Edgar Allan Poe

I awoke from a deep sleep,lying on the cold,hard floor of a dungeon.It was as dark as midnight.For a few minutes I tried to recall the events that led to my being put into prison.My mind was almost ablank and I was weak from hunger.

Suddenly it came to me quite clearly-first,the soldiers and then the black-robed judges of the Inquisition.The judges had agreed that I must be punished and then die because I was a heretic.

As long as I live,I shall never forget the seven burning candles,the seven black robes,and the seven white faces.How could I make the judges believe that I was a Christian?

The charges against me were all false!At one time I had dared to find fault with the Inquisition and its methods of punishment.Somebody had reported my name,and now I was to pay for my folly.My careless words and my politics,not my religious beliefs,had fired the jealousy of the judges.

I was in the cell alone.The dungeon keepers had taken my clothes andmy weapons.All I had was a robe of coarse cloth that gave me little warmth.

In an effort to find out what kind of place I was in,I rose from the floor and began to feel my way along the walls.The floor was moist and slippery.By some strange reasoningI guessed that the cell was round in shape,and that it was built of pieces of stone or metal.I could not judge correctly,for I was upset and sick unto death.I tore a piece of cloth from my robe and pushed one end into a crack in the wall.Then I continued to feel my way along,counting each step.After I had walked around the room,and my fingers once again touched the piece of cloth,I estimated that I hadtaken over a hundred steps inside the wall.My efforts gave me no hope,for there wasn't a singleopening-not even a ray of light through the slightest crack.

My next effort was to explore the center of the cell.This I did by placing one foot before the other in slow steps.Suddenly my feet shot out from under me.The slick floor brought me down in a heavy fall.My body slid forward several feet before I came to rest.

When I began to move my arms in an effort to rise,I was surprised that I felt nothing but space.I reached out hopelessly,like a drowning man grabbing at sticks and straws.

Suddenly there was a faint light in the dungeon,and to my horror I saw that I lay at the edge of a deep pit or well,from which came a terrible odor.I lay quietly for several minutes,fearing that I would slip into the pit.

Finally overcoming some of my fear,I felt alongside my body and found a small stone,which I dropped into the pit.It seemed several seconds before I heard the splash of water.I shuddered as I sensed how close I had come to a horrible death.

In some strange way the light had increased,and Icould now see more clearly the nature of the dungeon.Its general shape was square,not circular,and it was built of large iron plates.

I rolled away from the pit and crawled back to the sidewall,where I had slept after being captured and beaten.Nearby was a small pitcher of water.I drank some of it though it had the taste of watered wine.Then I slept again.

The water must have been drugged,for I awoke with a headache and I felt as though I had been asleep for ages.I lay on my back and I could notmove my body.The reason was that I was bound to a framework by a long leather strap that held my body,legs,and right arm tightly.Only my left arm and head were free.

A dish of food was within reach of my free hand.Being quite hungry,I ate some of iteagerly.The food increased my thirst,but the water pitcher was beyond my reach.What worse punishment could one have-a dying thirst?

Looking up to the ceiling of my prison,I saw that it was built of iron plates,like the sidewalls.One panel had a painted figure of Father Time.Instead of a scythe,Father Time held a huge pendulum,such as we see on old clocks.While I gazed at it,one end of the pendulum dropped down from the ceiling and began to swing back,and forth.I watched it several minutes,morein wonder than in fear.I had not yet guessed its importance.

A slight noise attracted my attention,and looking at the floor,I saw several rats running about.They had come from the well and their secret holes,lured by the smell of the food.Even asI watched,more rats joined the pack,and I had to make an effort with my free hand to scare them away.

I must have lain there half an hour when I again looked upward.A hissing sound warned me of danger.I was amazed to see that the pendulum had come closer in its broad sweep.Again I felt the awful fear of death when I realized that the pendulum itself was a crescent shaped knife.

There was no longer any question about the doom tile Inquisition had prepared for me.No fate could be worse than failing into the horrible pit,but now I faced a new danger.

Down-the blade came,swinging back and forth,far and wide.As I watched it in terror,I saw that with each motion it came closer to my breast.

Down-the blade swung and hissed,aimed at my heart.It was hope that held my nerves from shock?It was hope that kept me alive,facing this devilish machine of slow death.

Down-the blade swung,now barely two feet from my body.I was sure that I could smell the cold steel as it reached to make the final strokes.

Down-down it came!I struggled to free my shoulders.My left arm was free to my left shoulder.I could reach my food dish but no farther.Had I been able to break the strap that held my right arm,I might have grabbed hold of the pendulum and stopped it.

However,the machine was lowering the pendulum slowly,and I saw that it would take some time for the blade to cut through my robe-then it would be my flesh,my ribs,and then my heart.

Down-down it came and now I could see the hissing blade barely a foot aboveme.

For many hours the framework upon which I lay had been swarming with rats.They had been able to steal most of my food in the dish.In my efforts to scare them away,my hand waved in a seesaw motion.In their great hunger they had bitten my fingers and the end my nose.Then a thought came tome-a prayerful hope.

With the pieces of food that remained in the dish,I rubbed the strap wherever I could reach it.Then I lay still.At first the rats didn't understand why I kept quiet.Then a bold one leaped upon the framework and smelled the strap.That was a signal for a general rush.Forth from the well they hurried in fresh troops and began to gnaw at the strap in many places.They ran over me boldly.Their foul odor filled me with horror and disgust.I became so sick that I would have welcomed a quick stroke of the death-dealing blade.

The movement of the blade did not bother them.Avoiding its strokes,they gnawed the strap into pieces.

At last I was free-not a moment too soon.The next stroke of the bladecut through my robe and I felt a sharp sting of pain.There was not a moment to lose!Before the pendulum swung on its backward stroke,I rolled off the framework onto the floor.For amoment,at least,I was free.

Did I say I was free?The very moment I rolled away from the trap,some unseen force stopped the pendulum,and I watched it being drawn through an opening in the ceiling.Free?Twice I had escaped death,but now I became aware that I faced death in anotherway,for already the light within the cell changed into a strange glow.The iron plates were being heated in some way I knew not how.I felt the warmth that came from them.I sat on the floor as if in a dream.The cell was getting hotter and I could smell the hot iron.

A second change was takingplace in my prison.The hot walls were moving toward me,forcing me to the center of the cell.As the walls began to glow,my lungs struggled with the hot air.Would it not be better to hurl myself into the pit and drown in its cool waters than to sufferthe burning pain of hot iron?

Then I smelled the foul odor of the pit and thought of the countless hundreds of rats."Death,"I cried,"any death but that of the pit!"Fool!I knew the object of the burning iron was to force me into the pit.

I pulled back-but the closing walls pressed me closer to the hole.At length there wasn't an extra inch of solid ground left for me.I could not fight much longer,for I had lost tile will to live.I cried out in my despair.

I dropped to my knees,knowing that in a few seconds my body would be falling into the dark waters below.

Was it a dream?No,it was real-I heard a hum of human voices.Then there was a loud blast of trumpets!Then I heard a sound like thunder!The fiery walls were moving back!

Suddenly the dungeon wasfully lighted,and a friendly arm pulled me from the edge of the pit.The helping hand was that of General La Salle of the French army.The army had entered Toledo[Spain] and had captured the headquarters of the Inquisition.I waslucky that the French had come in time!