The Works of Edgar Allan Poe Volume 2

8/13/2019 The Works of Edgar Allan Poe Volume 2

1/161

Project Gutenberg's The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, by Edgar Allan PoeThiseBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and withalmost norestrictions whatsoeer! "ou may co#y it, gie it away orre$use it underthe terms of the Project Gutenberg %icense includedwith this eBook oronline at www!gutenberg!orgTitle& The Works of Edgar Allan Poe

olume ( )of *+ of the aen EditionAuthor& Edgar Allan Poeelease -ate&.ay /0, (112 3EBook 4(/526%ast 7#dated& 8oember 91, (1/(%anguage&English::: ;TAT ?; P


2/161

8otesCBerenice

T>E P7%


3/161

M>aO haO haChaO haO haOChoO hoO hoOM roared our isiter, #rofoundlyamused, Moh, -u#in, you will be the death of me yetOMMAnd what, after all, is the matter on handNM ? asked!MWhy, ? will tell you,M re#lied the Prefect, as he gae a long, steadyand contem#latie #uff, and settled himself in his chair! M? will tellyou in a few wordsK but, before ? begin, let me caution you that this is

an affair demanding the greatest secrecy, and that ? should most #robablylose the #osition ? now hold, were it known that ? confided it to anyone!MMProceed,M said ?!Mow is this knownNM asked -u#in!M?t is clearly inferred,M re#lied the Prefect, Mfrom the nature of thedocument, and from the non$a##earance of certain results which would at

once arise from its #assing out of the robber's #ossessionK that is tosay, from his em#loying it as he must design in the end to em#loy it!MMBe a little more eH#licit,M ? said!MWell, ? may enture so far as to say that the #a#er gies its holder acertain #ower in a certain Luarter where such #ower is immenselyaluable!M The Prefect was fond of the cant of di#lomacy!M;till ? do not Luite understand,M said -u#in!M8oN WellK the disclosure of the document to a third #erson, who shall benameless, would bring in Luestion the honor of a #ersonage of mosteHalted stationK and this fact gies the holder of the document anascendancy oer the illustrious #ersonage whose honor and #eace are sojeo#ardied!MMBut this ascendancy,M ? inter#osed, Mwould de#end u#on the robber's

knowledge of the loser's knowledge of the robber! Who would dareCMMThe thief,M said G!, Mis the .inister -C, who dares all things, thoseunbecoming as well as those becoming a man! The method of the theft wasnot less ingenious than bold! The document in LuestionCa letter, to befrankChad been receied by the #ersonage robbed while alone in the royalboudoir! -uring its #erusal she was suddenly interru#ted by the entranceof the other eHalted #ersonage from whom es#ecially it was her wish toconceal it! After a hurried and ain endeaor to thrust it in a drawer,she was forced to #lace it, o#en as it was, u#on a table! The address,howeer, was u##ermost, and, the contents thus uneH#osed, the letteresca#ed notice! At this juncture enters the .inister -C! >is lynH eyeimmediately #erceies the #a#er, recognises the handwriting of theaddress, obseres the confusion of the #ersonage addressed, and fathoms

her secret! After some business transactions, hurried through in hisordinary manner, he #roduces a letter somewhat similar to the one inLuestion, o#ens it, #retends to read it, and then #laces it in closejuHta#osition to the other! Again he conerses, for some fifteen minutes,u#on the #ublic affairs! At length, in taking leae, he takes also fromthe table the letter to which he had no claim! ?ts rightful owner saw,but, of course, dared not call attention to the act, in the #resence ofthe third #ersonage who stood at her elbow! The minister decam#edKleaing his own letterCone of no im#ortanceCu#on the table!M


4/161

M>ere, then,M said -u#in to me, Myou hae #recisely what you demand tomake the ascendancy com#leteCthe robber's knowledge of the loser'sknowledge of the robber!MM"es,M re#lied the PrefectK Mand the #ower thus attained has, for somemonths #ast, been wielded, for #olitical #ur#oses, to a ery dangerouseHtent! The #ersonage robbed is more thoroughly coninced, eery day, of

the necessity of reclaiming her letter! But this, of course, cannot bedone o#enly! ?n fine, drien to des#air, she has committed the matter tome!MMThan whom,M said -u#in, amid a #erfect whirlwind of smoke, Mno moresagacious agent could, ? su##ose, be desired, or een imagined!MM"ou flatter me,M re#lied the PrefectK Mbut it is #ossible that some sucho#inion may hae been entertained!MM?t is clear,M said ?, Mas you obsere, that the letter is still in#ossession of the ministerK since it is this #ossession, and not anyem#loyment of the letter, which bestows the #ower! With the em#loymentthe #ower de#arts!MMTrue,M said G!K Mand u#on this coniction ? #roceeded! .y first care wasto make thorough search of the minister's hotelK and here my chief

embarrassment lay in the necessity of searching without his knowledge!Beyond all things, ? hae been warned of the danger which would resultfrom giing him reason to sus#ect our design!MMBut,M said ?, Myou are Luite au fait in these inestigations! TheParisian #olice hae done this thing often before!MM< yesK and for this reason ? did not des#air! The habits of the ministergae me, too, a great adantage! >e is freLuently absent from home allnight! >is serants are by no means numerous! They slee# at a distancefrom their master's a#artment, and, being chiefly 8ea#olitans, arereadily made drunk! ? hae keys, as you know, with which ? can o#en anychamber or cabinet in Paris! =or three months a night has not #assed,during the greater #art of which ? hae not been engaged, #ersonally, inransacking the -C >otel! .y honor is interested, and, to mention a great

secret, the reward is enormous! ;o ? did not abandon the search until ?had become fully satisfied that the thief is a more astute man thanmyself! ? fancy that ? hae inestigated eery nook and corner of the#remises in which it is #ossible that the #a#er can be concealed!MMBut is it not #ossible,M ? suggested, Mthat although the letter may bein #ossession of the minister, as it unLuestionably is, he may haeconcealed it elsewhere than u#on his own #remisesNMMThis is barely #ossible,M said -u#in! MThe #resent #eculiar condition ofaffairs at court, and es#ecially of those intrigues in which -C is knownto be inoled, would render the instant aailability of the documentCitssusce#tibility of being #roduced at a moment's noticeCa #oint of nearlyeLual im#ortance with its #ossession!MM?ts susce#tibility of being #roducedNM said ?!

