palpably +self-evident. But this is a point, it appears, somewhat above or +beneath the understanding of the Prefect. He never once thought it +probable, or possible, that the Minister had deposited the letter +immediately beneath the nose of the whole world, by way of best +preventing any portion of that world from perceiving it. + +"But the more I reflected upon the daring, dashing, and discriminating +ingenuity of D----; upon the fact that the document must always have +been _at hand,_ if he intended to use it to good purpose; and upon the +decisive evidence, obtained by the Prefect, that it was not hidden +within the limits of that dignitary's ordinary search--the more +satisfied I became that, to conceal this letter, the Minister had +resorted to the comprehensive and sagacious expedient of not +attempting to conceal it at all. + +"Full of these ideas, I prepared myself with a pair of green +spectacles, and called one fine morning, quite by accident, at the +Ministerial Hotel. I found D---- at home, yawning, lounging, and +dawdling, as usual, and pretending to be in the last extremity of +ennui. He is, perhaps, the most really energetic human being now +alive--but that is only when nobody sees him. + +"To be even with him, I complained of my weak eyes, and lamented the +necessity of the spectacles, under cover of which I cautiously and +thoroughly surveyed the apartment, while seemingly intent only upon +the conversation of my host. + +"I paid especial attention to a large writing-table near which he sat, +and upon which lay confusedly some miscellaneous letters and other +papers, with one or two musical instruments and a few books. Here, +however, after a long and very deliberate scrutiny, I saw nothing to +excite particular suspicion. + +"At length my eyes, in going the circuit of the room, fell upon a +trumpery filigree card-rack of pasteboard, that hung dangling by a +dirty blue ribbon from a little brass knob just beneath the middle of +the mantelpiece. In this rack, which had three or four compartments, +were five or six visiting cards and a solitary letter. This last was +much soiled and crumpled. It was torn nearly in two, across the +middle--as if a design, in the first instance, to tear it entirely up +as worthless, had been altered, or stayed, in the second. It had a +large black seal, bearing the D---- cipher _very_ conspicuously, and +was addressed, in a diminutive female hand, to D----, the Minister +himself. It was thrust carelessly, and even, as it seemed, +contemptuously, into one of the upper divisions of the rack. + +"No sooner had I glanced at this letter, than I concluded it to be +that of which I was in search. To be sure, it was, to all appearance, +radically different from the one of which the Prefect had read us so +minute a description. Here the seal was large and black, with the +D---- cipher; there it was small and red, with the ducal arms of the +S---- family. Here, the address, to the Minister, was diminutive and +feminine; there the superscription, to a certain royal personage, was +markedly bold and decided; the size alone formed a point of +correspondence. But then, the _radicalness_ of these differences, +which was excessive; the dirt; the soiled and torn condition of the +paper, so inconsistent with the _true_ methodical habits of D----, and +so suggestive of a design to delude the beholder into an idea of the +worthlessness of the document; these things, together with the +hyperobtrusive situation of this document, full in the view of every +visitor, and thus exactly in accordance with the conclusions to which +I had previously arrived; these things, I say, were strongly +corroborative of suspicion, in one who came with the intention to +suspect. + +"I protracted my visit as long as possible, and, while I maintained a +most animated discussion with the Minister, upon a topic which I knew +well had never failed to interest and excite him, I kept my attention +really riveted upon the letter. In this examination, I committed to +memory its external appearance and arrangement in the rack; and also +fell, at length, upon a discovery which set at rest whatever trivial +doubt I might have entertained. In scrutinizing the edges of the +paper, I observed them to be more _chafed_ than seemed necessary. They +presented the _broken_ appearance which is manifested when a stiff +paper, having been once folded and pressed with a folder, is refolded +in a reversed direction, in the same creases or edges which had formed +the original fold. This discovery was sufficient. It was clear to me +that the letter had been turned, as a glove, inside out, re-directed, +and re-sealed. I bade the Minister good-morning, and took my departure +at once, leaving a gold snuff-box upon the table. + +"The next morning I called for the snuff-box, when we resumed, quite +eagerly, the conversation of the preceding day. While thus engaged, +however, a loud report, as if of a pistol, was heard immediately +beneath the windows of the Hotel, and was succeeded by a series of +fearful screams, and the shoutings of a mob. D---- rushed to a +casement, threw it open, and looked out. In the meantime, I stepped to +the card-rack, took the letter, put it in my pocket, and replaced it +by a facsimile (so far as regards externals), which I had carefully +prepared at my lodgings--imitating the D---- cipher, very readily, by +means of a seal formed of bread. + +"The disturbance in the street had been occasioned by the frantic +behavior of a man with a musket. He had fired it among a crowd of +women and children. It proved, however, to have been without ball, and +the fellow was suffered to go his way as a lunatic or a drunkard. When +he had gone, D---- came from the window, whither I had followed him +immediately upon securing the object in view. Soon afterwards I bade +him farewell. The pretended lunatic was a man in my own pay." + +"But what purpose had you," I asked, "in replacing the letter by a +facsimile? Would it not have been better, at the first visit, to have +seized it openly, and departed?" + +"D----," replied Dupin, "is a desperate man, and a man of nerve. His +Hotel, too, is not without attendants devoted to his interests. Had I +made the wild attempt you suggest, I might never have left the +Ministerial presence alive. The good 30 people of Paris might have +heard of me no more. But I had an object apart from these +considerations. You know my political prepossessions. In this matter, +I act as a partisan of the lady concerned. For eighteen months the +Minister has had her in his power. She has now him in hers--since, +being unaware that the letter is not in his possession, he will +proceed with his exactions as if it was. Thus will he inevitably +commit himself, at once, to his political destruction. His downfall, +too, will not be more precipitate than awkward. It is all very well