The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe

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One of my favorite memories of scaring
myself as a child was getting a compilation

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book of Edgar Allan Poe stories from
my elementary school library. It brought me

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so much fear and so much excitement. I remember running home from school with

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that book in my backpack as the
sky was dark and a storm was coming.

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I was in my childhood living room, but I wasn't alone. I

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had a pizza and the books of
Poe. Every so often I'll bring you

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a tale of Poe, and I
hope it gives you that scary fun sense,

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just the same as it does for
me. So listen to these words

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from our sponsors, and when the
clock strikes midnight, the story will begin.

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The Fall of the House of Usher
by Edgar Allan Poe son kor est

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un luth suspendu sita kei le touche
il resonne day berngerd Ring the whole of

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a dull, dark and soundless day
in the autumn of the year, when

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the clouds hung oppressively low in the
heavens. I had been passing alone on

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horseback through a singularly dreary tract of
country, and at length found myself as

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the shades of the evening drew on
within view of the melancholy house of Usher.

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I know not how it was,
but with the first glimpse of the

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building a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded
my spirit. I say insufferable, for

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the feeling was unrelieved by any of
that half pleasurable, because poetic sentiment,

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with which the mind usually receives even
the sternest natural images of the desolate or

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terrible. I looked upon the scene
before me, upon the mere house and

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the simple landscape feature of the domain, upon the bleak walls, upon the

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vacant eye like windows, upon a
few rank sedges, and upon a few

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white trunks of decayed trees, with
an uttered depression of soul, which I

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can compare to no earthly sensation more
properly than to the after dream of the

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reveler. Upon Opium, the bitter
lapse into everyday life, the hideous dropping

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off of the veil. There was
an iciness, a sinking, a sickening

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of the heart, an unredeemed dreariness
of thought, which no goading of the

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imagination could torture into aught of the
sublime. What was it? I paused

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to think, what was it that
so unnerved me in the contemplation of the

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House of Usher. It was a
mystery all insoluble. Nor could I grapple

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with the shadowy nancies that crowded upon
me. As I pondered, I was

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forced to fall back upon the unsatisfactory
conclusion that, while beyond doubt there are

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combinations of very simple natural objects which
have the power of thus affecting us,

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still the analysis of this power lies
among considerations beyond our depth. It was

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possible, I reflected, that a
mere different arrangement of the particulars of the

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scene, of the details of the
picture, would be sufficient to modify,

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or perhaps to annihilate, its capacity
for sorrowful impression. And acting upon this

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idea, I reined my horse to
the precipitous brink of a black and lurid

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tarn that lay an unruffled luster by
the dwelling, and gazed down, but

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with a shudder, even more thrilling
than before, upon the re modeled and

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inverted images of the gray sedge,
and the ghastly tree stems, and the

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vacant and eye like windows. Nevertheless, in this mansion of gloom, I

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now proposed to myself a sojourn of
some weeks. Its proprietor, Roderick Usher,

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had been one of my boon companions
in boyhood, but many years had

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elapsed since our last meeting. A
letter, however, had lately reached me

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in a distant part of the country, a letter from him, which,

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in its wildly importunate nature, had
admitted of no other than a personal reply.

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The ms gave evidence of nervous agitation. The writer spoke of acute bodily

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illness, of a mental disorder which
oppressed him, and of an earnest desire

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to see me as his best and
indeed his only person friend, with a

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view of attempting, by the cheerfulness
of my society, some alleviation of his

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malady. It was the manner in
which all of this, and much more

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was said. It was the apparent
heart that went with his request, which

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allowed me no room for hesitation,
and I accordingly obeyed forthwith what I still

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considered a very singular summons. Although
as boys we had been even intimate associates,

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yet I really knew little of my
friend. His reserve had been always

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excessive and habitual. I was aware, however, that his very ancient family

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had been noted time out of mind
for a peculiar sensibility of temperament, displaying

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itself through long ages in many works
of exalted art, and manifested of late

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in repeated deeds of munificence and yet
unobstructive charity, as well as in a

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passionate devotion to the intricacies, perhaps
even more than the orthodox and easily recognizable

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beauties of musical science. I had
learned too, the very remarkable fact that

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the stem of the Usher race,
all time, honored as it was,

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had put forth at no period any
enduring branch. In other words, that

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the entire family lay in the direct
line of descent, and had always,

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with very trifling and very temporary variation. So lain. It was this deficiency

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I considered, while running over in
thought the perfect keeping of the character of

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the premisses with the accredited character of
the people, and while speculating upon the

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possible influence with the one in the
long lapse of centuries might have exercised upon

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the other. It was this deficiency, perhaps of collateral issue, and the

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consequent undeviating transmission from sire to son
of the patrimony with the same name,

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which had at length so identified the
two as to merge the original title of

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the estate in the quaint and equivocal
appellation of the House of Usher, an

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appellation which seemed to include in the
minds of the peasantry who used it,

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both the family and the family mansion. I have said that the sole effect

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of my somewhat childish experiment, that
of looking down within the tarn, had

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been to deepen the first singular impression. There can be no doubt that the

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consciousness of the rapid increase of my
superstition, for why should I not term

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it, served mainly to accelerate the
increase itself. Such I have long known

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is the paradoxical law of all sentience, having terror as a basis. And

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it might have been for this reason
only that when I again uplifted my eyes

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to the house itself from its image
in the pool, there grew in my

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mind a strange fancy, a fancy
so ridiculous, indeed, that I but

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mention it to show the vivid force
of the sensations which oppressed me. I

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had so worked upon my imagination as
really to believe that about the whole mansion

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and domain there hung an atmosphere peculiar
to themselves and their immediate vicinity, an

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atmosphere which had no affinity with the
air of heaven, but which had reeked

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up from the decayed trees and the
gray wall and the silent tarn, a

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pestilent and mystic vapor, dull,
sluggish, faintly discernible, and leaden hued,

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shaking off from my spirit what must
have been a dream. I scanned

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more narrowly the real aspect of the
building. Its principal feature seemed to be

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that of an excessive antiquity. The
discoloration of ages had been great, minute

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fungi overspread the whole exterior, hanging
in a fine tangled web work from the

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eaves. Yet all this was apart
from any extraordinary dilapidation. No portion of

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the masonry had fallen, and there
appeared to be a wild inconsistency between its

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still perfect adaptation of parts and the
crumbling condition of the individual stones. In

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this there was much that reminded me
of the specious totality of old woodwork,

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which has rotted for long years in
some neglected vault with no disturbance from the

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breath of the external air. Beyond
this indication of extensive decay. However,

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the fabric gave little token of instability. Perhaps the eye of a scrutinizing observer

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might have discovered a barely perceptible fissure
which, extending from the roof of the

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building in front, made its way
down the wall in a zigzag direction,

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until it became lost in the sullen
waters of the tarn. Noticing these things,

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I rode over a short causeway to
the house. A servant in waiting

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took my horse, and I entered
the gothic archway of the hall. A

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valet of stealthy step thence conducted me
in silence through many dark and intricate passages

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in my progress to the studio of
his master. Much that I encountered on

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the way contributed. I know not
how to heighten the vague sentiments of which

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I have already spoken, While the
objects around me, while the carvings of

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the ceilings, the somber tapestries of
the walls, the ebbon blackness of the

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floors, and the phantasmagoric armorial trophy
which rattled as I strode, were but

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matters to which, or to such
as which I had been accustomed from my

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infancy. While I hesitated not to
acknowledge how familiar was all this. I

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still wondered to find how unfamiliar were
the fancies which ordinary images were stirring up.