MThat is to say, of being destroyed,M said -u#in!MTrue,M ? obseredK Mthe #a#er is clearly then u#on the #remises! As forits being u#on the #erson of the minister, we may consider that as out ofthe Luestion!MMEntirely,M said the Prefect! M>e has been twice waylaid, as if byfoot#ads, and his #erson rigorously searched under my own ins#ection!MM"ou might hae s#ared yourself this trouble,M said -u#in! M-C, ?#resume, is not altogether a fool, and, if not, must hae antici#atedthese waylayings, as a matter of course!M


5/161

M8ot altogether a fool,M said G!, Mbut then he's a #oet, which ? take tobe only one remoe from a fool!MMTrue,M said -u#in, after a long and thoughtful whiff from hismeerschaum, Malthough ? hae been guilty of certain doggrel myself!MM;u##ose you detail,M said ?, Mthe #articulars of your search!MMWhy the fact is, we took our time, and we searched eery where! ? hae

had long eH#erience in these affairs! ? took the entire building, room byroomK deoting the nights of a whole week to each! We eHamined, first,the furniture of each a#artment! We o#ened eery #ossible drawerK and ?#resume you know that, to a #ro#erly trained #olice agent, such a thingas a secret drawer is im#ossible! Any man is a dolt who #ermits a'secret' drawer to esca#e him in a search of this kind! The thing is so#lain! There is a certain amount of bulkCof s#aceCto be accounted for ineery cabinet! Then we hae accurate rules! The fiftieth #art of a linecould not esca#e us! After the cabinets we took the chairs! The cushionswe #robed with the fine long needles you hae seen me em#loy! =rom thetables we remoed the to#s!MMWhy soNMM;ometimes the to# of a table, or other similarly arranged #iece of

furniture, is remoed by the #erson wishing to conceal an articleK thenthe leg is eHcaated, the article de#osited within the caity, and theto# re#laced! The bottoms and to#s of bed#osts are em#loyed in the sameway!MMBut could not the caity be detected by soundingNM ? asked!MBy no means, if, when the article is de#osited, a sufficient wadding ofcotton be #laced around it! Besides, in our case, we were obliged to#roceed without noise!MMBut you could not hae remoedCyou could not hae taken to #ieces allarticles of furniture in which it would hae been #ossible to make ade#osit in the manner you mention! A letter may be com#ressed into a thins#iral roll, not differing much in sha#e or bulk from a large knitting$needle, and in this form it might be inserted into the rung of a chair,

for eHam#le! "ou did not take to #ieces all the chairsNMMertainly notK but we did betterCwe eHamined the rungs of eery chair inthe hotel, and, indeed the jointings of eery descri#tion of furniture,by the aid of a most #owerful microsco#e! >ad there been any traces ofrecent disturbance we should not hae failed to detect it instantly! Asingle grain of gimlet$dust, for eHam#le, would hae been as obious asan a##le! Any disorder in the glueingCany unusual ga#ing in the jointsCwould hae sufficed to insure detection!MM? #resume you looked to the mirrors, between the boards and the #lates,and you #robed the beds and the bed$clothes, as well as the curtains andcar#ets!MMThat of courseK and when we had absolutely com#leted eery #article ofthe furniture in this way, then we eHamined the house itself! We diided

its entire surface into com#artments, which we numbered, so that nonemight be missedK then we scrutinied each indiidual sLuare inchthroughout the #remises, including the two houses immediately adjoining,with the microsco#e, as before!MMThe two houses adjoiningOM ? eHclaimedK Myou must hae had a great dealof trouble!MMWe hadK but the reward offered is #rodigiousOMM"ou include the grounds about the housesNM


6/161

MAll the grounds are #aed with brick! They gae us com#aratiely littletrouble! We eHamined the moss between the bricks, and found itundisturbed!MM"ou looked among -C's #a#ers, of course, and into the books of thelibraryNMMertainlyK we o#ened eery #ackage and #arcelK we not only o#ened eery

book, but we turned oer eery leaf in each olume, not contentingourseles with a mere shake, according to the fashion of some of our#olice officers! We also measured the thickness of eery book$coer, withthe most accurate admeasurement, and a##lied to each the most jealousscrutiny of the microsco#e! >ad any of the bindings been recently meddledwith, it would hae been utterly im#ossible that the fact should haeesca#ed obseration! ;ome fie or siH olumes, just from the hands of thebinder, we carefully #robed, longitudinally, with the needles!MM"ou eH#lored the floors beneath the car#etsNMMBeyond doubt! We remoed eery car#et, and eHamined the boards with themicrosco#e!MMAnd the #a#er on the wallsNMM"es!M

M"ou looked into the cellarsNMMWe did!MMThen,M ? said, Myou hae been making a miscalculation, and the letter isnot u#on the #remises, as you su##ose!MM? fear you are right there,M said the Prefect! MAnd now, -u#in, whatwould you adise me to doNMMTo make a thorough re$search of the #remises!MMThat is absolutely needless,M re#lied GC! M? am not more sure that ?breathe than ? am that the letter is not at the >otel!MM? hae no better adice to gie you,M said -u#in! M"ou hae, of course,an accurate descri#tion of the letterNMMe took a #i#e and a chair and entered into someordinary conersation! At length ? said,CMWell, but GC, what of the #urloined letterN ? #resume you hae at lastmade u# your mind that there is no such thing as oerreaching the.inisterNMMonfound him, say ?CyesK ? made the re$eHamination, howeer, as -u#insuggestedCbut it was all labor lost, as ? knew it would be!MM>ow much was the reward offered, did you sayNM asked -u#in!MWhy, a ery great dealCa ery liberal rewardC? don't like to say how

much, #reciselyK but one thing ? will say, that ? wouldn't mind giing myindiidual check for fifty thousand francs to any one who could obtain methat letter! The fact is, it is becoming of more and more im#ortanceeery dayK and the reward has been lately doubled! ?f it were trebled,howeer, ? could do no more than ? hae done!MMWhy, yes,M said -u#in, drawlingly, between the whiffs of his meerschaum,M? reallyCthink, GC, you hae not eHerted yourselfCto the utmost in thismatter! "ou mightCdo a little more, ? think, ehNMM>owNCin what wayN'