to +talk about the _facilis descensus Averni_; but in all kinds of +climbing, as Catalani said of singing, it is far more easy to get up +than to come down. In the present instance I have no sympathy--at +least no pity--for him who descends. He is that _monstrum horrendum_, +an unprincipled man of genius. I confess, however, that I should like +very well to know the precise character of his thoughts, when, being +defied by her whom the Prefect terms 'a certain personage,' he is +reduced to opening the letter which I left for him in the card-rack." + + +"How? Did you put anything particular in it?" + +"Why--it did not seem altogether right to leave the interior +blank--that would have been insulting. D----, at Vienna once, did me +an evil turn, which I told him, quite good-humoredly, that I should +remember. So, as I knew he would feel some curiosity in regard to the +identity of the person who had outwitted him, I thought it a pity not +to give him a clew. He is well acquainted with my MS., and I just +copied into the middle of the blank sheet the words-- + + '--Un dessein si funeste, + S'il n'est digne d'Atrée, est digne de Thyeste.' + +They are to be found in Crébillon's _Atrée_." + + + + +NOTES + + +The text followed both for poems and tales is that of the +Stedman-Woodberry edition of Poe's Works, in which the editors +followed, in most cases, the text of what is known as the "Lorimer +Graham" copy of the edition of 1845, containing marginal corrections +in Poe's own hand. Poe revised his work frequently and sometimes +extensively. The following notes show, in most cases, the dates both +of the first publication and of subsequent ones. Familiarity with the +Introduction to this book will, in some cases, be necessary to an +understanding of the notes. Gayley's "Classic Myths in English +Literature" (Ginn & Company, $1.50) is the best reference work of +small size for allusions to mythology, and should be available. + +Both poems and tales are arranged in chronological order. + + + +POEMS + + +SONG (Page 3) + +Published in 1827, 1829, and 1845. The poem is believed to refer to +Miss Royster, of Richmond, with whom Poe was in love as a boy of +sixteen, shortly before he entered the University of Virginia. The +young lady's father intercepted the correspondence, and Miss Royster +soon became Mrs. Shelton. The blush, mentioned in lines 2, 9, and 14, +is doubtless intended to imply shame for her desertion. The poem is +commonplace, and shows little that is characteristic of the older Poe. + + +SPIRITS OF THE DEAD (Page 3) + +Published in 1827 as "Visit of the Dead," and in 1829 and 1839 under +the above title. It has been conjectured that this poem was inspired +by the death of Mrs. Stannard (see Introduction, page xii). + + +TO ---- (Page 4) + +The original, longer and addressed "To M----," appeared in the edition +of 1829, and was republished in 1845. + + +ROMANCE (Page 5) + +Printed as a preface in 1829, and as an introduction in 1831; +considerably revised and shortened, it appeared in 1843 and 1845 as +"Romance." + +11. condor years. The metaphor implies a likeness of time--the +years--to a bird of prey. Cf. "condor wings" in "The Conqueror Worm." + +19. forbidden things: i.e. "lyre and rhyme." What is the meaning? + + +TO THE RIVER-- (Page 5) + +Published first in 1829, afterwards in several magazines and in the +edition of 1845. + + +TO SCIENCE (Page 6) + +Published first in 1829, this poem appeared in editions of 1831 and +1845, and in magazines. It is a sonnet, differing from the +Shakespearean form only in the repetition of the rhyme with "eyes." + +9, 10, 12. In classical mythology, Diana is the moon goddess, +Hamadryad, a wood nymph, Naiad, a water nymph. Consult Gayley's +"Classic Myths." Explain the figures of speech. + +13. Elfin: elf, a fairy, from the Anglo-Saxon, refers especially to +tiny sprites, fond of mischief and tricks. But there were various +kinds of elves, according to the Norse mythology. Consult Gayley's +"Classic Myths." Explain the figure. + +14. tamarind-tree: a beautiful, spreading, Oriental tree, with pinnate +leaves and showy racemes of yellow flowers variegated with red. What +does the line mean? + + +TO HELEN (Page 7) + +Published in 1831, 1836, 1841, 1843, and 1845. Read comment in the +Introduction, pages xii and xxiii. + +2. Nicæan barks. It is impossible to say exactly what this allusion +means. Professor W.P. Trent aptly suggests that if "wanderer" in line +4 refers to Ulysses, as seems likely, "Phæacian" would have been the +right word, since the Phæacians did convey Ulysses to Ithaca. Poe may +have had that idea in mind and used the wrong word, or this may simply +be a characteristically vague suggestion of antiquity. Point out +similar examples of indefinite suggestion in this poem. + +7. hyacinth hair: a favorite term with Poe. In "The Assignation" he +says of the Marchesa Aphrodite, "Her hair ... clustered round and +round her classical head, in curls like those of the young hyacinth." +The hair of Ligeia, in the story of that title, he calls "the +raven-black, the glossy, the luxuriant and naturally-curling tresses, +setting forth the full force of the Homeric epithet, 'hyacinthine.'" + +8. Naiad airs: suggestive of exquisite grace. The Naiads, in +classical mythology, are water nymphs,--lovely maidens presiding over +brooks and fountains. + +9, 10. Two of Poe's best and most frequently quoted lines. Explain the +fitness of the epithets. Originally the lines read: + + To the beauty of fair Greece + And the grandeur of old Rome. + +Is the change an improvement? Explain. + +14. Psyche: the Greek word for "soul," and also the name of a +beautiful maiden whom Cupid himself loved and wedded. Read the story +in Gayley's "Classic Myths." + + +ISRAFEL (Page 7) + +Published in editions of 1831 and 1845, and several times in +magazines. See comment in the Introduction, page xxiii. Poe derived +the quotation through Moore's "Lalla Rookh," altered it slightly, and +interpolated the clause, "whose heart-strings are a lute"; it is from +Sale's "Preliminary Discourse" to the Koran. + +12. levin, or leven: an archaic word for "lightning." + +13. Pleiads, or Pleiades: a group of stars in the constellation +Taurus; only six stars of the group are readily visible, but legend +tells of a seventh, lost. Read the account of the ancient myth in +Gayley's "Classic Myths." + +23. skies: the object of "trod." + +26. Houri: derived from an Arabian word meaning "to have +brilliant black eyes." It is the name in Mohammedan tradition for +beautiful nymphs of Paradise, who are to be companions of the pious. + + +THE CITY IN THE SEA (Page 9) + +Published in 1831 as "The Doomed City," in 1836 as "The City of Sin," +and several times in 1845 under the above title. + +Point out examples of alliteration. + +18. Babylon-like walls. The walls of the ancient city of +Babylon, on