From 0fb42b42598f2ded3a5fa4bd02471495689e716e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Paulo Custodio Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2021 13:58:15 +0000 Subject: Add Python solution to challenge 24 --- challenge-024/paulo-custodio/Makefile | 2 + .../paulo-custodio/The Cask of Amontillado.txt | 731 +++++++++++ .../The Fall of the House of Usher.txt | 1192 +++++++++++++++++ .../paulo-custodio/The Masque of the Red Death.txt | 603 +++++++++ challenge-024/paulo-custodio/The Raven.txt | 1350 ++++++++++++++++++++ challenge-024/paulo-custodio/perl/ch-2.pl | 2 +- challenge-024/paulo-custodio/python/ch-1.py | 0 challenge-024/paulo-custodio/python/ch-2.py | 132 ++ challenge-024/paulo-custodio/t/test-1.yaml | 10 + challenge-024/paulo-custodio/t/test-2.yaml | 52 + challenge-024/paulo-custodio/test.pl | 80 -- 11 files changed, 4073 insertions(+), 81 deletions(-) create mode 100644 challenge-024/paulo-custodio/Makefile create mode 100644 challenge-024/paulo-custodio/The Cask of Amontillado.txt create mode 100644 challenge-024/paulo-custodio/The Fall of the House of Usher.txt create mode 100644 challenge-024/paulo-custodio/The Masque of the Red Death.txt create mode 100644 challenge-024/paulo-custodio/The Raven.txt create mode 100644 challenge-024/paulo-custodio/python/ch-1.py create mode 100644 challenge-024/paulo-custodio/python/ch-2.py create mode 100644 challenge-024/paulo-custodio/t/test-1.yaml create mode 100644 challenge-024/paulo-custodio/t/test-2.yaml delete mode 100644 challenge-024/paulo-custodio/test.pl diff --git a/challenge-024/paulo-custodio/Makefile b/challenge-024/paulo-custodio/Makefile new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..c3c762d746 --- /dev/null +++ b/challenge-024/paulo-custodio/Makefile @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +all: + perl ../../challenge-001/paulo-custodio/test.pl diff --git a/challenge-024/paulo-custodio/The Cask of Amontillado.txt b/challenge-024/paulo-custodio/The Cask of Amontillado.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..07117a473b --- /dev/null +++ b/challenge-024/paulo-custodio/The Cask of Amontillado.txt @@ -0,0 +1,731 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cask of Amontillado, by Edgar Allan Poe + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Cask of Amontillado + +Author: Edgar Allan Poe + +Release Date: June 6, 2010 [EBook #1063] + +Language: English + + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO *** + + + + +Produced by Levent Kurnaz. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + +The Cask of Amontillado + + +by + +Edgar Allan Poe + + + +The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but +when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge. You, who so well know +the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance +to a threat. _At length_ I would be avenged; this was a point definitely +settled--but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved, +precluded the idea of risk. I must not only punish, but punish with +impunity. A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its +redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make +himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong. + +It must be understood that neither by word nor deed had I given +Fortunato cause to doubt my good will. I continued, as was my wont, to +smile in his face, and he did not perceive that my smile _now_ was at +the thought of his immolation. + +He had a weak point--this Fortunato--although in other regards he was a +man to be respected and even feared. He prided himself on his +connoisseurship in wine. Few Italians have the true virtuoso spirit. +For the most part their enthusiasm is adopted to suit the time and +opportunity--to practise imposture upon the British and Austrian +_millionaires_. In painting and gemmary, Fortunato, like his countrymen, +was a quack--but in the matter of old wines he was sincere. In this +respect I did not differ from him materially: I was skillful in the +Italian vintages myself, and bought largely whenever I could. + +It was about dusk, one evening during the supreme madness of the +carnival season, that I encountered my friend. He accosted me with +excessive warmth, for he had been drinking much. The man wore motley. +He had on a tight-fitting parti-striped dress, and his head was +surmounted by the conical cap and bells. I was so pleased to see him, +that I thought I should never have done wringing his hand. + +I said to him--"My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met. How remarkably +well you are looking to-day! But I have received a pipe of what passes +for Amontillado, and I have my doubts." + +"How?" said he. "Amontillado? A pipe? Impossible! And in the middle +of the carnival!" + +"I have my doubts," I replied; "and I was silly enough to pay the full +Amontillado price without consulting you in the matter. You were not to +be found, and I was fearful of losing a bargain." + +"Amontillado!" + +"I have my doubts." + +"Amontillado!" + +"And I must satisfy them." + +"Amontillado!" + +"As you are engaged, I am on my way to Luchesi. If any one has a +critical turn, it is he. He will tell me--" + +"Luchesi cannot tell Amontillado from Sherry." + +"And yet some fools will have it that his taste is a match for your +own." + +"Come, let us go." + +"Whither?" + +"To your vaults." + +"My friend, no; I will not impose upon your good nature. I perceive +you have an engagement. Luchesi--" + +"I have no engagement;--come." + +"My friend, no. It is not the engagement, but the severe cold with +which I perceive you are afflicted. The vaults are insufferably damp. +They are encrusted with nitre." + +"Let us go, nevertheless. The cold is merely nothing. Amontillado! +You have been imposed upon. And as for Luchesi, he cannot distinguish +Sherry from Amontillado." + +Thus speaking, Fortunato possessed himself of my arm. Putting on a mask +of black silk, and drawing a _roquelaire_ closely about my person, I +suffered him to hurry me to my palazzo. + +There were no attendants at home; they had absconded to make merry in +honour of the time. I had told them that I should not return until the +morning, and had given them explicit orders not to stir from the house. +These orders were sufficient, I well knew, to insure their immediate +disappearance, one and all, as soon as my back was turned. + +I took from their sconces two flambeaux, and giving one to Fortunato, +bowed him through several suites of rooms to the archway that led into +the vaults. I passed down a long and winding staircase, requesting him +to be cautious as he followed. We came at length to the foot of the +descent, and stood together on the damp ground of the catacombs of the +Montresors. + +The gait of my friend was unsteady, and the bells upon his cap jingled +as he strode. + +"The pipe," said he. + +"It is farther on," said I; "but observe the white web-work which +gleams from these cavern walls." + +He turned towards me, and looked into my eyes with two filmy orbs that +distilled the rheum of intoxication. + +"Nitre?" he asked, at length. + +"Nitre," I replied. "How long have you had that cough?" + +"Ugh! ugh! ugh!--ugh! ugh! ugh!--ugh! ugh! ugh!--ugh! ugh! ugh!--ugh! +ugh! ugh!" + +My poor friend found it impossible to reply for many minutes. + +"It is nothing," he said, at last. + +"Come," I said, with decision, "we will go back; your health is +precious. You are rich, respected, admired, beloved; you are happy, as +once I was. You are a man to be missed. For me it is no matter. We +will go back; you will be ill, and I cannot be responsible. Besides, +there is Luchesi--" + +"Enough," he said; "the cough is a mere nothing; it will not kill me. +I shall not die of a cough." + +"True--true," I replied; "and, indeed, I had no intention of alarming +you unnecessarily--but you should use all proper caution. A draught of +this Medoc will defend us from the damps." + +Here I knocked off the neck of a bottle which I drew from a long row of +its fellows that lay upon the mould. + +"Drink," I said, presenting him the wine. + +He raised it to his lips with a leer. He paused and nodded to me +familiarly, while his bells jingled. + +"I drink," he said, "to the buried that repose around us." + +"And I to your long life." + +He again took my arm, and we proceeded. + +"These vaults," he said, "are extensive." + +"The Montresors," I replied, "were a great and numerous family." + +"I forget your arms." + +"A huge human foot d'or, in a field azure; the foot crushes a serpent +rampant whose fangs are imbedded in the heel." + +"And the motto?" + +"_Nemo me impune lacessit_." + +"Good!" he said. + +The wine sparkled in his eyes and the bells jingled. My own fancy grew +warm with the Medoc. We had passed through walls of piled bones, with +casks and puncheons intermingling, into the inmost recesses of +catacombs. I paused again, and this time I made bold to seize +Fortunato by an arm above the elbow. + +"The nitre!" I said; "see, it increases. It hangs like moss upon the +vaults. We are below the river's bed. The drops of moisture trickle +among the bones. Come, we will go back ere it is too late. Your +cough--" + +"It is nothing," he said; "let us go on. But first, another draught of +the Medoc." + +I broke and reached him a flagon of De Grave. He emptied it at a +breath. His eyes flashed with a fierce light. He laughed and threw +the bottle upwards with a gesticulation I did not understand. + +I looked at him in surprise. He repeated the movement--a grotesque one. + +"You do not comprehend?" he said. + +"Not I," I replied. + +"Then you are not of the brotherhood." + +"How?" + +"You are not of the masons." + +"Yes, yes," I said; "yes, yes." + +"You? Impossible! A mason?" + +"A mason," I replied. + +"A sign," he said, "a sign." + +"It is this," I answered, producing a trowel from beneath the folds of +my _roquelaire_. + +"You jest," he exclaimed, recoiling a few paces. "But let us proceed +to the Amontillado." + +"Be it so," I said, replacing the tool beneath the cloak and again +offering him my arm. He leaned upon it heavily. We continued our +route in search of the Amontillado. We passed through a range of low +arches, descended, passed on, and descending again, arrived at a deep +crypt, in which the foulness of the air caused our flambeaux rather to +glow than flame. + +At the most remote end of the crypt there appeared another less +spacious. Its walls had been lined with human remains, piled to the +vault overhead, in the fashion of the great catacombs of Paris. Three +sides of this interior crypt were still ornamented in this