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On one of the staircases, I
met the physician of the family.

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His countenance, I thought, wore
a mingled expression of low cunning and perplexity.

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He accosted me with trepidation and passed
on the valet. Now threw open

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a door and ushered me into the
presence of his master. The room in

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which I found myself was very large
and lofty. The windows were long,

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narrow and pointed, and at so
vast a distance from the black oaken floor

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as to be altogether inaccessible from within. Feeble gleams of increasing m light made

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their way through the trellised panes,
and served to render sufficiently distinct the more

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prominent objects around the eye, however, struggled in vain to reach the remoter

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angles of the chamber or the recesses
of the vaulted and fretted ceiling. Dark

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draperies hung upon the walls. The
general furniture was profuse, comfortless, antique,

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and tattered. Many books and musical
instruments lay scattered about, but failed

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to give any vitality to the scene. I felt that I breathed an atmosphere

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of sorrow, an air of stern, deep and irredeemable gloom, hung over

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and pervaded all. Upon my entrance, Usher arose from a sofa on which

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he had been lying at full length, and greeted me with a vivacious warmth

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which had much in it. I
at first thought of an overdone cordiality,

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of the constrained effort of the onuye
man of the world. A glance,

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however, at his countenance, convinced
me of his perfect sincerity. We sat

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down, and for some moments while
he spoke not I gazed upon him with

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a feeling half of pity, half
of awe. Surely man had never before

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so terribly altered in so brief a
period as had Roderick Usher. It was

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with difficulty that I could bring myself
to admit the identity of the wand being

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before me with the companion of my
early boyhood. Yet the character of his

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face had been at all times remarkable, a cadaverousness of complexion, an eye

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large, liquid and luminous beyond comparison, lips somewhat thin and very pallid,

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but of a surpassingly beautiful curve,
a nose of a delicate Hebrew model,

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but with a breadth of nostril unusual
in similar formations. A finely molded chin

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speaking in its want of prominence,
of a want of moral energy, hair

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of a more than weblike softness and
tenuity. These features, with an inordinate

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expansion above the regions of the temple, made up altogether a countenance not easily

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to be forgotten. And now,
in the mere exaggeration of the prevailing character

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of these features and of the expression
they were wont to convey, lay so

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much of change that I doubt to
whom I spoke. The now ghastly paler

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of the skin, and the now
miraculous luster of the eye above all things

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startled and even awed me. The
silken hair, too had been suffered to

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grow all unheeded, and as in
its wild gossamer texture, it floated rather

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than fell about the face. I
could not, even with effort, connect

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its Arabesque expression with any idea of
simple humanity in the manner of my friend,

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I was at once struck with an
incoherence, an inconsistency, and I

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soon found this to arise from a
series of feeble and futile struggles to overcome

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an habitual trepidacy, an excessive nervous
agitation. For something of this nature.

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I had indeed been prepared no less
by his letter than by reminiscence of certain

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boyish traits, and by conclusions deduced
from his peculiar physical confirmation and temperament.

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His action was alternately vivacious and sullen. His voice varied rapidly from a tremulous

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indecision when the animal spirit seemed utterly
in abeyance, to that species of energetic

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concision, that abrupt, weighty,
unhurried in hollow sounding enunciation that leadon self

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balanced, imperfectly modulated guttural utterance,
which may be observed in the lost Drunkard

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or the irreclaimable eater of opium.
During the periods of his most intense excitement,

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it was thus that he spoke of
the object of my visit, of

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his earnest desire to see me,
and of the solace he expected me to

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afford him. He entered at some
length into what he conceived to be the

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nature of his malady. It was, he said, a constitutional and a

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family evil, and one for which
he despaired to find a remedy. A

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mere nervous affection he immediately added,
which would undoubtedly soon pass off. It

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displayed itself in a host of unnatural
sensations. Some of these, as he

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detailed them, interested and bewildered me. Although perhaps the terms and the general

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manner of the narration had their weight. He suffered much from a morbid acuteness

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of the senses. The most insipid
food was alone endurable. He could wear

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only garments of a certain texture.
The odors of all flowers were oppressive.

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His eyes were tortured by even a
faint light. And there were but peculiar

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sounds, and these from stringed instruments, which did not inspire him with horror.

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To an anomalous species of terror.
I found him a bounden slave.

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I shall perish, said he.
I must perish in this deplorable folly.

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Thus, thus and not otherwise,
shall I be lost. I dread the

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events of the future, not in
themselves, but in their results. I

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shudder at the thought of any even
the most trivial incident, which may operate

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upon this intolerable agitation of soul.
I have indeed no abhorrence of danger,

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except in its absolute effect in terror. In this unnerved, in this pitiable

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condition, I feel that the period
will sooner or later arrive when I must

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abandon life and reason altogether. In
some struggle with the grim phantasm fear,

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I learned moreover, at intervals and
through broken and equivocal hints, another singular

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feature of his mental condition. He
was enchain'd by certain superstitious impressions in regard

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to the dwelling which he tenanted,
and whence for many years he had never

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ventured forth in regard to an influence
whose superstitious force was conveyed in terms too

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shadowy here to be restated, An
influence which some peculiarities in the mere form

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and substance of his family mansion had, by dint of long sufferance, he

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said, obtained over his spirit,
an effect which the physique of the gray

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walls and turrets, and of the
dim tarn into which they all looked down,

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had at length brought upon the morale
of his existence. He admitted,

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however, although without hesitation, that
much of the peculiar gloom which thus afflicted

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him could be traced to a more
natural and far more palpable origin to the

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severe and long continued illness, indeed
to the evidently approaching disillusion of a tenderly

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beloved sister, his sole companion for
long years, his last and only relative

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on earth. Her decease, he
said, with a bitterness which I can

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00:20:41.559 --> 00:20:47.720
never forget, would leave him him
the hopeless and the frail, the last

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of the ancient race of the Ushers. While he spoke, the lady Madeleine,

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for so was she called, passed
slowly through a remote portion of the

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apartment, and, without having noticed
my presence, disappeared. I regarded her

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with an utter astonishment, not unmingled
with dread. And yet I found it

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impossible to account for such feelings.
A sensation of stupor oppressed me as my

206
00:21:15.319 --> 00:21:19.599
eyes followed her retreating steps. When
a door at length closed upon her,

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my glance sought instinctively and eagerly the
countenance of the brother, But he had

208
00:21:26.160 --> 00:21:30.799
buried his face in his hands,
and I could only perceive that a far

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00:21:30.960 --> 00:21:37.880
more than ordinary waneness had overspread the
emaciated fingers through which trickled many passionate tears.