the Euphrates, were famous for massiveness and extent. + + +THE SLEEPER (Page 11) + +Published as "Irene" in 1831 and 1836, and as "The Sleeper" in 1843 +and 1845. The theme is Poe's favorite, the death of a beautiful young +woman, and the poem is remarkable, even among Poe's, for its melody. + + +LENORE (Page 13) + +Published as "A Pæan" in 1831 and 1836, and as "Lenore" in 1843 and +1845. It was much altered in its numerous revisions. + +1. broken is the golden bowl. See Ecclesiastes xii. 6. + +2. Stygian river. The Styx was a river of Hades, across which +the souls of the dead had to be ferried. + +3. Guy De Vere: the mourning lover. It is he who speaks in the +second and fourth stanzas. + +13. Peccavimus: literally, "we have sinned." This stanza is the +reply of the false friends. + + +THE VALLEY OF UNREST (Page 14) + +Published in 1831 as "The Valley Nis," with an obscure allusion to a +"Syriac Tale": + + Something about Satan's dart-- + Something about angel wings-- + Much about a broken heart-- + All about unhappy things: + But "the Valley Nis" at best + Means "the Valley of Unrest." + +Later it was published in magazines and in the 1845 edition, revised +and improved, and transformed into a simple landscape picture,--one of +the strange, weird, unearthly landscapes so characteristic of Poe. + + +THE COLISEUM (Page 15) + +This poem was submitted in the prize contest in Baltimore in 1833, and +would have been successful but for the fact that the author's story, +"The Manuscript Found in a Bottle," had taken the first prize in its +class. It was republished several times, but not much altered. The +usual spelling is "Colosseum." It is very unlikely that Poe ever saw +the Colosseum, though it is barely possible his foster parents may +have taken him to Rome during the English residence (see Introduction, +page xii). + +13-14. Apparently a reference to Jesus, but characteristically vague. + +15-16. The ancient Chaldeans were famous students of the heavens and +practiced fortune telling by the stars; during the Middle Ages +astrologers were commonly called "Chaldeans." + +17. hero fell. Explain the allusion. Read an account of the +Colosseum in a history or reference book. + +18. mimic eagle: the eagle on the Roman standard. + +20. gilded hair: adorned with golden ornaments. + +26-29. arcades, plinths, shafts, entablatures, frieze, +cornices. Consult the dictionary and explain these architectural +terms. + +36. Memnon: a gigantic statue of this Greek hero on the banks +of the Nile was said to salute the rising sun with a musical note. + + +HYMN (Page 16) + +Published in 1835 in the tale "Morella," and several times afterward +in magazines and collections. As an expression of simple, religious +trust and hope, this poem stands quite apart from all others by Poe. + + +TO ONE IN PARADISE (Page 17) + +Published in 1835 as part of the tale called "The Visionary," +afterward "The Assignation"; in 1839 in a magazine under the title "To +Ianthe in Heaven"; and several times afterward in magazines and in +collections. It fits admirably into the story "The Assignation," where +it contains this additional stanza, readily understood in its setting: + + Alas! for that accursed time + They bore thee o'er the billow, + From Love to titled age and crime + And an unholy pillow-- + From me, and from our misty clime + Where weeps the silver willow. + + +TO F---- (Page 18) + +Appeared in 1835 under the title "To Mary," and in 1842 and 1843, "To +One Departed." It is not known to whom these forms were addressed. In +1845 it again appeared with the above title, which is believed to +refer to Mrs. Frances Sargent Osgood, a poet of the time, whom Poe +greatly admired. + + +TO F----S S. O----D (Page 18) + +First appeared in the _Southern Literary Messenger_(1835) as "Lines +Written in an Album," addressed to Eliza White, a young daughter of +the editor of the _Messenger_; in 1839 the same lines were addressed +"To ----," whose name is unknown; and in 1845 they were addressed +under the above title to Mrs. Osgood (see note on the preceding poem). + + +TO ZANTE (Page 18) + +Published in 1837, 1843, and 1845. In form this is a regular +Shakespearean sonnet. Zante is one of the principal Ionian islands, in +ancient times called Zacynthus. Again the poet writes of a fair isle +in the sea; point out other instances. Note the fondness for "no +more," and find examples in other poems. As usual with Poe, the thread +of thought is slight and indefinite; apparently the beautiful island +has become "accursed ground" because of the death there of the "maiden +that is no more." + +1. fairest of all flowers. There is a zantewood, or satinwood, +but it does not take its name from this island. Poe associated the +name of the island with the hyacinth, but there is no etymological +connection. He probably derived his fancy from a passage in +Chateaubriand's "Itinéraire de Paris à Jérusalem," page 53. + +13. hyacinthine isle: a reference to the flowers of the island +(see preceding note). + +14. "Isola d'oro! Fior di Levante!" "Golden Isle! Flower of +the Levant!" These are Italian terms for Zante; they occur in the +passage in Chateaubriand referred to in the note on line 1. + + +BRIDAL BALLAD (Page 19) + +Published in 1837, 1841, 1845, and greatly improved in revision. The +bride remembers her dead lover who died in battle, and wonders +fearfully whether "the dead who is forsaken" knows and is unhappy. + + +SILENCE (Page 20) + +Published in 1840, 1843, and 1845. + + +THE CONQUEROR WORM (Page 21) + +Published in 1843 and 1845. The repulsive imagery recurs in several of +the tales and poems, and shows one of the most morbid phases of Poe's +imagination (see Introduction, page xxiv). It would hardly meet Poe's +own test of beauty, but the grim power of this terrible picture is +palpable enough. + +9. Mimes: actors, who in this case are men; mankind. + +13. vast formless things: doubtless the Fates (consult Gayley's +"Classic Myths"); at any rate beings who exercise the same powers. + +15. condor wings. The condor is a great vulture of South +America; the word here suggests the Fates preying on human happiness, +health, and life. + +18. Phantom: happiness, or perhaps any object of human desire +or ambition. + + +DREAM-LAND (Page 22) + +Published in 1844 and 1845. The poem paints another of Poe's +extraordinary landscapes. + +3. Eidolon: phantom, specter, shade. + +6. ultimate dim Thule. "Thule" was used by the ancients to +indicate extreme northern regions; the Romans used the phrase "Ultima +Thule" to denote the most remote, unknown land. What does the allusion +signify here? + + +THE RAVEN (Page 24) + +Published in 1845 in various magazines, first in the New York _Evening +Mirror_ of January 29. This is the most famous if not the best of +Poe's poems. There is a clear thread of narrative and greater dramatic +interest