Professional Documents
Culture Documents
OF CONTENTS
VOCABULARY PREVIEW
Below is a list of words that appear in the story. Read the
list and get to know the words before you start the story.
3
Autos-da-fé were ceremonies where enemies of the Catholic Church were
executed. The condemned were often burned alive.
4
Toledo is a city in Spain. The prison mentioned held those accused by the
Inquisition.
10 The Pit and the Pendulum
one gulp.
It must have been drugged. I had scarcely drunk it
before I became extremely drowsy.
A deep sleep fell upon me—a sleep that was like
death. I do not know how long it lasted, of course. But
when I opened my eyes again, I could see the objects
around me. The dungeon was lit by a wild, yellowish glow.
At first I could not see its source.
This light allowed me to see the size and appearance
of the prison. I had been greatly mistaken about the size
of the room. The whole circuit of its walls was not more
than twenty-five yards.
For some minutes this fact foolishly troubled me.
Foolish indeed. What could be less important in this
terrible situation than the mere size of my dungeon?
But my mind took a wild interest in trivial matters.
So I busily tried to account for the error I had made in
measurement.
The truth flashed on me at last. In my first exploration
I had counted fifty-two paces up to where I fell. I must
then have been within a step or two of the fabric fragment.
In fact I had nearly completed the circuit of the tomb. I
then slept.
When I awoke, I must have returned the way I had
come. This made me think the circuit was double what
it actually was. In my confusion, I had not realized that I
began my walk with the wall to the left. And I had ended
it with the wall to the right.
I had also been deceived about the shape of the
dungeon. In feeling my way, I had found many angles.
Thus I had formed the idea that the shape had great
irregularity. That is how powerfully total darkness affects
someone who is just waking up! The angles were simply a
few slight nooks and crannies here and there.
The general shape of the prison was square. What I
had taken to be stone now seemed to be iron or some
other metal. It covered the walls in huge plates. The
seams where the plates were joined together formed the
14 The Pit and the Pendulum
indented spots.
The entire surface of this metal cell was crudely
painted.
The pictures were of hideous, disgusting design. They
were of the kind that monks’ superstitions about death
produced. Figures of threatening demons, skeletons, and
other more fearful images blotted the walls.
I observed that the outlines of these monsters were
distinct enough. But the colors seemed faded and blurred,
as if from damp air.
I now noticed the floor too, which was of stone. In the
center yawned the pit from whose jaws I had escaped. But
it was the only one in the dungeon.
All of this I saw indistinctly and only with much effort.
This was because my position had been greatly changed
during my sleep. I now lay stretched out on my back on
some kind of low wooded frame. To this I was tightly
tied by a long strap that looked like a saddle belt. It was
wrapped many times around my limbs and body. Only my
head and left arm, to some extent, remained at liberty.
With much effort, I could feed myself from a clay dish
that lay beside me on the floor.
I saw, to my horror, that the pitcher had been
removed. I say “to my horror” because I was filled with
intolerable thirst. It seemed the plan of my torturers
was to increase my thirst. The food in the dish was very
spicy meat.
Looking up, I studied the ceiling of my prison. It was
some thirty or forty feet up. It was built much like the
side walls.
In one of its sections, a very strange figure caught
my attention. It was the painted figure of Time as he is
usually seen.
But instead of a scythe,6 he held what seemed to be
a huge pendulum.7 It was the same kind that is seen on
6
A scythe is a tool with a curved blade used to cut grass or grain. Death is
often pictured holding a scythe to “harvest” his victims.
7
A pendulum is a rod with a heavy end that swings back and forth. The
pendulum sets the motion of a clock so it will keep time.
The Pit and the Pendulum 15
old-fashioned clocks.
There was something about this pendulum, however,
that made me watch it more carefully. While I gazed
directly up at it (because it was right above me), I
imagined that I saw it move.
An instant later I knew it was true. Its swing was brief
and, of course, slow.
I watched it for several minutes. I was somewhat
fearful but more curious. Wearied at last of watching its
dull movement, I looked at the other objects in the cell.
A slight noise attracted my attention. Looking at the
floor, I saw several enormous rats crossing it. They had
come from the well that lay to my right.
Even while I gazed, they came up in troops. They
hurried, with ravenous eyes, drawn by the scent of the
meat. It required much effort and attention to scare them
away from it.
A half an hour or perhaps even an hour passed. (I
could not keep track of time very well.) Then I looked
up again.
What I saw confused and amazed me. The swing of
the pendulum had increased by nearly a yard.
As a result, its speed was also much greater. But what
really disturbed me was that it had noticeably descended.
I now saw—with horror—that the bottom formed a
curved blade of glittering steel. This blade was about a
foot from tip to tip. The tips pointed upward, and the
lower edge seemed to be as sharp as a razor.
Also like a razor, it seemed huge and heavy. The
blade extended upward from the narrow edge into a solid,
broad structure. It was attached to a heavy brass rod. The
whole thing hissed as it swung through the air.
I now knew what death had been prepared for me by
the ingenuity of those monkish torturers.
The inquisitors knew that I was aware of the pit.
The pit. Its horrors had been saved for such a bold
8
The ancient island Thule was the point farthest north known to the Romans.
Ultima Thule came to mean the “farthest point.”
16 The Pit and the Pendulum
still.
I had not been wrong about my plan. Nor had my
efforts been in vain. Finally I felt that I was free. The strap
hung in shreds from my body.
But the stroke of the pendulum already pressed upon
my chest. It had split the fabric of my robe. It had cut
through the cloth beneath. It swung twice again. A sharp
pain shot through every nerve.
But the moment of escape arrived. With a wave of
my hand, my deliverers scuttled away. Then steadily,
carefully, and slowly, I slid from the strap and away from
the reach of the blade. For the moment, at least, I was
free.
Free! And in the grasp of the Inquisition! I had
scarcely stepped away from my bed of horror when the
hellish machine stopped. I saw it being pulled up through
the ceiling by some invisible force.
This was a lesson which I took to heart in despair.
Without doubt, my every move was watched.
Free! I had only escaped one form of agony, to be
delivered to another that was worse than death.
With that thought, I nervously looked around at the
iron plates that imprisoned me. Something unusual had
obviously taken place in the cell.
But this change was not distinct at first. For many
minutes of dreamy and trembling thought, I wondered
what had happened.
During this period I discovered where the yellowish
light in the cell came from. It came from a crack about
half an inch wide. This crack went all around the prison
at the base of the walls.
It appeared the walls were completely separated
from the floor. I tried—in vain, of course—to look
through the crack.
As I got up, the mystery of the change in the cell
suddenly dawned on me. I have explained that the
outlines of the figures on the walls were distinct enough.
Yet the colors had seemed blurred and unclear.
The Pit and the Pendulum 21
9
Antoine Charles Louis Lasalle (1775–1809) was one of Napoleon’s generals
in the war against Spain. Lasalle led French troops in Spain in 1809. After
winning the war, Napoleon ended the Inquisition in Spain.
23
INSIGHTS