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Don't go away weakly, spooky will
be right back. The disease of

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Lady Madeleine had long baffled the skill
of her physicians. A settled apathy,

212
00:21:53.680 --> 00:22:00.400
a gradual wasting away of the person, and frequent, although transient, affectations

213
00:22:00.440 --> 00:22:07.480
of a partially cataleptical character were the
unusual diagnosis. Hitherto, she had steadily

214
00:22:07.519 --> 00:22:11.680
borne up against the pressure of her
malady, and had not betaken herself finally

215
00:22:11.720 --> 00:22:17.039
to bed. But on the closing
in of the evening of my arrival at

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the house, she succumbed, as
her brother told me at night, with

217
00:22:21.240 --> 00:22:26.400
inexpressible agitation, to the prostrating power
of the destroyer. And I learned that

218
00:22:26.480 --> 00:22:32.119
the glimpse I had obtained of her
would thus probably be the last I should

219
00:22:32.119 --> 00:22:37.599
obtain. That the lady, at
least while living, would be seen by

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00:22:37.680 --> 00:22:42.920
me no more for several hours,
ensuing, her name was unmentioned by either

221
00:22:44.079 --> 00:22:48.400
Usher or myself, and during this
period I was busied in earnest endeavors to

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alleviate the melancholy of my friend.
We painted and read together, or I

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listened, as if in a dream, to the wild improvisations of his speaking

224
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guitar, and thus as a closer
and still closer intimacy admitted me more unreservedly

225
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into the recesses of his spirit.
The more bitterly did I perceive the futility

226
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of all attempt at cheering a mind
from which darkness, as if an inherent

227
00:23:17.920 --> 00:23:22.200
positive quality, poured forth upon all
objects of the moral and physical universe,

228
00:23:22.680 --> 00:23:30.400
in one unceasing radiation of gloom.
I shall ever bear about me a memory

229
00:23:30.519 --> 00:23:34.319
of the many solemn hours I thus
spent alone with the Master of the House

230
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of Usher. Yet I should fail
in any attempt to convey an idea of

231
00:23:40.680 --> 00:23:45.920
the exact character of the studies or
of the occupations in which he involved me,

232
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or led me the way an excited, highly distempered ideality through a sulfurious

233
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luster. Over All, his long
improvised dirges will ring forever in my ears.

234
00:23:59.000 --> 00:24:03.200
Among other things things I hold painfully
in mind, a certain singular perversion

235
00:24:03.480 --> 00:24:10.559
and amplification of the wild air of
the last Waltz of von Weber, from

236
00:24:10.559 --> 00:24:15.000
the paintings over which his elaborate fancy
brooded, and which grew touch by touch

237
00:24:15.440 --> 00:24:21.640
into vaguenessis at which I shuddered the
more thrillingly, because I shuddered, knowing

238
00:24:21.720 --> 00:24:26.720
not why. From these paintings vivid
as their images now are before me,

239
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I would in vain endeavor to induce
more than a small portion which should lie

240
00:24:32.359 --> 00:24:37.559
within the compass of merely written words. By the utter simplicity, by the

241
00:24:37.680 --> 00:24:45.519
nakedness of his designs, he arrested
and overawed attention, if ever Mortal painted

242
00:24:45.559 --> 00:24:52.640
an idea that Mortal was Roderick Usher
for me, at least in the circumstances

243
00:24:52.680 --> 00:25:00.880
then surrounding me, There arose out
of the pure abstractions which the hypochondriac contrived

244
00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:07.880
to throw upon his canvas, an
intensity of intolerable awe, no shadow of

245
00:25:07.920 --> 00:25:12.079
which felt I ever yet, in
the contemplation of the certainly glowing yet two

246
00:25:12.160 --> 00:25:19.599
concrete reveries of Fuzelli, one of
the phantasmagoric conceptions of my friend, partaking

247
00:25:19.680 --> 00:25:26.640
not so rigidly of the spirit of
abstraction, may be overshadowed forth, although

248
00:25:26.680 --> 00:25:33.400
feebly in words. A small picture
presented the interior of an immensely long and

249
00:25:33.559 --> 00:25:40.119
rectangular vault or tunnel, with low
walls, smooth white, and without interruption

250
00:25:40.240 --> 00:25:45.240
or device. Certain accessory points of
the design served well to convey the idea

251
00:25:45.319 --> 00:25:51.559
that this excavation lay at an exceeding
depth below the surface of the earth,

252
00:25:52.279 --> 00:25:56.319
no outlet was observed in any portion
of its vast extent, and no torch

253
00:25:56.720 --> 00:26:03.079
or other artificial source of light was
nable. Yet a flood of intense rays

254
00:26:03.279 --> 00:26:11.759
rolled throughout and bathed the whole in
a ghastly an inappropriate splendor. I have

255
00:26:11.880 --> 00:26:15.440
just spoken of that morbid condition of
the auditory nerve, which rendered all music

256
00:26:15.480 --> 00:26:22.240
intolerable to the sufferer, with the
exception of certain effects of stringed instruments.

257
00:26:22.839 --> 00:26:26.559
It was perhaps the narrow limits to
which he thus confined himself upon the guitar,

258
00:26:27.119 --> 00:26:33.640
which gave birth in great measure to
the fantastic character of his performances.

259
00:26:33.720 --> 00:26:40.000
But the fervid facility of his impromptus
could not be so accounted, for they

260
00:26:40.079 --> 00:26:44.480
must have been, and were in
the notes as well as in the words

261
00:26:44.519 --> 00:26:51.599
of his wild fantasias, for he
not unfrequently accompanied himself with rhymed verbal improvisations,

262
00:26:51.920 --> 00:26:56.559
and the result of that intense mental
collectedness and concentration to which I have

263
00:26:56.640 --> 00:27:02.200
previously alluded as the observable only in
particular moments of the highest artificial excitement.