than in any other of the author's poems. If possible, read +"The Philosophy of Composition," in which Poe gives a remarkable +account of the composition of this poem, an account which is to be +accepted, however, as explaining only the mechanical side of the +work. This essay is included in Cody's "Best Poems and Essays" (see +Bibliography, page xxxi). Read the comment in the Introduction, page +xxiv. Note the numerous alliterations. + +34. thereat is. Was the idea phrased this way for any other +purpose than to make a rhyme? Is it artistic? + + +38. Raven. Read an account of the bird in a natural history or +an encyclopedia; it is frequently mentioned in English literature as a +bird of ill omen. + +41. Pallas: Minerva, goddess of wisdom. Consult Gayley's +"Classic Myths." Is a bust of Pallas appropriate for a library? + +47. Plutonian: from Pluto, god of the underworld. + +64, 65. burden: thought or theme. + +76-77. gloated ... gloating. It is impossible to say just what +is suggested. It is characteristically vague. Find other examples in +this poem. + +80. tinkled on the tufted floor. Not very easy to imagine. In +"Ligeia," Poe speaks of "carpets of tufted gold," apparently meaning +fabrics of very thick and rich material. Perhaps we may think of the +tinkling as proceeding from tiny bells. + +81. "Wretch," etc. The lover addresses himself. + +82. nepenthe: a name given in Homer's "Odyssey" to a drug +offered to Helen in Egypt, the effect of which was to banish all grief +and pain. Later the term was sometimes used for opium. + +89. balm in Gilead. Gilead is a district on the banks of the +Jordan and the "balm" an herb of reputed medicinal value. The allusion +here is to Jeremiah viii.22: "Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no +physician there?" The lover means to ask if there is any remedy for +his sorrow, any consolation. Perhaps he means, "Is there any solace +after death?" or "Is there any solace either in this world or the +next?" + +93. Aidenn: Eden, Paradise, from the Arabic form _Adn_; coined +by Poe for the rhyme. + +101. This line, Poe said in "The Philosophy of Composition," first +betrays clearly the allegorical nature of the poem. + +106. the lamp-light o'er him streaming. In answer to criticism +on this line, Poe explained, "My conception was that of the bracket +candelabrum affixed against the wall, high up above the door and bust, +as is often seen in the English palaces, and even in some of the +better houses of New York." + +107, 108. In these last lines the allegory is fully revealed. + + +EULALIE (Page 29) + +Published in 1845 with the subtitle, "A Song." + +19. Astarte. See note on line 37 of "Ulalume," page 189. + + +TO M.L. S----- (Page 30) + +Published March 13, 1847, and addressed to Mrs. Marie Louise Shew, who +had been a veritable angel of mercy in the Poe home. She relieved the +poverty and helped to care for Virginia (who died January 29), and +afterward nursed Poe himself during his severe illness. Mrs. Shew had +had some medical training and probably saved Poe's life. This brief +poem is instinct with a gratitude and reverence easy to understand, +and is, for Poe, unusually spontaneous. + + +ULALUME (Page 30) + +Published in December, 1847, and in January, 1848. The earlier form +contained an additional stanza, afterward wisely omitted. Read the +comment on the poem in the Introduction, pages xxiv-xxv. + +5. Immemorial: properly means extending indefinitely into the +past. Poe may mean that the year has seemed endless to him, but +apparently he uses the word in the sense of memorable. + +6, 7. Auber rhymes with October, Weir with year; the +names were coined by Poe for rhyme and tone color. Note the +resemblance of "Weir" to "weird." + +8. tarn: a small mountain lake. It is used provincially in +England to mean a boggy or marshy tract. Poe used the word to signify +a dark, stagnant pool. Cf. "The Fall of the House of Usher," page 49. + +11. cypress. What is its significance? + +12. Psyche: soul. Cf. note on line 14 of "To Helen," page 183. + +14. scoriac: a very rare word, from _scoria_ (lava). + +16. Yaanek: another specially coined word. + +35. crescent: suggesting hope. + +37, 39. Astarte: a Phoenician goddess, as the deity of love +corresponding to Venus (Aphrodite), and as moon goddess to Dian, or +Diana (Artemis). But Diana was chaste and cold to the advances of +lovers, which explains "she (Astarte) is warmer than Dian." + + +43. where the worm never dies: implies the gnawing of unending +grief. Cf. Isaiah lxvi. 24, and Mark ix. 44, 46, 48. + +44. The Lion: the constellation Leo. + +64. sibyllic: usually "sibylline," prophetic; from "sibyl." +Consult Gayley's "Classic Myths." + +179. legended tomb: having on it an inscription. + + +TO ---- ---- (Page 33) + +Published in March, 1848, and is another tribute to Mrs. Shew. See +note on "To M.L. S-----," page 188. + +9-10. The quotation is from George Peele's "David and Bethsabe," an +English drama published in 1599: + + Or let the dew be sweeter far than that + That hangs, like chains of pearl, on Hermon hill. + +14-15. Cf. the poem "Israfel," and the notes on it. + + +AN ENIGMA (Page 34) + +Published in March, 1848. To find the name, read the first letter of +the first line, the second letter of the second line, and so on. In +form this is a sonnet irregular in rhyme scheme. + +1. Solomon Don Dunce: a fanciful name for a stupid person. + +6. Petrarchan stuff: of or by Petrarch (1304-1374), a famous +Italian writer of sonnets. + +10. tuckermanities: a contemptuous allusion to the poetic +efforts of Henry T. Tuckerman, a New England writer of the day. + +14. dear names: Sarah Anna Lewis, a verse writer of the day, +whom Poe admired. + + +TO HELEN (Page 35) + +Published in November, 1848; addressed to Mrs. Sarah Helen Whitman +(see Introduction, page xvii). Although her engagement to marry Poe +was broken off, she continued to admire him and was faithful to his +memory after his death. The poem was written before Poe met Mrs. +Whitman, and is said to have been suggested by the poet's having +caught a glimpse of the lady walking in a garden by moonlight. + +48. Dian: Diana, the moon goddess. + +66. Venuses: refers at once to the planet Venus and to Venus, +goddess of love. + + +A VALENTINE (Page 37) + +Published in 1849. The name is found as in "An Enigma," by reading the +first letter of the first line, the second of the second, and so on. + +2. twins of Leda: Castor and Pollux, two stars in the +constellation Gemini. For the myth consult Gayley's "Classic Myths." + +3. her own sweet name: Frances Sargent Osgood. See note on the +lines "To F---- ," page 185. + +10. Gordian knot. Explain this; consult an encyclopedia. + +14. perdus: lost, a French word introduced to rhyme with "too." + +17. lying: used in a double sense. + +18. Mendez Ferdinando Pinto, a Portuguese traveler (1509-1583), +was said to have been the first white man to visit Japan. He wrote an +account of his travels, which at the time was considered mere +romancing. + + +FOR ANNIE (Page 37) + +Published in 1849, and addressed to Mrs. Richmond of Lowell, +Massachusetts. This is the "Annie" so frequently referred to in +biographies of Poe, who also figures in his correspondence. Of all the +women associated with Poe's later years (see Introduction, pages ), +"Annie" was the object of his most sincere and ardent friendship, and +was his confidant in all his troubles,--including the courtship of +Mrs. Whitman. Poe and Mrs. Clemm were frequent visitors at her home, +and the latter found shelter there for a time after her "Eddie's" +death. + +This poem is usually regarded as one of the author's poorest, though +it has a distinctly individual character that must be recognized. Thus +Professor C.F. Richardson, in his "American Literature," quoting +several stanzas, remarks, "This is doggerel, but it is Poe's special +doggerel." Some of the lines really deserve this severe epithet, but +hardly the entire poem. Its theme seems to be peace in death through +the affection of Annie, following a life of passion and sorrow, and so +regarded, it has some strength. + + +THE BELLS (Page 41) + +Published in 1849. Read the comment on this poem in the Introduction, +page xxv. Though not especially characteristic of him, this is one of +Poe's most remarkable poems, as well as one of the most popular. A +very interesting account of its composition may be found in +Woodberry's biography, pages 302-304, or in Harrison's biography, +pages 286-288, or in the Stedman-Woodberry edition of Poe's Works, +Vol. X, pages 183-186. + +10. Runic. Runes are the characters of the alphabet of the +early Germanic peoples. The allusion is intended to suggest mystery +and magic. Consult an unabridged dictionary or an encyclopedia. + + +23. gloats. What does the word mean here? Cf. line 76 of "The +Raven," and corresponding notes. + + +ANNABEL LEE (Page 44) + +Published in the _New York Tribune, _October 9, 1849, two days after +the poet's death. Read the comment in the Introduction, page xxv. Note +the mid-rhymes in line 26, "chilling and killing," and in line 32, +"ever dissever"; point out other examples in "The Raven" and other +poems. + + +TO MY MOTHER (Page 46) + +Published in 1849; in form, a regular Shakespearean sonnet. It is a +sincere tribute addressed to Mrs. Clemm, mother of Poe's girl wife, +Virginia, a woman who was more than worthy of it. The tenderest +affection existed between the two, and Mrs. Clemm cared for him after +Virginia's death and grieved profoundly at his own. She lived until +1871. + + +ELDORADO (Page 46) + +This first appeared in the Griswold edition of 1850; no earlier +publication is known. It was probably Poe's last composition, and this +story of the knight's quest, its failure, and his gaze turned to "the +Valley of the Shadow," is a fitting finale for the ill-starred poet +(see comment in the Introduction, page xxv). + +Eldorado: a fabled city or country abounding in gold and +precious stones, and afterward any place of great wealth. The word is +often used figuratively. In a preface to an early volume of his +poetry, Poe alludes quite incidentally to "the poet's own kingdom--his +El Dorado," and in this sense the metaphor may be accepted here. + +Note the varying sense of the recurring rhyme, shadow. In the +first stanza it is simply contrasted with the "sunshine" or happiness +of life, in the second it implies the coming of discouragement and +despair, in the third it is the shadow of death cast before, in the +fourth the Valley of the Shadow of Death. + + +THE HAUNTED PALACE (Page 59) + +Published in the _Baltimore Museum_ in April, 1839, and in September +of the same year in _Burton's Gentleman's Magazine_ as part of the +tale "The Fall of the House of Usher"; afterwards published in 1840, +1843, and 1845. It was altered very slightly in revision. Lowell wrote +that he knew of no modern poet who might not justly be proud of it +(see Introduction, pages xxiii-xxiv). + +59. 24. Porphyrogene: from Greek words meaning "purple" +and "begotten," hence, born in the purple, royal. This term, or +"porphyrogenitus," was applied in the Byzantine empire to children of +the monarch born after his accession to the throne. It is not clear +whether the word is used here as a descriptive adjective or as the +name of the monarch. + + + +TALES + + +THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (Page 49) + +Published first in 1839, and several times reprinted with revisions. +Read the comment in the Introduction, page xxvii. Lowell said of this +story: "Had its author written nothing else, it would alone have been +enough to stamp him as a man of genius, and a master of a classic +style." + +This tale is one of the best to study as an example of the application +of Poe's critical theory of the short story (see Introduction, page +xxvi). What is the "effect" sought? Is the main incident of the tale +well adapted to produce this effect? Are the parts skillfully related +to one another and to the whole? Is the setting suitable to the theme? +What is the effect of the first sentence? Pick out a number of rather +unusual words which Poe seems particularly to like; observe their +effect. The adjectives are especially worth study; in the first +sentence try the effect of substituting for "soundless," "quiet," or +"silent," or "noiseless." + +49. Quotation: "His heart is a suspended lute; as soon as it is +touched it resounds." P.J. Béranger (1780-1857), a popular French +lyric poet. + +50. 12. black and lurid tarn: see note to line 8 of "Ulalume," +page 189. Tarn is one of several words Poe particularly liked. + +58. 10. low cunning. See if the reason for this encounter +appears later. + +58 31. ennuyé: a French word meaning "wearied," "bored." + +54. 5-24. The description of Usher is in the main a remarkably good +portrait of Poe himself. + +55. 20-30. Observe the extreme to which Poe goes in this study of +terror; it is the fear of fear that oppresses Usher. + +56. 2. too shadowy here to be re-stated. Note the effect of +making this weird suggestion instead of a clear statement. + +57. 26. Von Weber (1786-1826), a famous German composer. + +58. 5. Henry Fuseli, or Fuesli (1742-1825), as he was known in +England, was born in Zurich, Switzerland, and named Johann Heinrich +Fuessli. He was a professor in the Royal Academy and painted a series +of highly imaginative pictures illustrating Shakespeare and Milton. + +59. The Haunted Palace. For notes see page 192. + +60. 30-31. Richard Watson (1737-1816), Bishop of Llandaff, was +for a time professor of chemistry at Cambridge University and wrote +popular essays on that subject. James Gates Percival (1795-1856) was +an American poet, musician, linguist, surgeon, and scientist; it is +possible the reference is to Thomas Percival (1740-1804), an English +physician. Lazzaro Spallanzani (1729-1799) was an Italian +naturalist, distinguished in experimental physiology. + +61. 