7/161

MWhyC#uff, #uffCyou mightC#uff, #uffCem#loy counsel in the matter, ehNC#uff, #uff, #uff! -o you remember the story they tell of AbernethyNMM8oK hang AbernethyOMMTo be sureO hang him and welcome! But, once u#on a time, a certain richmiser conceied the design of s#unging u#on this Abernethy for a medicalo#inion! Getting u#, for this #ur#ose, an ordinary conersation in a

#riate com#any, he insinuated his case to the #hysician, as that of animaginary indiidual!M'We will su##ose,' said the miser, 'that his sym#toms are such and suchKnow, doctor, what would you hae directed him to takeN'M'TakeO' said Abernethy, 'why, take adice, to be sure!'MMBut,M said the Prefect, a little discom#osed, M? am #erfectly willing totake adice, and to #ay for it! ? would really gie fifty thousand francsto any one who would aid me in the matter!MM?n that case,M re#lied -u#in, o#ening a drawer, and #roducing a check$book, Myou may as well fill me u# a check for the amount mentioned! Whenyou hae signed it, ? will hand you the letter!M? was astounded! The Prefect a##eared absolutely thunder$stricken! =orsome minutes he remained s#eechless and motionless, looking incredulously

at my friend with o#en mouth, and eyes that seemed starting from theirsocketsK then, a##arently recoering himself in some measure, he seied a#en, and after seeral #auses and acant stares, finally filled u# andsigned a check for fifty thousand francs, and handed it across the tableto -u#in! The latter eHamined it carefully and de#osited it in his#ocket$bookK then, unlocking an escritoire, took thence a letter and gaeit to the Prefect! This functionary gras#ed it in a #erfect agony of joy,o#ened it with a trembling hand, cast a ra#id glance at its contents, andthen, scrambling and struggling to the door, rushed at lengthunceremoniously from the room and from the house, without haing uttereda syllable since -u#in had reLuested him to fill u# the check!When he had gone, my friend entered into some eH#lanations!MThe Parisian #olice,M he said, Mare eHceedingly able in their way! They

are #erseering, ingenious, cunning, and thoroughly ersed in theknowledge which their duties seem chiefly to demand! Thus, when GCdetailed to us his mode of searching the #remises at the >otel -C, ? feltentire confidence in his haing made a satisfactory inestigationCso faras his labors eHtended!MM;o far as his labors eHtendedNM said ?!M"es,M said -u#in! MThe measures ado#ted were not only the best of theirkind, but carried out to absolute #erfection! >ad the letter beende#osited within the range of their search, these fellows would, beyond aLuestion, hae found it!M? merely laughedCbut he seemed Luite serious in all that he said!MThe measures, then,M he continued, Mwere good in their kind, and welleHecutedK their defect lay in their being ina##licable to the case, and

to the man! A certain set of highly ingenious resources are, with thePrefect, a sort of Procrustean bed, to which he forcibly ada#ts hisdesigns! But he #er#etually errs by being too dee# or too shallow, forthe matter in handK and many a schoolboy is a better reasoner than he! ?knew one about eight years of age, whose success at guessing in the gameof 'een and odd' attracted uniersal admiration! This game is sim#le,and is #layed with marbles!


8/161

to whom ? allude won all the marbles of the school!


9/161

eHactly in a gimlet hole bored in a chair$legCbut, at least, in some out$of$the$way hole or corner suggested by the same tenor of thought whichwould urge a man to secrete a letter in a gimlet$hole bored in a chair$legN And do you not see also, that such recherchs nooks for concealmentare ada#ted only for ordinary occasions, and would be ado#ted only byordinary intellectsK for, in all cases of concealment, a dis#osal of the

article concealedCa dis#osal of it in this recherch manner,Cis, in theery first instance, #resumable and #resumedK and thus its discoeryde#ends, not at all u#on the acumen, but altogether u#on the mere care,#atience, and determination of the seekersK and where the case is ofim#ortanceCor, what amounts to the same thing in the #olicial eyes, whenthe reward is of magnitude,Cthe Lualities in Luestion hae neer beenknown to fail! "ou will now understand what ? meant in suggesting that,had the #urloined letter been hidden any where within the limits of thePrefect's eHaminationCin other words, had the #rinci#le of itsconcealment been com#rehended within the #rinci#les of the PrefectCitsdiscoery would hae been a matter altogether beyond Luestion! Thisfunctionary, howeer, has been thoroughly mystifiedK and the remotesource of his defeat lies in the su##osition that the .inister is a fool,

because he has acLuired renown as a #oet! All fools are #oetsK this thePrefect feelsK and he is merely guilty of a non distributio medii inthence inferring that all #oets are fools!MMBut is this really the #oetNM ? asked! MThere are two brothers, ? knowKand both hae attained re#utation in letters! The .inister ? beliee haswritten learnedly on the -ifferential alculus! >e is a mathematician,and no #oet!MM"ou are mistakenK ? know him wellK he is both! As #oet andmathematician, he would reason wellK as mere mathematician, he could nothae reasoned at all, and thus would hae been at the mercy of thePrefect!MM"ou sur#rise me,M ? said, Mby these o#inions, which hae beencontradicted by the oice of the world! "ou do not mean to set at naught

the well$digested idea of centuries! The mathematical reason has longbeen regarded as the reason #ar eHcellence!MM'?l y a Q #ariRr,'M re#lied -u#in, Luoting from hamfort, M'Lue touteide #ubliLue, toute conention reSue est une sottise, car elle aconenue au #lus grand nombre!' The mathematicians, ? grant you, haedone their best to #romulgate the #o#ular error to which you allude, andwhich is none the less an error for its #romulgation as truth! With anart worthy a better cause, for eHam#le, they hae insinuated the term'analysis' into a##lication to algebra! The =rench are the originators ofthis #articular dece#tionK but if a term is of any im#ortanceCif wordsderie any alue from a##licabilityCthen 'analysis' coneys 'algebra'about as much as, in %atin, 'ambitus' im#lies 'ambition,' 'religio''religion,' or 'homines honesti,' a set of honorablemen!M