264
00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:08.000
The words of one of these rhapsodies
I have easily remembered, I was perhaps

265
00:27:08.519 --> 00:27:14.559
the more forcibly impressed with it as
he gave it, because in the under

266
00:27:14.759 --> 00:27:18.359
or mystic current of its meaning,
I fancied that I perceived, and for

267
00:27:18.400 --> 00:27:25.039
the first time a full consciousness on
the part of Usher, of the tottering

268
00:27:25.119 --> 00:27:30.680
of his lofty reason upon her throne. The verses which were entitled the Haunted

269
00:27:30.759 --> 00:27:38.920
Palace ran very nearly, if not
accurately. Thus one in the greenest of

270
00:27:38.960 --> 00:27:45.119
our valleys by the good angels tenanted, once a fair and stately palace,

271
00:27:47.000 --> 00:27:52.880
radiant palace reared its head in the
monarch thought's dominion. It stood there never

272
00:27:52.920 --> 00:28:02.319
sir rafe spread opinion over fabric half
so fair, two banners, yellow,

273
00:28:02.400 --> 00:28:07.599
glorious, golden on its roof did
float and flow. This and all this

274
00:28:07.759 --> 00:28:11.799
was in the olden time, long
ago. And every gentle air that dallied

275
00:28:12.119 --> 00:28:18.880
in that sweet day along the ramparts
plummed and pallid, A winged odor went

276
00:28:18.880 --> 00:28:26.440
away. Three wanderers in that happy
valley, through two luminous windows, saw

277
00:28:26.079 --> 00:28:33.240
spirits moving musically to a lute's well
tombed law round about a throne where sitting

278
00:28:33.720 --> 00:28:40.880
poor Pharygine in state his glory well
befitting the ruler of the realm was seen.

279
00:28:41.279 --> 00:28:48.519
Four and all with pearl and ruby
glowing was the fair palace door,

280
00:28:48.079 --> 00:28:53.680
through which came flowing, flowing,
flowing, and sparkling evermore, a troop

281
00:28:53.759 --> 00:28:59.799
of echoes, whose sweet duty was
but to sing in voices of sir,

282
00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:07.839
passing beauty, the wit and wisdom
of their king. Five. But evil

283
00:29:07.960 --> 00:29:12.839
things in robes of sorrow assailed the
monarch's high estate. Ah let us mourn,

284
00:29:12.960 --> 00:29:19.160
for never morrow shall dawn upon him, desolate and round about his home.

285
00:29:19.640 --> 00:29:26.359
The glory that blush'd and bloom'd is
that a dim remembered story of the

286
00:29:26.440 --> 00:29:33.200
old time entombed. Six and travelers
now within that valley, through the red

287
00:29:33.279 --> 00:29:41.400
litten windows sea vast forms that move
fantastically to a discordant melody, while like

288
00:29:41.519 --> 00:29:48.079
a rapid, ghastly river through the
pale door, a hideous throng rush out

289
00:29:48.160 --> 00:29:57.680
forever and laugh, but smile no
more. I well remember that suggestions arising

290
00:29:57.720 --> 00:30:03.720
from this ballad led us into a
train of thought, wherein there became manifest

291
00:30:03.759 --> 00:30:07.640
an opinion of ushers, which I
mention not so much on account of its

292
00:30:07.680 --> 00:30:11.720
novelty, for other men have thought
thus, as on account of the pertinacity

293
00:30:11.839 --> 00:30:17.880
with which he maintained it. This
opinion in its general form was that of

294
00:30:17.920 --> 00:30:23.160
the sentience of all vegetable things.
But in his disordered fancy, the idea

295
00:30:23.200 --> 00:30:30.480
had assumed a more daring character and
trespassed, under certain conditions upon the kingdom

296
00:30:30.920 --> 00:30:36.319
of an organization. I lack words
to express the full extent or the earnest

297
00:30:36.319 --> 00:30:41.640
abandon of his persuasion. The belief, however, was connected, as I

298
00:30:41.720 --> 00:30:45.079
have previously hinted, with the gray
stones of the home of his forefathers.

299
00:30:45.640 --> 00:30:51.279
The conditions of the sentience had been
there, he imagined, fulfilled in the

300
00:30:51.400 --> 00:30:56.440
method of collocation of these stones,
in the order of their arrangement, as

301
00:30:56.480 --> 00:31:02.200
well as in that of many fungi
which overspread them, and of the decayed

302
00:31:02.279 --> 00:31:07.720
trees which stood around. Above all, in the long undisturbed endurance of this

303
00:31:07.839 --> 00:31:12.720
arrangement, and in its reduplication in
the still waters of the Tarn, its

304
00:31:12.759 --> 00:31:18.440
evidence, the evidence of the sentience
was to be seen, he said,

305
00:31:18.839 --> 00:31:22.680
And I here started, as he
spoke, in the gradual yet certain condensation

306
00:31:22.799 --> 00:31:29.000
of an atmosphere of their own about
the waters and the walls. The result

307
00:31:29.119 --> 00:31:33.240
was discoverable, he added, in
that silent, yet importunate and terrible influence

308
00:31:33.400 --> 00:31:37.799
which for centuries had molded the destinies
of his family, and which made him

309
00:31:37.920 --> 00:31:44.400
what I now saw him, what
he was. Such opinions need no comment,

310
00:31:45.079 --> 00:31:49.000
and I will make none. Our
books, the books, which for

311
00:31:49.160 --> 00:31:55.440
years had formed no small portion of
the mental existence of the invalid, were,

312
00:31:55.720 --> 00:32:00.279
as might be supposed, in strict
keeping with his character of phantasm.

313
00:32:00.200 --> 00:32:07.599
We poured together over such works as
the Vervais et Chartruss of Greze, the

314
00:32:07.720 --> 00:32:14.359
Belphegor of Macchiavelli, The Heaven and
Hell of Swedenborg, the Subterranean Voyage of

315
00:32:14.440 --> 00:32:21.559
Nicholas clim By Holberg, the Cairomancy
of Robert Flood, of gen Donajina,

316
00:32:21.720 --> 00:32:27.559
and of de la Chambre, The
Journey into the Blue Distance of Tiak,

317
00:32:28.000 --> 00:32:32.319
the City of the Sun of Campanella. One favorite volume was a small octavio

318
00:32:32.519 --> 00:32:39.359
edition of the Directorium Inquisitorium by the
Dominican Emeric de Girone, And there were

319
00:32:39.400 --> 00:32:46.920
passages in Pomponius Melee about the old
African sADRs and edgepens, over which Usher

320
00:32:46.960 --> 00:32:52.000
would sit dreaming for hours. His
chief delight, however, was found in

321
00:32:52.039 --> 00:32:59.160
the perusal of an exceedingly rare and
curious book in Quarto Gothic, the manual

322
00:32:59.200 --> 00:33:07.279
of a forgotten Church, the Vigilier
Mortorium Secundum Chorum Ecclesia Magnutine. I could

323
00:33:07.359 --> 00:33:13.319
not help thinking of the wild ritual
of this work, and of its probable

324
00:33:13.359 --> 00:33:19.079
influence upon the hypochondriac. When,
one evening, having informed me abruptly that

325
00:33:19.200 --> 00:33:23.720
Lady Madeleine was no more, he
stated his intention of preserving her corpse for

326
00:33:23.759 --> 00:33:30.279
a fortnight previously to its final interment
in one of the numerous vaults within the

327
00:33:30.319 --> 00:33:36.640
main walls of the building. The
worldly reason, however, assigned for this

328
00:33:36.799 --> 00:33:40.599
singular proceeding, was one which I
did not feel at liberty to dispute.