22-31. All of these titles have been traced, except the last, +which Poe either invented, or, in quoting, altered. Some of the works +named he apparently had not read, since their character is not suited +to his purpose. Jean Baptiste Louis Gresset (1709-1777) was a French +poet and playwright; the two works mentioned are poems,--the first, a +tale of an escaped parrot who stopped at a convent and shocked the +nuns by his profanity. Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) was a +famous Italian historian and statesman, who wrote a celebrated +treatise called "The Prince"; "Belphegor" is a satire on marriage. +Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) was an eminent Swedish +theologian and religious mystic. Ludvig Holberg (1684-1754) +was a great Danish poet and novelist; the work mentioned is one of his +best known poems and has been translated into the principal languages +of Europe. Flud, Robert Fludd (1574-1637), was an English +physician, inventor, and mystic philosopher. Jean D'Indaginé +(flourished in the first half of the sixteenth century) was a priest +of Steinheim, Germany, who wrote on palmistry and similar subjects. +Marin Cureau de la Chambre (1594-1675), physician to Louis XIV, +who was an adept in physiognomy, and wrote a work on "The Art of +Judging Men." Ludwig Tieck (1773-1853) was a German romantic +novelist. Tommaso Campanella (1568-1639) was an Italian monk +and philosopher, who suffered persecution by the Inquisition. +Eymeric, Nicolas Eymericus (1320-1399), was a native of Gerona, +Spain, who entered the Dominican order and rose to the rank of +chaplain to the Pope and Grand Inquisitor; his famous "Directorium +Inquisitorum" is an elaborate account of the Inquisition. Pomponius +Mela was a Latin writer of the first century A.D., who wrote a +famous work on geography "De Situ Orbis" (Concerning the Plan of the +Earth). + +61. 31. Satyrs and Ægipans: in classic mythology the satyrs and +minor deities of wood and field, with the body of a man and the feet, +hair, and horns of a goat; Ægipans is practically equivalent to, and +is also an epithet of Pan, the satyr-like rural god. + +61. 33-34. curious book in quarto Gothic: printed in the +black-faced letters of mediæval times. + +61. 35. The Latin title, which has not been found, means "Vigils for +the Dead according to the Choir of the Church of Mayence." + +66. 1-2. The "Mad Trist" of Sir Launcelot Canning has not been found; +undoubtedly the title was coined and the quotations invented to fit +the text, as they do perfectly. + +69. 24-25. It was the work of the rushing gust. Note the fine +effect of the momentary suspense, the instant's disappointment carried +by this clause. + + +WILLIAM WILSON + +First published in a magazine in 1840 (see comment in the +Introduction, page xxvii). + +71. Quotation. William Chamberlayne, an English poet and +physician (1619-1689), who in 1659 published "Pharronida, a Heroic +Poem." + +71. 18. Elah-Gabalus: usually Elagabulus, emperor of Rome from +218-222, who indulged in the wildest debaucheries. + +72. 26-73 2. The description here is based on fact, apparently +being a true picture of the English school attended by Poe himself +(see Introduction, page xii). + +73. 31. Draconian Laws: Draco was an Athenian legislator, who codified +the laws of his city in 621 B.C. The penalty for every offense was +death, and the laws were, therefore, said to be written in blood, not +ink. + +75. 5. peine forte et dure: "punishment severe and merciless"; +a penalty formerly imposed by Enlish law upon persons who refused to +plead on being arraigned for felony. It consisted in laying the +accused on his back on a bare floor and placing a great iron weight on +his chest until he consented to plead or died. There is one instance +of the infliction of this punishment in American colonial history: +Giles Cory, accused of witchcraft, was pressed to death in +Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692. + +75. 33. exergues: the exergue is a term in numismatics to +signify the space under the principal figure on the reverse of a coin, +usually containing the date or place of coining. + +76. 7. "Oh, le bon temps, que ce siècle de fer!" "Oh! the good +time, the age of iron." + +86. 11. Herodes Atticus: a Greek born about A.D. 101, who +inherited from his father, of the same name, great wealth, to which he +added by marriage. He was a noted teacher of rhetoric and became a +Roman consul. + + +A DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTRÖM (Page 94) + +First published in a magazine in 1841 (see comment in the +Introduction, pages xxvii-xxviii). + +94. Quotation. Joseph Glanville, or Glanvill (1636-1680), an +English clergyman and author of several works on philosophy and +religion. The quotation has been found in the writings of Glanvill by +Professor Woodberry, but Poe quoted rather carelessly, and his extract +varies slightly from the original. The Democritus referred to was a +famous Greek philosopher, born about 470 B.C., who taught the atomic +theory. + +94. 1-3. Note the effect of the opening sentences in seizing attention +and arousing interest at once. + +95. 21. Nubian geographer ... Mare Tenebrarum. The same +allusion occurs in "Eleonora," and in "Eureka" Poe speaks of "the +_Mare Tenebrarum_,--an ocean well described by the Nubian geographer, +Ptolemy Hephestion." Apparently he refers to Claudius Ptolemy, a +celebrated philosopher who flourished in Alexandria in the second +century A.D. + +His theory, known as the Ptolemaic System, remained the standard +authority in astronomy to the end of the Middle Ages, while his +geography was accepted until the era of the great discoveries opened +in the fifteenth century. Ptolemy is thought to have been born in +Egypt, and it is impossible to say what grounds Poe had for calling +him Nubian. _Mare Tenebrarum_ means "sea of darkness," the Atlantic. + +96. 10-15. This is a real description of the geography of the region +of the Lofoden islands. Refer to a good map of Norway. + +97. 27. Maelström: from Norwegian words meaning "grind" and +"stream." The swift tidal currents and eddies of the Lofoden islands +are very dangerous, but the early accounts are greatly exaggerated, +and Poe's description is, aside from being based on these accounts, +purely imaginative. + +97. 