M"ou hae a Luarrel on hand, ? see,M said ?, Mwith some of thealgebraists of ParisK but #roceed!MM? dis#ute the aailability, and thus the alue, of that reason which iscultiated in any es#ecial form other than the abstractly logical! ?dis#ute, in #articular, the reason educed by mathematical study! Themathematics are the science of form and LuantityK mathematical reasoningis merely logic a##lied to obseration u#on form and Luantity! The greaterror lies in su##osing that een the truths of what is called #urealgebra, are abstract or general truths! And this error is so egregious


10/161

that ? am confounded at the uniersality with which it has been receied!.athematical aHioms are not aHioms of general truth! What is true ofrelationCof form and LuantityCis often grossly false in regard to morals,for eHam#le! ?n this latter science it is ery usually untrue that theaggregated #arts are eLual to the whole! ?n chemistry also the aHiomfails! ?n the consideration of motie it failsK for two moties, each of

a gien alue, hae not, necessarily, a alue when united, eLual to thesum of their alues a#art! There are numerous other mathematical truthswhich are only truths within the limits of relation! But themathematician argues, from his finite truths, through habit, as if theywere of an absolutely general a##licabilityCas the world indeed imaginesthem to be! Bryant, in his ery learned '.ythology,' mentions ananalogous source of error, when he says that 'although the Pagan fablesare not belieed, yet we forget ourseles continually, and makeinferences from them as eHisting realities!' With the algebraists,howeer, who are Pagans themseles, the 'Pagan fables' are belieed, andthe inferences are made, not so much through la#se of memory, as throughan unaccountable addling of the brains! ?n short, ? neer yet encounteredthe mere mathematician who could be trusted out of eLual roots, or one

who did not clandestinely hold it as a #oint of his faith that H(#H wasabsolutely and unconditionally eLual to L! ;ay to one of these gentlemen,by way of eH#eriment, if you #lease, that you beliee occasions may occurwhere H(#H is not altogether eLual to L, and, haing made him understandwhat you mean, get out of his reach as s#eedily as conenient, for,beyond doubt, he will endeaor to knock you down!M? mean to say,M continued -u#in, while ? merely laughed at his lastobserations, Mthat if the .inister had been no more than amathematician, the Prefect would hae been under no necessity of giingme this check! ? know him, howeer, as both mathematician and #oet, andmy measures were ada#ted to his ca#acity, with reference to thecircumstances by which he was surrounded! ? knew him as a courtier, too,and as a bold intriguant! ;uch a man, ? considered, could not fail to be

aware of the ordinary #olicial modes of action! >e could not hae failedto antici#ateCand eents hae #roed that he did not fail to antici#ateCthe waylayings to which he was subjected! >e must hae foreseen, ?reflected, the secret inestigations of his #remises! >is freLuentabsences from home at night, which were hailed by the Prefect as certainaids to his success, ? regarded only as ruses, to afford o##ortunity forthorough search to the #olice, and thus the sooner to im#ress them withthe coniction to which GC, in fact, did finally arrieCthe conictionthat the letter was not u#on the #remises! ? felt, also, that the wholetrain of thought, which ? was at some #ains in detailing to you just now,concerning the inariable #rinci#le of #olicial action in searches forarticles concealedC? felt that this whole train of thought wouldnecessarily #ass through the mind of the .inister! ?t would im#eratiely

lead him to des#ise all the ordinary nooks of concealment! >e could not,? reflected, be so weak as not to see that the most intricate and remoterecess of his hotel would be as o#en as his commonest closets to theeyes, to the #robes, to the gimlets, and to the microsco#es of thePrefect! ? saw, in fine, that he would be drien, as a matter of course,to sim#licity, if not deliberately induced to it as a matter of choice!"ou will remember, #erha#s, how des#erately the Prefect laughed when ?suggested, u#on our first interiew, that it was just #ossible this


11/161

mystery troubled him so much on account of its being so ery self$eident!MM"es,M said ?, M? remember his merriment well! ? really thought he wouldhae fallen into conulsions!MMThe material world,M continued -u#in, Mabounds with ery strictanalogies to the immaterialK and thus some color of truth has been gien

to the rhetorical dogma, that meta#hor, or simile, may be made tostrengthen an argument, as well as to embellish a descri#tion! The#rinci#le of the is inertiU, for eHam#le, seems to be identical in#hysics and meta#hysics! ?t is not more true in the former, that a largebody is with more difficulty set in motion than a smaller one, and thatits subseLuent momentum is commensurate with this difficulty, than it is,in the latter, that intellects of the aster ca#acity, while moreforcible, more constant, and more eentful in their moements than thoseof inferior grade, are yet the less readily moed, and more embarrassedand full of hesitation in the first few ste#s of their #rogress! Again&hae you eer noticed which of the street signs, oer the sho#$doors, arethe most attractie of attentionNMM? hae neer gien the matter a thought,M ? said!