329
00:33:42.279 --> 00:33:46.359
The brother had been led to his
resolution, so he told me by consideration

330
00:33:46.440 --> 00:33:52.599
of the unusual character of the malady
of the deceased, of certain obtrusive and

331
00:33:52.720 --> 00:33:55.960
eager inquiries on the part of her
medical men, and of the remote and

332
00:33:57.039 --> 00:34:01.400
exposed situation of the burial ground of
the Amley, I will not deny that

333
00:34:01.440 --> 00:34:06.759
when I called to mind the sinister
countenance of the person whom I met upon

334
00:34:06.799 --> 00:34:09.880
the staircase on the day of my
arrival at the house, I had no

335
00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:15.599
desire to oppose what I regarded as, at best but a harmless and by

336
00:34:15.679 --> 00:34:21.960
no means an unnatural precaution. At
the request of Usher, I personally aided

337
00:34:22.039 --> 00:34:27.199
him in the arrangements for the temporary
entombment. The body having been in coffin,

338
00:34:27.719 --> 00:34:30.840
we two alone bore it to its
rest. The vault in which we

339
00:34:30.920 --> 00:34:37.199
placed it, and which had been
so long unopened that our torches half smothered

340
00:34:37.199 --> 00:34:42.440
in its oppressive atmosphere, gave us
little opportunity for investigation, was small,

341
00:34:43.000 --> 00:34:47.559
damp, and entirely without means of
admission for light. Lying at great depth

342
00:34:47.840 --> 00:34:52.280
immediately beneath that portion of the building
in which was my own sleeping apartment,

343
00:34:53.079 --> 00:34:59.360
it had been used, apparently in
remote feudal times for the worst purposes of

344
00:34:59.360 --> 00:35:02.639
a don joh on keep, and
in later days as a place of deposit

345
00:35:02.719 --> 00:35:08.000
for powder or some other highly combustible
substance. As a portion of its floor

346
00:35:08.199 --> 00:35:13.840
and the whole interior of a long
archway through which we reached it were carefully

347
00:35:14.039 --> 00:35:20.480
sheathed with copper. The door of
massive iron had been also similarly protected.

348
00:35:21.199 --> 00:35:27.400
Its immense weight caused an unusually sharp
grating sound as it moved upon its hinges.

349
00:35:28.280 --> 00:35:32.800
Having deposited our mournful burden upon trestles
within this region of horror, we

350
00:35:34.000 --> 00:35:38.039
partially turned aside the yet unscrewed lid
of the coffin, and looked upon the

351
00:35:38.079 --> 00:35:44.840
face of the tenant. A striking
similitude between the brother and sister now first

352
00:35:44.960 --> 00:35:51.320
arrested my attention, and usher divining
perhaps my thoughts, murmured out some few

353
00:35:51.400 --> 00:35:55.719
words, from which I learned that
the deceased and himself had been twins,

354
00:35:57.679 --> 00:36:02.440
and that sympathies of a scarcely intelligible
nature had always existed between them. Our

355
00:36:02.480 --> 00:36:07.880
glances, however, rested not long
upon the dead, for we could not

356
00:36:07.039 --> 00:36:13.960
regard her unawed. The disease which
had thus entombed the lady in the maturity

357
00:36:14.000 --> 00:36:17.920
of youth, had left, as
usual in all maladies of a strictly cataleptical

358
00:36:19.039 --> 00:36:22.159
character, the mockery of a faint
blush upon the bosom and the face,

359
00:36:22.960 --> 00:36:30.239
and that suspiciously lingering smile upon the
lip, which is so terrible in death.

360
00:36:30.159 --> 00:36:35.199
We replaced and screwed down the lid, and, having secured the door

361
00:36:35.320 --> 00:36:40.039
of iron, made our way with
toil into the scarcely less gloomy apartments of

362
00:36:40.119 --> 00:36:45.599
the upper portion of the house.
And now some days of bitter grief having

363
00:36:45.599 --> 00:36:51.760
elapsed, an observable change came over
the features of the mental disorder of my

364
00:36:51.840 --> 00:36:58.880
friend. His ordinary manner had vanished, his ordinary occupations were neglected or forgotten.

365
00:36:59.440 --> 00:37:04.239
He rose from chamber to chamber with
hurried, unequal and objectless step.

366
00:37:05.440 --> 00:37:09.800
The pallor of his countenance had assumed, if possible, a more ghastly hue,

367
00:37:10.519 --> 00:37:15.719
but the luminousness of his eye had
utterly gone out. The once occasional

368
00:37:15.840 --> 00:37:22.199
huskiness of his tone was heard no
more, and a tremulous quaver, as

369
00:37:22.199 --> 00:37:28.400
if of extreme terror, habitually characterized
his utterance. There were times, indeed,

370
00:37:28.719 --> 00:37:34.920
when I thought his unceasingly agitated mind
was laboring with some oppressive secret to

371
00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:39.519
divulge, which he struggled for the
necessary courage. At times again, I

372
00:37:39.639 --> 00:37:45.400
was obliged to resolve all into the
mere, inexplicable vagaries of madness. For

373
00:37:45.519 --> 00:37:52.679
I beheld him gazing upon vacancy for
long hours, in an attitude of the

374
00:37:52.760 --> 00:37:58.800
profoundest attention, as if listening to
some imaginary sound. It was no wonder

375
00:37:58.840 --> 00:38:05.239
that his condition terrified, that it
infected me. I felt creeping upon me,

376
00:38:05.400 --> 00:38:09.519
by slow yet certain degrees, the
wild influences of his own fantastic yet

377
00:38:09.559 --> 00:38:16.199
impressive superstitions. It was especially upon
retiring to bed late in the night of

378
00:38:16.239 --> 00:38:20.880
the seventh or eighth day, after
the placing of the Lady Madeleine within the

