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[page 17, column 1, continued:]
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The Masque of the Red Death.
THE "Red Death" had long
devastated
the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood
was its Avator [[Avatar]] and its seal — the redness and the horror of
blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse
bleeding
at the pores, with dissolution. The scarlet stains upon the body and
especially
upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban which shut him out from
the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow-men. And the whole seizure,
progress and termination of the disease, were the incidents of half an
hour.
But the Prince Prospero was happy and
dauntless
and
sagacious. When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his
presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the
knights
and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of
one of his castellated abbeys. This was an extensive and magnificent
structure,
the creation of the prince's own eccentric yet august taste. A strong
and
lofty wall girdled it in. This wall had gates of iron. The courtiers,
having
entered, brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts. They
resolved to leave means neither of ingress or egress to the sudden
impulses
of despair or of frenzy from within. The abbey was amply provisioned.
With
such precautions the courtiers might bid defiance to contagion. The
external
world could take care of itself. In the meantime it was folly to
grieve,
or to think. The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure.
There
were buffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballet-dancers,
there
were musicians, there was Beauty, there was wine. All these and
security
were within. Without was the "Red Death."
It was toward the close of the fifth
or sixth
month
of his seclusion, and while the pestilence raged most furiously abroad,
that the Prince Prospero entertained his thousand [column 2:]
friends at a masked ball of the most unusual magnificence.
It was a voluptuous scene, that
masquerade. But
first
let me tell of the rooms in which it was held. There were seven — an
imperial
suite. In many palaces, however, such suites form a long and straight
vista,
while the folding doors slide back nearly to the walls on either hand,
so that the view of the whole extent is scarcely impeded. Here the case
was very different; as might have been expected from the duke's love of
the bizarre. The apartments were so irregularly disposed that
the
vision embraced but little more than one at a time. There was a sharp
turn
at every twenty or thirty yards, and at each turn a novel effect. To
the
right and left, in the middle of each wall, a tall and narrow Gothic
window
looked out upon a closed corridor which pursued the windings of the
suite.
These windows were of stained glass whose color varied in accordance
with
the prevailing hue of the decorations of the chamber into which it
opened.
That at the eastern extremity was hung, for example, in blue — and
vividly
blue were its windows. The second chamber was purple in its ornaments
and
tapestries, and here the panes were purple. The third was green
throughout,
and so were the casements. The fourth was furnished and lighted with
orange
— the fifth with white — the sixth with violet. The seventh apartment
was
closely shrouded in black velvet tapestries that hung all over the
ceiling
and down the walls, falling in heavy folds upon a carpet of the same
material
and hue. But in this chamber only, the color of the windows failed to
correspond
with the decorations. The panes here were scarlet — a deep blood color.
Now in no one of the seven apartments was there any lamp or
candelabrum,
amid the profusion of golden ornaments that lay scattered to and fro or
depended from the roof. There was no light of any kind emanating from
lamp
or candle within the suite of chambers. But in the corridors that
followed
the suite, there stood, opposite to each window, a heavy tripod,
bearing
a brazier of fire that projected its rays through the tinted glass and
so glaringly illumined the room. And thus were produced a multitude of
gaudy and fantastic appearances. But in the western or black chamber
the
effect of the fire-light that streamed upon the dark hangings through
the
blood-tinted panes, was ghastly in the extreme, and produced so wild a
look upon the countenances of those who entered, that there were few of
the company bold enough to set foot within its precincts at all.
It was in this apartment, also, that
there stood
against the western wall, a gigantic clock of ebony. Its pendulum swung
to and fro with a dull, heavy, monotonous clang; and when the
minute-hand
made the circuit of the face, and the hour was to be stricken, there
came
from the brazen lungs of the clock a sound which was clear and loud and
deep and exceedingly musical, but of so peculiar a note and emphasis
that,
at each lapse of an hour, the musicians of the orchestra were
constrained
to pause, momentarily, in their performance, to harken to the sound;
and
thus the waltzers [page 18:] perforce
ceased
their evolutions; and there was a brief disconcert of the whole gay
company;
and, while the chimes of the clock yet rang, it was observed that the
giddiest
grew pale, and the more aged and sedate passed their hands over their
brows
as if in confused reverie or meditation. But when the echoes had fully
ceased, a light laughter at once pervaded the assembly; the musicians
looked
at each other and smiled as if at their own nervousness and folly, and
made whispering vows, each to the other, that the next chiming of the
clock
should produce in them no similar emotion; and then, after the lapse of
sixty minutes, (which embrace three thousand and six hundred seconds of
the Time that flies,) there came yet another chiming of the clock, and
then were the same disconcert and tremulousness and meditation as
before.
But, in spite of these things, it was
a gay and
magnificent
revel. The tastes of the duke were peculiar. He had a fine eye for
colors
and effects. He disregarded the decora of mere fashion. His
plans
were bold and fiery, and his conceptions glowed with barbaric lustre.
There
are some who would have thought him mad. His followers felt that he was
not. It was necessary to hear and see and touch him to be sure
that
he was not.
He had directed, in great part, the
moveable
embellishments
of the seven chambers, upon occasion of this great fête;
and it
was his own guiding taste which had given character to the
masqueraders.
Be sure they were grotesque. There were much glare and glitter and
piquancy
and phantasm — much of what has been since seen in "Hernani." There
were
arabesque figures with unsuited limbs and appointments. There were
delirious
fancies such as the madman fashions. There was much of the beautiful,
much
of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible,
and
not a little of that which might have excited disgust. To and fro in
the
seven chambers there stalked, in fact, a multitude of dreams. And these
— the dreams — writhed in and about, taking hue from the rooms, and
causing
the wild music of the orchestra to seem as the echo of their steps.