MThere is a game of #ules,M he resumed, Mwhich is #layed u#on a ma#!e neer once thought it #robable, or

#ossible, that the .inister had de#osited the letter immediately beneaththe nose of the whole world, by way of best #reenting any #ortion ofthat world from #erceiing it!MBut the more ? reflected u#on the daring, dashing, and discriminatingingenuity of -CK u#on the fact that the document must always hae been athand, if he intended to use it to good #ur#oseK and u#on the decisieeidence, obtained by the Prefect, that it was not hidden within thelimits of that dignitary's ordinary searchCthe more satisfied ? becamethat, to conceal this letter, the .inister had resorted to thecom#rehensie and sagacious eH#edient of not attem#ting to conceal it atall!M=ull of these ideas, ? #re#ared myself with a #air of green s#ectacles,and called one fine morning, Luite by accident, at the .inisterial hotel!

? found -C at home, yawning, lounging, and dawdling, as usual, and#retending to be in the last eHtremity of ennui! >e is, #erha#s, the mostreally energetic human being now alieCbut that is only when nobody seeshim!MTo be een with him, ? com#lained of my weak eyes, and lamented thenecessity of the s#ectacles, under coer of which ? cautiously andthoroughly sureyed the whole a#artment, while seemingly intent only u#onthe conersation of my host!


12/161

M? #aid es#ecial attention to a large writing$table near which he sat,and u#on which lay confusedly, some miscellaneous letters and other#a#ers, with one or two musical instruments and a few books! >ere,howeer, after a long and ery deliberate scrutiny, ? saw nothing toeHcite #articular sus#icion!MAt length my eyes, in going the circuit of the room, fell u#on a

trum#ery fillagree card$rack of #asteboard, that hung dangling by a dirtyblue ribbon, from a little brass knob just beneath the middle of themantel$#iece! ?n this rack, which had three or four com#artments, werefie or siH isiting cards and a solitary letter! This last was muchsoiled and crum#led! ?t was torn nearly in two, across the middleCas if adesign, in the first instance, to tear it entirely u# as worthless, hadbeen altered, or stayed, in the second! ?t had a large black seal,bearing the -C ci#her ery cons#icuously, and was addressed, in adiminutie female hand, to -C, the minister, himself! ?t was thrustcarelessly, and een, as it seemed, contem#tuously, into one of theu##ermost diisions of the rack!M8o sooner had ? glanced at this letter, than ? concluded it to be thatof which ? was in search! To be sure, it was, to all a##earance,

radically different from the one of which the Prefect had read us sominute a descri#tion! >ere the seal was large and black, with the -Cci#herK there it was small and red, with the ducal arms of the ;C family!>ere, the address, to the .inister, diminutie and feminineK there thesu#erscri#tion, to a certain royal #ersonage, was markedly bold anddecidedK the sie alone formed a #oint of corres#ondence! But, then, theradicalness of these differences, which was eHcessieK the dirtK thesoiled and torn condition of the #a#er, so inconsistent with the truemethodical habits of -C, and so suggestie of a design to delude thebeholder into an idea of the worthlessness of the documentK these things,together with the hy#er$obtrusie situation of this document, full in theiew of eery isiter, and thus eHactly in accordance with theconclusions to which ? had #reiously arriedK these things, ? say, were

strongly corroboratie of sus#icion, in one who came with the intentionto sus#ect!M? #rotracted my isit as long as #ossible, and, while ? maintained amost animated discussion with the .inister u#on a to#ic which ? knew wellhad neer failed to interest and eHcite him, ? ke#t my attention reallyrieted u#on the letter! ?n this eHamination, ? committed to memory itseHternal a##earance and arrangement in the rackK and also fell, atlength, u#on a discoery which set at rest whateer triial doubt ? mighthae entertained! ?n scrutiniing the edges of the #a#er, ? obsered themto be more chafed than seemed necessary! They #resented the brokena##earance which is manifested when a stiff #a#er, haing been oncefolded and #ressed with a folder, is refolded in a reersed direction, inthe same creases or edges which had formed the original fold! This

discoery was sufficient! ?t was clear to me that the letter had beenturned, as a gloe, inside out, re$directed, and re$sealed! ? bade the.inister good morning, and took my de#arture at once, leaing a goldsnuff$boH u#on the table!MThe neHt morning ? called for the snuff$boH, when we resumed, Luiteeagerly, the conersation of the #receding day! While thus engaged,howeer, a loud re#ort, as if of a #istol, was heard immediately beneaththe windows of the hotel, and was succeeded by a series of fearfulscreams, and the shoutings of a terrified mob! -C rushed to a casement,


13/161

threw it o#en, and looked out! ?n the meantime, ? ste##ed to the card$rack, took the letter, #ut it in my #ocket, and re#laced it by a fac$simile, )so far as regards eHternals,+ which ? had carefully #re#ared atmy lodgingsCimitating the -C ci#her, ery readily, by means of a sealformed of bread!MThe disturbance in the street had been occasioned by the frantic

behaior of a man with a musket! >e had fired it among a crowd of womenand children! ?t #roed, howeer, to hae been without ball, and thefellow was suffered to go his way as a lunatic or a drunkard! When he hadgone, -C came from the window, whither ? had followed him immediatelyu#on securing the object in iew! ;oon afterwards ? bade him farewell!The #retended lunatic was a man in my own #ay!MMBut what #ur#ose had you,M ? asked, Min re#lacing the letter by a fac$simileN Would it not hae been better, at the first isit, to hae seiedit o#enly, and de#artedNMM-C,M re#lied -u#in, Mis a des#erate man, and a man of nere! >is hotel,too, is not without attendants deoted to his interests! >ad ? made thewild attem#t you suggest, ? might neer hae left the .inisterial#resence alie! The good #eo#le of Paris might hae heard of me no more!

