Poe, Edgar Allen - The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe

by Volume 01-05 (lit)

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, harkened - 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 recognised 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 harkened, or apparently harkened, 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 alarummed and

  reverberated throughout the forest."
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br />   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 pannels 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