And,
anon, there strikes the ebony clock which stands in the hall of the
velvet.
And then, for a moment, all is still, and all is silent save the voice
of the clock. The dreams are stiff-frozen as they stand. But the echoes
of the chime die away — they have endured but an instant — and a light,
half-subdued laughter floats after them as they depart. And now again
the
music swells, and the dreams live, and writhe to and fro more merrily
than
ever, taking hue from the many tinted windows through which stream the
rays from the tripods. But to the chamber which lies most westwardly of
the seven, there are now none of the maskers who venture: for the night
is waning away; and there flows a ruddier light through the
blood-colored
panes; and the blackness of the sable drapery appals; and to him whose
foot falls upon the sable carpet, there comes from the near clock of
ebony
a muffled peal more solemly [[solemnly]] emphatic than any which
reaches their
ears who indulge in the more remote gaieties of the other apartments.
But these other apartments were
densely crowded,
and in them beat feverishly the heart of life. And the revel went
whirlingly
on, until at length there commenced the sounding of midnight upou
[[upon]] the
clock.
And then the music ceased, as I have told; and the evolutions of the
waltzers
were quieted; and there was an uneasy cessation of all things as
before.
But now there were twelve strokes to be sounded by the bell of the
clock;
and thus it happened, perhaps, that more of thought crept, with more of
time, into the meditations of the thoughtful among those who revelled.
And thus, too, it [column 2:] happened, perhaps,
that
before the last echoes of the last chime had utterly sunk into silence,
there were many individuals in the crowd who had found leisure to
become
aware of the presence of a masked figure which had arrested the
attention
of no single individual before. And the rumor of this new presence
having
spread itself whisperingly around, there arose at length from the whole
company a buzz, or murmur, expressive of disapprobation and surprise —
then, finally, of terror, of horror, and of disgust.
In an assembly of phantasms such as I
have
painted,
it may well be supposed that no ordinary appearance could have excited
such sensation. In truth the masquerade license of the night was nearly
unlimited; but the figure in question had out-Heroded Herod, and gone
beyond
the bounds of even the prince's indefinite decorum. There are chords in
the hearts of the most reckless which cannot be touched without
emotion.
Even with the utterly lost, to whom life and death are equally jests,
there
are matters of which no jest can be made. The whole company, indeed,
seemed
now deeply to feel that in the costume and bearing of the stranger
neither
wit nor propriety existed. The figure was tall and gaunt, and shrouded
from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave. The mask which
concealed
the visage was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a
stiffened
corpse that the closest scrutiny must have had difficulty in detecting
the cheat. And yet all this might have been endured, if not approved,
by
the mad revellers around. But the mummer had gone so far as to assume
the
type of the Red Death. His vesture was dabbled in blood — and
his
broad brow, with all the features of the face, was besprinkled with the
scarlet horror.
When the eyes of Prince Prospero fell
upon this
spectral
image (which with a slow and solemn movement, as if more fully to
sustain
its róle, stalkod [[stalked]] to and fro among the
waltzers) he
was seen to
be convulsed, in the first moment with a strong shudder either of
terror
or distaste; but, in the next, his brow reddened with rage.
"Who dares?" he demanded hoarsely of
the
courtiers
who stood near him — "who dares insult us with this blasphemous
mockery?
Seize him and unmask him — that we may know whom we have to hang at
sunrise,
from the battlements!"
It was in the eastern or blue chamber
in which
stood
the Prince Prospero as he uttered these words. They rang throughout the
seven rooms loudly and clearly — for the prince was a bold and robust
man,
and the music had become hushed at the waving of his hand.
It was in the blue room where stood
the prince,
with
a group of pale courtiers by his side. At first, as he spoke, there was
a slight rushing movement of this group in the direction of the
intruder,
who at the moment was also near at hand, and now, with deliberate and
stately
step, made closer approach to the speaker. But from a certain nameless
awe with which the mad assumptions of the mummer had inspired the whole
party, there were found none who put forth hand to seize him; so that,
unimpeded, he passed within a yard of the prince's person; and, while
the
vast assembly, as if with one impulse, shrank from the centres of the
rooms
to the walls, he made his way uninterruptedly, but with the same solemn
and measured step which had distinguished him from the first, through
the
blue chamber to the purple — through the purple to the green — through
the green to the orange — through this again to the white — and even
thence
to the violet, ere a decided movement had been made to arrest him. It
was
then, however, that the Prince Prospero, maddening with rage and the
shame
of his own momentary [page 19:]
cowardice,
rushed hurriedly through the six chambers, while none followed him on
account
of a deadly terror that had seized upon all. He bore aloft a drawn
dagger,
and had approached, in rapid impetuosity, to within three or four feet
of the retreating figure, when the latter, having attained the
extremity
of the velvet apartment, turned suddenly and confronted his pursuer.
There
was a sharp cry — and the dagger dropped gleaming upon the sable
carpet,
upon which, instantly afterwards, fell prostrate in death the Prince
Prospero.
Then, summoning the wild courage of despair, a throng of the revellers
at once threw themselves into the black apartment, and, seizing the
mummer,
whose tall figure stood erect and motionless within the shadow of the
ebony
clock, gasped in unutterable horror at finding the grave-cerements and
corpse-like mask which they handled with so violent a rudeness,
untenanted
by any tangible form.
And now was acknowledged the presence
of the Red
Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped
the
revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in
the
despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went
out
with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods
expired.
And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over
all.
EDGAR A. POE.
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