But ? had an object a#art from these considerations! "ou know my#olitical #re#ossessions! ?n this matter, ? act as a #artisan of the ladyconcerned! =or eighteen months the .inister has had her in his #ower! ;hehas now him in hersCsince, being unaware that the letter is not in his#ossession, he will #roceed with his eHactions as if it was! Thus will heineitably commit himself, at once, to his #olitical destruction! >isdownfall, too, will not be more #reci#itate than awkward! ?t is all erywell to talk about the facilis descensus AerniK but in all kinds ofclimbing, as atalani said of singing, it is far more easy to get u# thanto come down! ?n the #resent instance ? hae no sym#athyCat least no #ity

Cfor him who descends! >e is that monstrum horrendum, an un#rinci#led manof genius! ? confess, howeer, that ? should like ery well to know the#recise character of his thoughts, when, being defied by her whom the

Prefect terms 'a certain #ersonage' he is reduced to o#ening the letterwhich ? left for him in the card$rack!MM>owN did you #ut any thing #articular in itNMMWhyCit did not seem altogether right to leae the interior blankCthatwould hae been insulting! -C, at ienna once, did me an eil turn, which? told him, Luite good$humoredly, that ? should remember! ;o, as ? knewhe would feel some curiosity in regard to the identity of the #erson whohad outwitted him, ? thought it a #ity not to gie him a clue! >e is wellacLuainted with my .;!, and ? just co#ied into the middle of the blanksheet the wordsCM'C C 7n dessein si funeste, ;'il n'est digne d'Atre, est digne deThyeste! They are to be found in rebillon's 'Atre!'M >( anchor

T>E T>


14/161

the Dohar of ;imeon @ochaides+ is scarcely known at all, een in Euro#eKand which has neer been Luoted, to my knowledge, by any AmericanCif weeHce#t, #erha#s, the author of the Muriosities of American %iteratureMKChaing had occasion, ? say, to turn oer some #ages of the first$mentioned ery remarkable work, ? was not a little astonished to discoerthat the literary world has hitherto been strangely in error res#ecting

the fate of the iier's daughter, ;cheheraade, as that fate is de#ictedin the MArabian 8ightsMK and that the denouement there gien, if notaltogether inaccurate, as far as it goes, is at least to blame in nothaing gone ery much farther!=or full information on this interesting to#ic, ? must refer theinLuisitie reader to the M?sitsoornotM itself, but in the meantime, ?shall be #ardoned for giing a summary of what ? there discoered!?t will be remembered, that, in the usual ersion of the tales, a certainmonarch haing good cause to be jealous of his Lueen, not only #uts herto death, but makes a ow, by his beard and the #ro#het, to es#ouse eachnight the most beautiful maiden in his dominions, and the neHt morning todelier her u# to the eHecutioner!>aing fulfilled this ow for many years to the letter, and with a

religious #unctuality and method that conferred great credit u#on him asa man of deout feeling and eHcellent sense, he was interru#ted oneafternoon )no doubt at his #rayers+ by a isit from his grand iier, towhose daughter, it a##ears, there had occurred an idea!>er name was ;cheheraade, and her idea was, that she would either redeemthe land from the de#o#ulating taH u#on its beauty, or #erish, after thea##roed fashion of all heroines, in the attem#t!Accordingly, and although we do not find it to be lea#$year )which makesthe sacrifice more meritorious+, she de#utes her father, the grandiier, to make an offer to the king of her hand! This hand the kingeagerly acce#tsC)he had intended to take it at all eents, and had #utoff the matter from day to day, only through fear of the iier+,Cbut, inacce#ting it now, he gies all #arties ery distinctly to understand,

that, grand iier or no grand iier, he has not the slightest design ofgiing u# one iota of his ow or of his #riileges! When, therefore, thefair ;cheheraade insisted u#on marrying the king, and did actually marryhim des#ite her father's eHcellent adice not to do any thing of the kind

Cwhen she would and did marry him, ? say, will ?, nill ?, it was with herbeautiful black eyes as thoroughly o#en as the nature of the case wouldallow!?t seems, howeer, that this #olitic damsel )who had been reading.achiaelli, beyond doubt+, had a ery ingenious little #lot in her mind!


15/161

The king's curiosity, howeer, #reailing, ? am sorry to say, een oerhis sound religious #rinci#les, induced him for this once to #ost#one thefulfilment of his ow until neHt morning, for the #ur#ose and with theho#e of hearing that night how it fared in the end with the black cat )ablack cat, ? think it was+ and the rat!The night haing arried, howeer, the lady ;cheheraade not only #ut the

finishing stroke to the black cat and the rat )the rat was blue+ butbefore she well knew what she was about, found herself dee# in theintricacies of a narration, haing reference )if ? am not altogethermistaken+ to a #ink horse )with green wings+ that went, in a iolentmanner, by clockwork, and was wound u# with an indigo key! With thishistory the king was een more #rofoundly interested than with the otherCand, as the day broke before its conclusion )notwithstanding all theLueen's endeaors to get through with it in time for the bowstringing+,there was again no resource but to #ost#one that ceremony as before, fortwenty$four hours! The neHt night there ha##ened a similar accident witha similar resultK and then the neHtCand then again the neHtK so that, inthe end, the good monarch, haing been unaoidably de#ried of allo##ortunity to kee# his ow during a #eriod of no less than one thousand

and one nights, either forgets it altogether by the eH#iration of thistime, or gets himself absoled of it in the regular way, or )what is more#robable+ breaks it outright, as well as the head of his fatherconfessor! At all eents, ;cheheraade, who, being lineally descendedfrom Ee, fell heir, #erha#s, to the whole seen baskets of talk, whichthe latter lady, we all know, #icked u# from under the trees in thegarden of EdenC;cheheraade, ? say, finally trium#hed, and the tariffu#on beauty was re#ealed!8ow, this conclusion )which is that of the story as we hae it u#onrecord+ is, no doubt, eHcessiely #ro#er and #leasantCbut alasO like agreat many #leasant things, is more #leasant than true, and ? am indebtedaltogether to the M?sitsoornotM for the means of correcting the error!M%e mieuH,M says a =rench #roerb, Mest l'ennemi du bien,M and, in