32. Jonas Ramus. Professor Woodberry, whose study of Poe's +text has been exhaustive, has an interesting note to this effect: Poe +used an article in an early edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, in +which a passage was taken from Pontoppidan's "The Natural History of +Norway" without acknowledgment, this in turn having been taken (with +proper acknowledgment) from Ramus. The Britannica, in the ninth +edition, after giving Poe credit for "erudition taken solely from a +previous edition of this very encyclopedia, which in its turn had +stolen the learning from another, quotes the parts that Poe invented +out of his own head." See "Whirlpool" in the Britannica. + +98. 26-27. Norway mile: a little over four and a half English +miles. + +99. 19. Phlegethon: a river of Hades in which flowed flames +instead of water. + +100. 4. Athanasius Kircher (1601-1680) was a learned Roman Catholic +writer, a native of Germany. See "Whirlpool" in the Britannica. + +105. 2. what a scene it was to light up! Interest in the +narrative should not hurry the reader too much to appreciate this +scene,--the magnificent setting of the adventure. + +109. 10. tottering bridge, etc.: Al Sirat, the bridge from +earth over the abyss of hell to the Mohammedan paradise. It is as +narrow as a sword's edge, and while the good traverse it in safety, +the wicked plunge to torment. + +111. 35. Archimedes of Syracuse (i.e. 287--212) was the +greatest of ancient mathematicians; the work to which Poe refers deals +with floating bodies. + + +THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH (Page 113) + +First published in _Graham's Magazine_ for May, 1842 (see comment in +the Introduction, page xxvii). + +113. The "Red Death" is a product of Poe's own imagination; +there is no record of such a disease in medical history. + +113. 3. avatar: a word from Hindoo mythology, in which it means +an incarnation. The word is used here in its secondary sense,--a +visible manifestation. + +113. 11. This paragraph suggests the circumstances under which +Boccaccio represents the stories of his famous "Decameron." A +comparison will be interesting. + +116. 3. decora: possibly used as a plural of "decorum," +propriety; probably it is intended to suggest ornamentation. + +116. 14. Hernani: a well-known tragedy by the great French +writer, Victor Hugo (1802-1885). + + +THE GOLD-BUG (Page 120) + +First published in the _Dollar Newspaper_ of Philadelphia in June, +1843, as the $100 prize story (see comment in the Introduction, page +xxviii). This is the best and most widely read of the stories +regarding Captain Kidd's treasure. Read an account of Captain Kidd in +an encyclopedia or dictionary of biography. + +Is the main incident of the story the discovery of the treasure or the +solution of the cryptogram? Would the first satisfy you without the +second? The plot is worthy of careful study. Consider the following +points, for example: the significance of the chilly day, how +Lieutenant G---- affects the course of events, the incident of the dog +rushing in, the effect of introducing the gold-bug and making it the +title of the story. If Poe's purpose was to make a story of +cryptography, think of some of the innumerable plots he might have +used, and see what you think of the effectiveness of the one chosen. + +120. Quotation. Arthur Murphy (1727-1805), an English actor and +playwright, wrote a comedy called "All in the Wrong," but Professor +W.P. Trent, who examined the play, failed to find Poe's quotation. + + +120. 15. Poe, while serving in the army, was stationed at Fort +Moultrie, and should have known the region well, but his description +is said to be inaccurate. + +121. 11. Jan Swammerdamm (1637-1680), a Dutch naturalist, who +devoted most of his time to the study of insects. + +122. 7. scarabæus: Latin for "beetle," and the scientific term in +entomology. While there are various golden beetles, Poe's was a +creation of his own. + +122. 26. This is one of the early attempts to use negro dialect. Poe's +efforts are rather clumsy, considering his long residence in the +South. The reader will notice a number of improbable expressions of +Jupiter's, introduced for humorous effect, but the general character +of the old negro is portrayed, in the main, very well. + +124. 5. scarabæus caput bominis: man's-head beetle. + +127. 17. brusquerie: brusqueness, abruptness. + +127. 20. solus: Latin for "alone." The Latin word is +altogether unnecessary. Poe was often rather affected in the use of +foreign words and phrases. + +128. 22. empressement: French for "eagerness," cordiality. + +132. 31. Liriodendron Tulipifera: the scientific name for the +tulip tree, which sometimes attains a height of 140 feet and a +diameter of 9 feet. + +138. 25-26. curvets and caracoles: rare terms belonging to +horsemanship; the first is a low leap, the second a sudden wheel. + +142. 13. counters: pieces of money, coins; or the meaning may +be imitation coins for reckoning or for counting in games. + +142. 16. No American money. Why? + +142. 31. Bacchanalian figures: figures dancing and drinking +wine at a celebration of the worship of Bacchus, god of wine. + +143. 29. parchment. What is the difference? + + +147. 20. aqua regia: "royal water," so called because it +dissolves gold, is a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids. + +150. 15. Golconda: a ruined city of India, once famous as a +place for the cutting and polishing of diamonds; used figuratively in +the sense of a mine of wealth. + +150. 30. Read Poe's article on "Cryptography," included in his +collected works. + +151. 13. Spanish main: that part of the Caribbean Sea adjacent +to the coast of South America. It was part of the route of Spanish +merchant vessels between Spain and her new-world possessions, and was +infested with pirates. + + +THE PURLOINED LETTER (Page 160) + +First published in 1845 (see comment on the detective stories in the +Introduction, page xxviii). This story is peculiarly original in its +incidents and subtle in its reasoning. "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" +should certainly be read also, and perhaps it will prove of more +sustained interest to the majority of readers. + +160. Quotation. Lucius Annæus Seneca (B.C. 4-A.D. 65) was a +celebrated Roman philosopher and tutor of the Emperor Nero. The +quotation means: "Nothing is more hateful to wisdom than excessive +acumen." + +160. 3. Dupin: introduced in "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." + +160. 4-5. Au troisième: French, literally, "on the third," but +the meaning is the fourth floor, because the count is begun above the +ground floor; Faubourg St. Germain: an aristocratic section of +Paris. + +160. 15-16. Monsieur G----: introduced in "The Murders in the +Rue Morgue." + +164. 3. Hotel: in French usage, a dwelling of some +pretension,--a mansion. + +164. 7. au fait: French for familiar, expert. + +168. 26. John Abernethy (1764-1831), an eminent English +surgeon, was noted for his brusque manners and his eccentricities. + +171. 15-16. François, Due de la Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) was +a French moralist, author of the famous "Maxims"; Jean de la +Bruyère (1645-1696) was a French essayist; see notes on +Machiavelli and Campanella under "The Fall of the House +of Usher," page 194. + +172. 