379
00:38:20.960 --> 00:38:27.920
Donjon, that I experienced the full
power of such feelings. Sleep came not

380
00:38:28.159 --> 00:38:32.199
near my couch. While the hours
waned and waned away. I struggled to

381
00:38:32.239 --> 00:38:37.159
reason off the nervousness which had dominion
over me. I endeavored to believe that

382
00:38:37.280 --> 00:38:40.639
much, if not all, of
what I felt, was due to the

383
00:38:40.679 --> 00:38:46.000
bewildering influence of the gloomy furniture of
the room. Of the dark and tattered

384
00:38:46.039 --> 00:38:52.639
draperies, which tortured into motion by
the breath of a rising tempest, swayed

385
00:38:52.719 --> 00:38:58.440
fitfully to and fro upon the walls, and rustled uneasily about the decorations of

386
00:38:58.480 --> 00:39:05.360
the bed. But my efforts were
fruitless. An irrepressible tremor gradually pervaded my

387
00:39:05.480 --> 00:39:10.480
frame, and at length there sat
upon my very heart an incubus of utterly

388
00:39:10.559 --> 00:39:16.159
causeless alarm, shaking this off with
a gasp and a struggle. I uplifted

389
00:39:16.199 --> 00:39:22.400
myself upon the pillows, and,
peering earnestly within the intense darkness of the

390
00:39:22.519 --> 00:39:29.480
chamber, hearkened. I know not
why, except that an instinctive spirit prompted

391
00:39:29.519 --> 00:39:34.559
me to certain low and indefinite sounds, which came through the pauses of the

392
00:39:34.679 --> 00:39:39.960
storm at long intervals. I knew
not whence, overpowered by an intense sentiment

393
00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:45.000
of horror, unaccountable yet unendurable,
I threw on my clothes with haste,

394
00:39:45.239 --> 00:39:50.119
for I felt I should sleep no
more during the night, and endeavored to

395
00:39:50.159 --> 00:39:54.599
arouse myself from the pitiable condition into
which I had fallen. By pacing rapidly

396
00:39:54.679 --> 00:40:00.119
to and fro through the apartment,
I had taken but few turns in this

397
00:40:00.280 --> 00:40:07.440
manner. When a light step on
an adjoining staircase arrested my attention, I

398
00:40:07.519 --> 00:40:13.000
presently recognized it as that of usher
in an instant Afterward, he rapped with

399
00:40:13.039 --> 00:40:17.519
a gentle touch at my door,
and entered bearing a lamp. His countenance

400
00:40:17.679 --> 00:40:24.599
was as usual cadaverously wan, but
moreover, there was a species of mad

401
00:40:24.679 --> 00:40:31.840
hilarity in his eyes, and evidently
restrained hysteria in his whole demeanor his air

402
00:40:31.920 --> 00:40:37.159
appalled me, but anything was preferable
to the solitude which had so long endured,

403
00:40:37.559 --> 00:40:45.199
and I even welcomed his presence as
a relief more scarce to come after

404
00:40:45.280 --> 00:40:52.360
these quick messages. And you've not
seen it, he said abruptly, after

405
00:40:52.440 --> 00:40:57.920
having stared about him for some moments
in silence. Have you not seen it?

406
00:40:58.480 --> 00:41:02.639
But stay you shall? Thus speaking, and having carefully shaded his lamp,

407
00:41:04.000 --> 00:41:07.119
he hurried to one of the casements
and threw it freely opened the storm.

408
00:41:07.800 --> 00:41:13.039
The impetuous fury of the entering gust
nearly lifted us from our feet.

409
00:41:13.480 --> 00:41:17.880
It was indeed a tempestuous, yet
sternly beautiful night, and one wildly singular

410
00:41:17.920 --> 00:41:23.519
in its terror and its beauty.
A whirlwind had apparently collected its force in

411
00:41:23.599 --> 00:41:29.760
our vicinity, for there were frequent
and violent alterations in the direction of the

412
00:41:29.800 --> 00:41:34.880
wind, and the exceeding density of
the clouds, which hung so low as

413
00:41:34.960 --> 00:41:38.480
to press upon the turrets of the
house, did not prevent our perceiving the

414
00:41:38.599 --> 00:41:44.679
lifelike velocity with which they flew,
careening from all points against each other,

415
00:41:44.880 --> 00:41:50.440
without passing away into the distance.
I say that even their exceeding density did

416
00:41:50.480 --> 00:41:54.440
not prevent our perceiving this. Yet
we had no glimpse of the moon or

417
00:41:54.559 --> 00:42:00.000
stars, nor was there any flashing
forth of the light. But the under

418
00:42:00.039 --> 00:42:06.159
surfaces of the huge masses of agitated
vapor, as well as all terrestrial objects

419
00:42:06.159 --> 00:42:10.159
immediately around us, were glowing in
an unnatural light of a faintly luminous and

420
00:42:10.280 --> 00:42:16.519
distinctly visible gaseous exhalation, which hung
about and enshrouded the mansion. You must

421
00:42:16.599 --> 00:42:22.280
not, you shall not behold this, said I shudderingly to Usher, as

422
00:42:22.320 --> 00:42:24.840
I led him with a gentle violence, from the window to a seat.

423
00:42:25.880 --> 00:42:31.880
These appearances which bewilder you are merely
electrical phenomena, not uncommon. Or it

424
00:42:31.920 --> 00:42:37.440
may be that they have their ghastly
origin in the rank myasthma of the tarn.

425
00:42:37.360 --> 00:42:42.960
Let us close this casement. The
air is chilling and dangerous to your

426
00:42:43.000 --> 00:42:46.159
frame. Here is one of your
favorite romances. I will read, and

427
00:42:46.320 --> 00:42:51.599
you shall listen, and so we
will pass away this terrible night together.

428
00:42:52.320 --> 00:42:55.960
The antique volume which I had taken
up was The Mad Tryst of Sir Launcelot

429
00:42:57.000 --> 00:43:00.159
Canning. But I had called it
a favorite of us, more in sad

430
00:43:00.280 --> 00:43:06.000
jest than in earnest, for in
truth, there is little in its uncouth

431
00:43:06.039 --> 00:43:12.119
and unimaginative prolixity which could have had
interest for the lofty and spiritual ideality of

432
00:43:12.159 --> 00:43:15.800
my friend. It was, however, the only book immediately at hand,

433
00:43:16.079 --> 00:43:22.440
and I indulged a vague hope that
the excitement which now agitated the hypochondriac might

434
00:43:22.519 --> 00:43:25.880
find relief, For the history of
mental disorder is full of similar anomalies.