mentioning that ;cheheraade had inherited the seen baskets of talk, ?should hae added that she #ut them out at com#ound interest until theyamounted to seenty$seen!M.y dear sister,M said she, on the thousand$and$second night, )? Luotethe language of the M?sitsoornotM at this #oint, erbatim+ Mmy dearsister,M said she, Mnow that all this little difficulty about thebowstring has blown oer, and that this odious taH is so ha##ilyre#ealed, ? feel that ? hae been guilty of great indiscretion inwithholding from you and the king )who ? am sorry to say, snoresCa thingno gentleman would do+ the full conclusion of ;inbad the sailor! This#erson went through numerous other and more interesting adentures thanthose which ? relatedK but the truth is, ? felt slee#y on the #articularnight of their narration, and so was seduced into cutting them shortCa

grieous #iece of misconduct, for which ? only trust that Allah willforgie me! But een yet it is not too late to remedy my great neglectCand as soon as ? hae gien the king a #inch or two in order to wake himu# so far that he may sto# making that horrible noise, ? will forthwithentertain you )and him if he #leases+ with the seLuel of this eryremarkable story!M>ereu#on the sister of ;cheheraade, as ? hae it from the M?sitsoornot,MeH#ressed no ery #articular intensity of gratificationK but the king,haing been sufficiently #inched, at length ceased snoring, and finally


16/161

said, MhumOM and then MhooOM when the Lueen, understanding these words)which are no doubt Arabic+ to signify that he was all attention, andwould do his best not to snore any moreCthe Lueen, ? say, haing arrangedthese matters to her satisfaction, re$entered thus, at once, into thehistory of ;inbad the sailor&M'At length, in my old age,' 3these are the words of ;inbad himself, as

retailed by ;cheheraade6C'at length, in my old age, and after enjoyingmany years of tranLuillity at home, ? became once more #ossessed of adesire of isiting foreign countriesK and one day, without acLuaintingany of my family with my design, ? #acked u# some bundles of suchmerchandise as was most #recious and least bulky, and, engaged a #orterto carry them, went with him down to the sea$shore, to await the arrialof any chance essel that might coney me out of the kingdom into someregion which ? had not as yet eH#lored!M'>aing de#osited the #ackages u#on the sands, we sat down beneath sometrees, and looked out into the ocean in the ho#e of #erceiing a shi#,but during seeral hours we saw none whateer! At length ? fancied that ?could hear a singular buing or humming soundK and the #orter, afterlistening awhile, declared that he also could distinguish it! Presently

it grew louder, and then still louder, so that we could hae no doubtthat the object which caused it was a##roaching us! At length, on theedge of the horion, we discoered a black s#eck, which ra#idly increasedin sie until we made it out to be a ast monster, swimming with a great#art of its body aboe the surface of the sea! ?t came toward us withinconceiable swiftness, throwing u# huge waes of foam around itsbreast, and illuminating all that #art of the sea through which it#assed, with a long line of fire that eHtended far off into the distance!M'As the thing drew near we saw it ery distinctly! ?ts length was eLualto that of three of the loftiest trees that grow, and it was as wide asthe great hall of audience in your #alace, < most sublime and munificentof the ali#hs! ?ts body, which was unlike that of ordinary fishes, wasas solid as a rock, and of a jetty blackness throughout all that #ortion

of it which floated aboe the water, with the eHce#tion of a narrowblood$red streak that com#letely begirdled it! The belly, which floatedbeneath the surface, and of which we could get only a glim#se now andthen as the monster rose and fell with the billows, was entirely coeredwith metallic scales, of a color like that of the moon in misty weather!The back was flat and nearly white, and from it there eHtended u#wards ofsiH s#ines, about half the length of the whole body!M'The horrible creature had no mouth that we could #erceie, but, as ifto make u# for this deficiency, it was #roided with at least four scoreof eyes, that #rotruded from their sockets like those of the greendragon$fly, and were arranged all around the body in two rows, one aboethe other, and #arallel to the blood$red streak, which seemed to answerthe #ur#ose of an eyebrow! Two or three of these dreadful eyes were much

larger than the others, and had the a##earance of solid gold!M'Although this beast a##roached us, as ? hae before said, with thegreatest ra#idity, it must hae been moed altogether by necromancyCforit had neither fins like a fish nor web$feet like a duck, nor wings likethe seashell which is blown along in the manner of a esselK nor yet didit writhe itself forward as do the eels! ?ts head and its tail weresha#ed #recisely alike, only, not far from the latter, were two smallholes that sered for nostrils, and through which the monster #uffed out


17/161

its thick breath with #rodigious iolence, and with a shrieking,disagreeable noise!M'


18/161

hand and foot, and coneyed to the beast, which immediately swam outagain into the middle of the sea!M'? now bitterly re#ented my folly in Luitting a comfortable home to#eril my life in such adentures as thisK but regret being useless, ?made the best of my condition, and eHerted myself to secure the goodwillof the man$animal that owned the trum#et, and who a##eared to eHercise

authority oer his fellows! ? succeeded so well in this endeaor that, ina few days, the creature bestowed u#on me arious tokens of his faor,and in the end een went to the trouble of teaching me the rudiments ofwhat it was ain enough to denominate its languageK so that, at length, ?was enabled to conerse with it readily, and came to make it com#rehendthe ardent desire ? had of seeing the world!M'Washish sLuashish sLueak, ;inbad, hey$diddle diddle, grunt unt grumble,hiss, fiss, whiss,' said he to me, one day after dinnerCbut ? beg athousand #ardons, ? had forgotten that your majesty is not conersantwith the dialect of the ock$neighs )so the man$animals were calledK ?#resume because their language formed the connecting link between that ofthe horse and that of the rooster+! With your #ermission, ? willtranslate! 'Washish sLuashish,' and so forth&Cthat is to say, '? am ha##y

to find, my dear ;inbad, that you are really a ery eHcellent fellowK weare now about doing a thing which is called circumnaigating the globeKand since you are so desirous of seeing the world, ? will strain a #ointand gie you a free #assage u#on back of the beast!'MWhen the %ady ;cheheraade had #roceeded thus far, relates theM?sitsoornot,M the king turned oer from his left side to his right, andsaid&M?t is, in fact, ery sur#rising, my dear Lueen, that you omitted,hitherto, these latter adentures of ;inbad! -o you know ? think themeHceedingly entertaining and strangeNMThe king haing thus eH#ressed himself, we are told, the fair;cheheraade resumed her history in the following words&M;inbad went on in this manner with his narratie to the cali#hC'?