19. recherché: French for "sought after," selected with +care. + +173. 1. non distributio medii: "undistributed middle," a term +in logic for a form of fallacious reasoning. Consult an encyclopedia, +articles on "Logic," "Syllogism," and "Fallacy," or the Century +Dictionary under "Fallacy." + +173. 16. Nicholas Chamfort (1741-1794), a Frenchman, was said +to be the best conversationalist of his day, and wrote famous maxims +and epigrams. The quotation means, "It is safe to wager that every +popular idea, every received convention, is a piece of foolishness, +because it has suited the majority." + +173. 27-28. ambitus: a going round, illegal striving for +office; religio: scrupulousness, conscientiousness; homines +honesti: men of distinction. + +174. 17. Jacob Bryant (1715-1804), an Englishman; his work on +mythology is of no value. + +175. 5. intriguant: an intriguer. + +176. 3. vis inertiæ: force of inertia. + +180. 5. facilis descensus Averni: "the descent to Avernus is +easy." Virgil's "Aeneid," VI, 126; Cranch's translation, VI, +161-162. Lake Avernus was, in classical mythology, the entrance to +Hades. Consult Gayley's "Classic Myths." + +180. 6. Angelica Catalani (1780-1849), a famous Italian singer. + +180. 9. monstrum horrendum: a dreadful monster. + +180. 23-24. "A design so baneful, if not worthy of Atreus, is worthy +of Thyestes." Atreus and Thyestes were brothers to whom, in classic +story, the most terrible crimes were attributed. + +180. 25. Prosper J. de Crébillon (1674-1762), a noted French +tragic poet. The quotation is from "Atrée et Thyeste." + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Selections From Poe, by J. Montgomery Gambrill + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SELECTIONS FROM POE *** + +This file should be named 8spoe10.txt or 8spoe10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8spoe11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8spoe10a.txt + +Produced by Distributed Proofreaders + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our Web sites at: +http://gutenberg.net or +http://promo.net/pg + +These Web sites include award-winning information about Project +Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new +eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!). + + +Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement +can get to them as follows, and just download by date. This is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 or +ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03 + +Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. Our +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If the value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text +files per month: 1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+ +We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002 +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks! +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated): + +eBooks Year Month + + 1 1971 July + 10 1991 January + 100 1994 January + 1000 1997 August + 1500 1998 October + 2000 1999 December + 2500 2000 December + 3000 2001 November + 4000 2001 October/November + 6000 2002 December* + 9000 2003 November* +10000 2004 January* + + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created +to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people +and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, +Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, +Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, +Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New +Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, +Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South +Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West +Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. + +We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones +that have responded. + +As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list +will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states. +Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state. + +In answer to various questions we have received on this: + +We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally +request donations in all 50 states. If your state is not listed and +you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have, +just ask. + +While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are +not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting +donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to +donate. + +International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about +how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made +deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are +ways. + +Donations by check or money order may be sent to: + +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +PMB 113 +1739 University Ave. +Oxford, MS 38655-4109 + +Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment +method other than by check or money order. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by +the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN +[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154. Donations are +tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law. As fund-raising +requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be +made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information online at: + +http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html + + +*** + +If you can't reach Project Gutenberg, +you can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. + +We would prefer to send you information by email. + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook +under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may +receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims +all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, +and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated +with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including +legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the +following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this eBook, +[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook, +or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + eBook or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the eBook (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only +when distributed free of all fees. Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by +Michael S. Hart. Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be +used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be +they hardware or software or any other related product without +express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* + |