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diff --git a/old/usher10.txt b/old/usher10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2ceef75 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/usher10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1105 @@ +*The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Fall of the House of Usher* +by Edgar Allan Poe +#1 in our series by Edgar Allan Poe + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + +Scanned and proofread by Levent Kurnaz + + + + + +The Fall of the House of Usher + + +Son coeur est un luth suspendu; +Sitot qu'on le touche il resonne. +DE BERANGER. + + + + +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-pleasureable, 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 grey 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 importunate 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 recognisable beauties of musical +science. I had learned, too, the very remarkable fact, that the +stem of the Usher race, all time-honoured 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 supersition--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 grey wall, +and the silent tarn--a pestilent and mystic vapour, 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 me 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 dis- +tance 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 rose 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 ennuye 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 odours 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 grey 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 dis- +solution--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 +endeavours 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 for ever 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 vagueness 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 endeavour 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 splendour. + +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 the 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 winged odour went away. + + + III. + + + Wanderers in that happy valley + + Through two luminous windows saw + + Spirits moving musically + + To a lute's well tuned 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 rapid ghastly 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* have 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 forefathers. 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. + +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 et 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'Indagine, +and of De la Chambre; the Journey into the Blue Distance of +Tieck; and the City of the Sun by Campanella. One favourite +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 OEgipans, 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 Vigiliae Mortuorum Secundum Chorum Ecclesiae +Maguntinae. + +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 labouring 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 endeavoured 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 endeavoured 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 afterwards 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 demeanour. 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 lifelike 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 favourite 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 favourite +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 alarmed 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 demeanour, 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 conquerer 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 the +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 demeanour. +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 +clangour 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 footsteps 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 +which 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". + + +* Watson, Dr Percival, Spallanzani, and especially the Bishop of Landaff. + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Fall of the House of Usher + |