435
00:43:27.320 --> 00:43:30.880
Even in the extremeness of the folly
which I should read. Could I have

436
00:43:31.039 --> 00:43:37.239
judged indeed, by the wild,
overstrained air of vivacity with which he hearkened,

437
00:43:37.599 --> 00:43:40.440
or apparently hearkened to the words of
the tale, I might well have

438
00:43:40.519 --> 00:43:45.960
congratulated myself upon the success of my
design. I had arrived at that well

439
00:43:46.000 --> 00:43:51.639
known portion of the story where Ethelred, the hero of the Tryst, having

440
00:43:51.679 --> 00:43:55.119
sought in vain for peaceable admission into
the dwelling of the hermit, proceeds to

441
00:43:55.159 --> 00:44:00.760
make good an entrance by force.
Here it will be remembered the words of

442
00:44:00.800 --> 00:44:06.639
the narrative run thus and Ethelred,
who was by nature of a doughty heart,

443
00:44:07.320 --> 00:44:10.880
and who was now mighty withal on
account of the powerfulness of the wine

444
00:44:10.920 --> 00:44:15.079
which he had drunken, waited no
longer to hold parley with the hermit,

445
00:44:15.159 --> 00:44:22.320
who, in sooth was of an
obstinate and maliceful turn. But feeling the

446
00:44:22.400 --> 00:44:27.320
rain upon his shoulders, and fearing
the risking of the tempest, uplifted his

447
00:44:27.400 --> 00:44:31.199
mace outright, and with blows made
quickly room in the plankings of the door

448
00:44:31.360 --> 00:44:37.960
for his gauntleted hand. And now
pulling therewith sturdily, he so cracked and

449
00:44:37.119 --> 00:44:43.199
ripped and tore all asunder that the
noise of the dry and hollow sounding wood

450
00:44:43.199 --> 00:44:49.079
alarmed and reverberated through the forest.
At the termination of this sentence, I

451
00:44:49.199 --> 00:44:52.840
started, and for a moment paused, for it appeared to me, although

452
00:44:52.920 --> 00:44:58.920
I at once concluded that my excited
fancy had deceived me, it appeared to

453
00:44:59.000 --> 00:45:05.079
me that from some very remote portion
of the mansion there came, indistinctly to

454
00:45:05.280 --> 00:45:08.519
my ears, which might have been, in its exact similarity of character,

455
00:45:08.679 --> 00:45:14.920
the echo, but a stifled and
dull one, certainly of the very cracking

456
00:45:14.960 --> 00:45:22.119
and ripping sound which Sir Launcelot had
so particularly described. It was beyond doubt

457
00:45:22.440 --> 00:45:28.719
the coincidence alone which had arrested my
attention. For amid the rattling of the

458
00:45:28.800 --> 00:45:34.800
sashes of the casements and the ordinary
commingled noises of the still increasing storm,

459
00:45:35.519 --> 00:45:43.719
the sound in itself had nothing surely
which should have interested or disturbed me.

460
00:45:44.800 --> 00:45:50.599
I continued the story. But the
good champion Ethelred, now entering within the

461
00:45:50.679 --> 00:45:54.400
door, was sore, enraged,
and amazed to perceive no signal of the

462
00:45:54.440 --> 00:46:00.000
maliceful hermit. But in the stead
thereof a dress wagon, of a scaly

463
00:46:00.079 --> 00:46:06.079
and prodigious demeanor, and of a
fiery tongue, which Satan guard before a

464
00:46:06.119 --> 00:46:09.480
palace of gold with a floor of
silver, And upon the wall there hung

465
00:46:09.519 --> 00:46:15.880
a shield of shining brass with this
legend, and written, who entereth herein

466
00:46:15.480 --> 00:46:21.920
a conqueror hath been? Who slayeth
the dragon? The shield he shall win.

467
00:46:22.880 --> 00:46:27.239
And Ethelred uplifted his mace and struck
upon the head of the dragon,

468
00:46:27.519 --> 00:46:31.400
which fell before him, and gave
up his pesty breath with a shriek so

469
00:46:31.519 --> 00:46:37.840
horrid and harsh and withal so piercing
that Ethelred had feigned to close his ears

470
00:46:37.880 --> 00:46:43.760
with his hands against the dreadful noise
of it, the like whereof was never

471
00:46:43.800 --> 00:46:49.880
heard before here again, I paused
abruptly, and now with a feeling of

472
00:46:49.920 --> 00:46:54.199
wild amazement, for there could be
no doubt whatever that in this instance I

473
00:46:54.280 --> 00:46:59.880
did actually hear, although from what
direction it proceeded, I found it impossible,

474
00:47:00.159 --> 00:47:05.119
say a low and apparently distant,
but harsh, protracted, and most

475
00:47:05.199 --> 00:47:10.280
unusual screaming or grating sound, the
exact counterpart of what my fancy had already

476
00:47:10.320 --> 00:47:17.280
conjured up for the dragon's unnatural shriek
as described by the romancer. Oppressed as

477
00:47:17.320 --> 00:47:23.039
I certainly was upon the occurrence of
this second and most extraordinary coincidence by a

478
00:47:23.119 --> 00:47:30.800
thousand conflicting sensations in which wonder and
extreme terror were predominant, I still retained

479
00:47:30.840 --> 00:47:37.320
sufficient presence of mind to avoid exciting
by any observation the sensitive nervousness of my

480
00:47:37.440 --> 00:47:42.440
companion. I was by no means
certain that he had noticed the sounds in

481
00:47:42.519 --> 00:47:47.519
question, although assuredly a strange alteration
had, during the last few minutes taken

482
00:47:47.599 --> 00:47:53.239
place in his demeanor. From a
position fronting my own, he had gradually

483
00:47:53.239 --> 00:47:58.360
brought round his chair so as to
sit with his face to the door of

484
00:47:58.400 --> 00:48:04.480
the chamber, and thus I could
but partially perceive his features. Although I

485
00:48:04.519 --> 00:48:08.719
saw that his lips trembled as if
he were murmuring inaudibly. His head had

486
00:48:08.800 --> 00:48:14.239
dropped upon his breast. Yet I
knew that he was not asleep from the

487
00:48:14.320 --> 00:48:16.880
wide and rigid opening of the eye, as I caught a glance of it

488
00:48:16.920 --> 00:48:22.320
in his profile. The motion of
his body, too was at variance with

489
00:48:22.400 --> 00:48:27.920
this idea, for he rocked from
side to side with a gentle, yet

490
00:48:27.960 --> 00:48:34.320
constant and uniform sway. Having rapidly
taken notice of all this, I resumed

491
00:48:34.360 --> 00:48:38.800
the narrative of Sir Launcelot, which
thus proceeded. And now the Champion,

492
00:48:38.920 --> 00:48:44.679
having escaped from the terrible fury of
the dragon, bethinking himself of the brazen

493
00:48:44.760 --> 00:48:49.400
shield and of the breaking up of
the enchantment which was upon it, removed

494
00:48:49.440 --> 00:48:53.280
the carcass from out of the way
before him, and approached valorously over the

495
00:48:53.360 --> 00:48:59.039
silver pavement of the castle to wear
the shield upon the wall, which in

496
00:48:59.159 --> 00:49:02.800
sooth tarried not for his full coming, but fell down at his feet upon

497
00:49:02.880 --> 00:49:08.400
the silver floor with a mighty,
great and terrible ringing sound. No sooner

498
00:49:08.440 --> 00:49:13.440
had these syllables passed my lips than
as if a shield of brass had.