manner. +From the fourth side the bones had been thrown down, and lay +promiscuously upon the earth, forming at one point a mound of some +size. Within the wall thus exposed by the displacing of the bones, we +perceived a still interior recess, in depth about four feet in width +three, in height six or seven. It seemed to have been constructed for +no especial use within itself, but formed merely the interval between +two of the colossal supports of the roof of the catacombs, and was +backed by one of their circumscribing walls of solid granite. + +It was in vain that Fortunato, uplifting his dull torch, endeavoured to +pry into the depth of the recess. Its termination the feeble light did +not enable us to see. + +"Proceed," I said; "herein is the Amontillado. As for Luchesi--" + +"He is an ignoramus," interrupted my friend, as he stepped unsteadily +forward, while I followed immediately at his heels. In an instant he +had reached the extremity of the niche, and finding his progress +arrested by the rock, stood stupidly bewildered. A moment more and I +had fettered him to the granite. In its surface were two iron staples, +distant from each other about two feet, horizontally. From one of +these depended a short chain, from the other a padlock. Throwing the +links about his waist, it was but the work of a few seconds to secure +it. He was too much astounded to resist. Withdrawing the key I +stepped back from the recess. + +"Pass your hand," I said, "over the wall; you cannot help feeling the +nitre. Indeed, it is _very_ damp. Once more let me _implore_ you to +return. No? Then I must positively leave you. But I must first +render you all the little attentions in my power." + +"The Amontillado!" ejaculated my friend, not yet recovered from his +astonishment. + +"True," I replied; "the Amontillado." + +As I said these words I busied myself among the pile of bones of which +I have before spoken. Throwing them aside, I soon uncovered a quantity +of building stone and mortar. With these materials and with the aid of +my trowel, I began vigorously to wall up the entrance of the niche. + +I had scarcely laid the first tier of the masonry when I discovered +that the intoxication of Fortunato had in a great measure worn off. The +earliest indication I had of this was a low moaning cry from the depth +of the recess. It was _not_ the cry of a drunken man. There was then a +long and obstinate silence. I laid the second tier, and the third, and +the fourth; and then I heard the furious vibrations of the chain. The +noise lasted for several minutes, during which, that I might hearken to +it with the more satisfaction, I ceased my labours and sat down upon +the bones. When at last the clanking subsided, I resumed the trowel, +and finished without interruption the fifth, the sixth, and the seventh +tier. The wall was now nearly upon a level with my breast. I again +paused, and holding the flambeaux over the mason-work, threw a few +feeble rays upon the figure within. + +A succession of loud and shrill screams, bursting suddenly from the +throat of the chained form, seemed to thrust me violently back. For a +brief moment I hesitated--I trembled. Unsheathing my rapier, I began +to grope with it about the recess; but the thought of an instant +reassured me. I placed my hand upon the solid fabric of the catacombs, +and felt satisfied. I reapproached the wall; I replied to the yells of +him who clamoured. I re-echoed--I aided--I surpassed them in volume +and in strength. I did this, and the clamourer grew still. + +It was now midnight, and my task was drawing to a close. I had +completed the eighth, the ninth, and the tenth tier. I had finished a +portion of the last and the eleventh; there remained but a single stone +to be fitted and plastered in. I struggled with its weight; I placed +it partially in its destined position. But now there came from out the +niche a low laugh that erected the hairs upon my head. It was +succeeded by a sad voice, which I had difficulty in recognizing as that +of the noble Fortunato. The voice said-- + +"Ha! ha! ha!--he! he! he!--a very good joke indeed--an excellent jest. +We shall have many a rich laugh about it at the palazzo--he! he! +he!--over our wine--he! he! he!" + +"The Amontillado!" I said. + +"He! he! he!--he! he! he!--yes, the Amontillado. But is it not getting +late? Will not they be awaiting us at the palazzo, the Lady Fortunato +and the rest? Let us be gone." + +"Yes," I said, "let us be gone." + +"_For the love of God, Montresor!_" + +"Yes," I said, "for the love of God!" + +But to these words I hearkened in vain for a reply. I grew impatient. +I called aloud-- + +"Fortunato!" + +No answer. I called again-- + +"Fortunato--" + +No answer still. I thrust a torch through the remaining aperture and +let it fall within. There came forth in reply only a jingling of the +bells. My heart grew sick on account of the dampness of the catacombs. +I hastened to make an end of my labour. I forced the last stone into +its position; I plastered it up. Against the new masonry I re-erected +the old rampart of bones. For the half of a century no mortal has +disturbed them. _In pace requiescat!_ + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Cask of Amontillado, by Edgar Allan Poe + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO *** + +***** This file should be named 1063.txt or 1063.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/6/1063/ + +Produced by Levent Kurnaz. HTML version by Al Haines. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/challenge-024/paulo-custodio/The Fall of the House of Usher.txt b/challenge-024/paulo-custodio/The Fall of the House of Usher.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..9b467dfdd3 --- /dev/null +++ b/challenge-024/paulo-custodio/The Fall of the House of Usher.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1192 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Allan Poe + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Fall of the House of Usher + +Author: Edgar Allan Poe + +Posting Date: December 15, 2010 [EBook #932] +Release Date: June, 1997 + +Language: English + + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER *** + + + + +Produced by Levent Kurnaz and Jose Menendez + + + + + + + + + +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 superstition--for +why should I not so term it?--served mainly to accelerate the +increase itself. Such, I have long known, is the paradoxical law +of all sentiments having terror as a basis. And it might have +been for this reason only, that, when I again uplifted my eyes to +the house itself, from its image in the pool, there grew in my +mind a strange fancy--a fancy so ridiculous, indeed, that I but +mention it to show the vivid force of the sensations which +oppressed me. I had so worked upon my imagination as really to +believe that about the whole mansion and domain there hung an +atmosphere peculiar to themselves and their immediate vicinity--an +atmosphere which had no affinity with the air of heaven, but +which had reeked up from the decayed trees, and the 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 ebony blackness of the +floors, and the phantasmagoric armorial trophies which rattled as +I strode, were but matters to which, or to such as which, I had +been accustomed from my infancy--while I hesitated not to +acknowledge how familiar was all this--I still wondered to find +how unfamiliar were the fancies which ordinary images were +stirring up. On one of the staircases, I met the physician of +the family. His countenance, I thought, wore a mingled +expression of low cunning and perplexity. He accosted me with +trepidation and passed on. The valet now threw open a door and +ushered me into the presence of his master. + +The room in which I found myself was very large and lofty. +The windows were long, narrow, and pointed, and at so vast a +distance from the black oaken floor as to be altogether inaccessible +from within. Feeble gleams of encrimsoned light made their way +through the trellised panes, and served to render sufficiently +distinct the more prominent objects around; the eye, however, +struggled in vain to reach the remoter angles of the chamber, or +the recesses of the vaulted and fretted ceiling. Dark draperies +hung upon the walls. The general furniture was profuse, +comfortless, antique, and tattered. Many books and musical +instruments lay scattered about, but failed to give any vitality +to the scene. I felt that I breathed an atmosphere of sorrow. +An air of stern, deep, and irredeemable gloom hung over and +pervaded all. + +Upon my entrance, Usher 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 +man 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 +dissolution--of a tenderly beloved sister--his sole companion for +long years--his last and only relative on earth. "Her decease," +he said, with a bitterness which I can never forget, "would leave +him (him the hopeless and the frail) the last of the ancient race +of the Ushers." While he spoke, the lady Madeline (for so was +she called) passed slowly through a remote portion of the +apartment, and, without having noticed my presence, disappeared. +I regarded her with an utter astonishment not unmingled with +dread--and yet I found it impossible to account for such +feelings. A sensation of stupor oppressed me, as my eyes +followed her retreating steps. When a door, at length, closed +upon her, my glance sought instinctively and eagerly the +countenance of the brother--but he had buried his face in his +hands, and I could only perceive that a far more than ordinary +wanness had overspread the emaciated fingers through which +trickled many passionate tears. + +The disease of the lady Madeline had long baffled the skill +of her physicians. A settled apathy, a gradual wasting away of +the person, and frequent although transient affections of a +partially cataleptical character, were the unusual diagnosis. +Hitherto she had steadily borne up against the pressure of her +malady, and had not betaken herself finally to bed; but, on the +closing in of the evening of my arrival at the house, she +succumbed (as her brother told me at night with inexpressible +agitation) to the prostrating power of the destroyer; and I +learned that the glimpse I had obtained of her person would thus +probably be the last I should obtain--that the lady, at least +while living, would be seen by me no more. + +For several days ensuing, her name was unmentioned by either +Usher or myself: and during this period I was busied in earnest +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 scarce