499
00:49:13.480 --> 00:49:16.679
Indeed, at the moment fallen heavily
upon a floor of silver, I became

500
00:49:16.719 --> 00:49:23.360
aware of a distinct, hollow,
metallic and clangorous, yet apparently muffled reverberation.

501
00:49:24.800 --> 00:49:30.599
Completely unnerved, I leaped to my
feet, but the measured rocking movement

502
00:49:30.639 --> 00:49:35.000
of usher was undisturbed. I rushed
to the chair in which he sat.

503
00:49:35.559 --> 00:49:40.119
His eyes were bent fixedly before him, and throughout his whole countenance there reigned

504
00:49:40.159 --> 00:49:45.760
a stony rigidity. But as I
placed my hand upon his shoulder, there

505
00:49:45.800 --> 00:49:51.480
came a strong shudder over his whole
person. A sickly smile quivered about his

506
00:49:51.519 --> 00:49:55.159
lips, and I saw that he
spoke in a low, hurried and gibbering

507
00:49:55.280 --> 00:50:00.599
murmur, as if unconscious of my
presence. Ben closely over him, I

508
00:50:00.800 --> 00:50:07.159
at length drank in the hideous import
of his words. Not hear it?

509
00:50:07.880 --> 00:50:10.239
Yes, I hear it, and
have heard it the long, long,

510
00:50:10.400 --> 00:50:14.679
long, many minutes, many hours, many days. Have I heard it?

511
00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:17.000
Yet I dared not. Oh,
pity me, miserable wretch that I

512
00:50:17.039 --> 00:50:22.079
am. I dared not. I
dared not speak. We have put her

513
00:50:22.119 --> 00:50:25.199
living in the tomb, said I, not that my senses were acute.

514
00:50:25.440 --> 00:50:30.800
I now tell you that I heard
her first feeble movements in the hollow coffin.

515
00:50:30.079 --> 00:50:34.760
I heard them many many days ago, Yet I dared not, I

516
00:50:34.880 --> 00:50:40.000
dared not speak. And now tonight
ethel read ha ha, the breaking of

517
00:50:40.039 --> 00:50:44.360
the hermit's door, and the death
cry of the dragon, and the clangor

518
00:50:44.400 --> 00:50:47.519
of the shield. Say rather,
the rendering of her coffin, and the

519
00:50:47.519 --> 00:50:52.519
grating of the iron hinges of her
prison, and her struggles within the coppered

520
00:50:52.639 --> 00:50:55.880
archway of the vault? Oh,
whither shall I fly? Will she not

521
00:50:57.039 --> 00:51:00.360
be here? Anon? Is she
not hurrying to a break? Aid me

522
00:51:00.559 --> 00:51:04.679
from my haste? Have I not
heard her footstep on the stair? Do

523
00:51:04.760 --> 00:51:10.119
I not distinguish that heavy and horrible
beating of her heart? Madman? Here

524
00:51:10.199 --> 00:51:15.320
he sprung furiously to his feet and
shrieked out his syllables, as if in

525
00:51:15.320 --> 00:51:19.719
the effort he were giving up his
soul. Madman, I tell you that

526
00:51:19.760 --> 00:51:23.679
she now stands without the door,
as if in the superhuman energy of his

527
00:51:23.760 --> 00:51:29.199
utterance there had been found the potency
of a spell. The huge antique panels

528
00:51:29.199 --> 00:51:34.800
to which the speaker pointed threw slowly
back upon the instant their ponderous and ebony

529
00:51:34.880 --> 00:51:38.159
jaws. It was the work of
the rushing gust. But then without those

530
00:51:38.199 --> 00:51:44.800
doors there did stand the lofty and
enshrouded figure of the Lady Madeleine of Usher.

531
00:51:45.000 --> 00:51:50.119
There was blood upon her white robes, and the evidence of some bitter

532
00:51:50.159 --> 00:51:55.119
struggle upon every portion of her emaciated
frame. For a moment she remained trembling

533
00:51:55.239 --> 00:52:00.119
and reeling to and fro upon the
threshold. Then, with a low,

534
00:52:00.280 --> 00:52:06.920
moaning cry, fell heavily inward upon
the person of her brother, and in

535
00:52:07.000 --> 00:52:10.920
her violent and now final death,
agonies bore him to the floor, a

536
00:52:12.000 --> 00:52:16.880
corpse and a victim to the terrors
he had anticipated from that chamber. And

537
00:52:16.960 --> 00:52:22.039
from that mansion I fled aghast.
The storm was still abroad in all its

538
00:52:22.119 --> 00:52:25.760
wrath. As I found myself crossing
the old causeway. Suddenly there shot along

539
00:52:25.760 --> 00:52:30.360
the path a wild light, and
I turned to see whence a gleam so

540
00:52:30.519 --> 00:52:35.360
unusual could have issued For the vast
house and its shadows were alone behind me.

541
00:52:35.960 --> 00:52:39.840
The radiance was that of the full
setting and blood red moon, which

542
00:52:39.880 --> 00:52:45.960
now shone vividly through that once barely
discernible fissure of which I have before spoken

543
00:52:46.119 --> 00:52:51.639
as extending from the roof of the
building in a zigzag direction to the base.

544
00:52:52.519 --> 00:52:58.039
While I gazed, this fissure rapidly
widened. There came a fierce breath

545
00:52:58.039 --> 00:53:02.039
of the whirlwind. The higher orb
of the satellite burst at once upon my

546
00:53:02.159 --> 00:53:07.880
sight. My brain reeled as I
saw the mighty walls rushing asunder. There

547
00:53:07.960 --> 00:53:13.880
was a long, tumultuous shouting,
sound like the voice of a thousand waters,

548
00:53:14.639 --> 00:53:19.760
and the deep and dank tarn at
my feet closed sullenly and silently over

549
00:53:19.800 --> 00:53:22.679
the fragments of the House of Usher.