thanked the man$animal for its kindness, and soon found myself ery muchat home on the beast, which swam at a #rodigious rate through the oceanKalthough the surface of the latter is, in that #art of the world, by nomeans flat, but round like a #omegranate, so that we wentCso to sayCeither u# hill or down hill all the time!'MThat ? think, was ery singular,M interru#ted the king!M8eertheless, it is Luite true,M re#lied ;cheheraade!M? hae my doubts,M rejoined the kingK Mbut, #ray, be so good as to go onwith the story!MM? will,M said the Lueen! M'The beast,' continued ;inbad to the cali#h,'swam, as ? hae related, u# hill and down hill until, at length, wearried at an island, many hundreds of miles in circumference, but which,neertheless, had been built in the middle of the sea by a colony of

little things like cater#illars'M ):/+M>umOM said the king!M'%eaing this island,' said ;inbadC)for ;cheheraade, it must beunderstood, took no notice of her husband's ill$mannered ejaculation+'leaing this island, we came to another where the forests were of solidstone, and so hard that they shiered to #ieces the finest$tem#ered aHeswith which we endeaoured to cut them down!M' ):(+M>umOM said the king, againK but ;cheheraade, #aying him no attention,continued in the language of ;inbad!


19/161

M'Passing beyond this last island, we reached a country where there was acae that ran to the distance of thirty or forty miles within the bowelsof the earth, and that contained a greater number of far more s#aciousand more magnificent #alaces than are to be found in all -amascus andBagdad! =rom the roofs of these #alaces there hung myriads of gems, likediamonds, but larger than menK and in among the streets of towers and

#yramids and tem#les, there flowed immense riers as black as ebony, andswarming with fish that had no eyes!'M ):9+M>umOM said the king! M'We then swam into a region of the sea where wefound a lofty mountain, down whose sides there streamed torrents ofmelted metal, some of which were twele miles wide and siHty miles long):5+K while from an abyss on the summit, issued so ast a Luantity ofashes that the sun was entirely blotted out from the heaens, and itbecame darker than the darkest midnightK so that when we were een at thedistance of a hundred and fifty miles from the mountain, it wasim#ossible to see the whitest object, howeer close we held it to oureyes!'M ):*+M>umOM said the king!M'After Luitting this coast, the beast continued his oyage until we met

with a land in which the nature of things seemed reersedCfor we here sawa great lake, at the bottom of which, more than a hundred feet beneaththe surface of the water, there flourished in full leaf a forest of talland luHuriant trees!'M ):V+M>ooOM said the king!M;ome hundred miles farther on brought us to a climate where theatmos#here was so dense as to sustain iron or steel, just as our own doesfeather!'M ):+M=iddle de dee,M said the king!MProceeding still in the same direction, we #resently arried at the mostmagnificent region in the whole world! Through it there meandered aglorious rier for seeral thousands of miles! This rier was ofuns#eakable de#th, and of a trans#arency richer than that of amber! ?t

was from three to siH miles in widthK and its banks which arose on eitherside to twele hundred feet in #er#endicular height, were crowned witheer$blossoming trees and #er#etual sweet$scented flowers, that made thewhole territory one gorgeous gardenK but the name of this luHuriant landwas the ingdom of >orror, and to enter it was ineitable death'M ):2+M>um#hOM said the king!M'We left this kingdom in great haste, and, after some days, came toanother, where we were astonished to #erceie myriads of monstrousanimals with horns resembling scythes u#on their heads! These hideousbeasts dig for themseles ast caerns in the soil, of a funnel sha#e,and line the sides of them with rocks, so dis#osed one u#on the otherthat they fall instantly, when trodden u#on by other animals, thus#reci#itating them into the monster's dens, where their blood is

immediately sucked, and their carcasses afterwards hurled contem#tuouslyout to an immense distance from Mthe caerns of death!M'M ):0+MPoohOM said the king!M'ontinuing our #rogress, we #erceied a district with egetables thatgrew not u#on any soil but in the air! ):/1+ There were others thats#rang from the substance of other egetablesK )://+ others that deriedtheir substance from the bodies of liing animalsK ):/(+ and then again,there were others that glowed all oer with intense fireK ):/9+ othersthat moed from #lace to #lace at #leasure, ):/5+ and what was still more


20/161

wonderful, we discoered flowers that lied and breathed and moed theirlimbs at will and had, moreoer, the detestable #assion of mankind forenslaing other creatures, and confining them in horrid and solitary#risons until the fulfillment of a##ointed tasks!'M ):/*+MPshawOM said the king!M'Fuitting this land, we soon arried at another in which the bees and

the birds are mathematicians of such genius and erudition, that they giedaily instructions in the science of geometry to the wise men of theem#ire! The king of the #lace haing offered a reward for the solution oftwo ery difficult #roblems, they were soled u#on the s#otCthe one bythe bees, and the other by the birdsK but the king kee#ing their solutiona secret, it was only after the most #rofound researches and labor, andthe writing of an infinity of big books, during a long series of years,that the men$mathematicians at length arried at the identical solutionswhich had been gien u#on the s#ot by the bees and by the birds!'M ):/V+M


21/161

doubt, sered to stimulate them by their #ainful writhings and wrigglingsto the most miraculous efforts of imaginationO'MM8onsenseOM said the king!M'Among the magicians, were domesticated seeral animals of ery singularkindsK for eHam#le, there was a huge horse whose bones were iron andwhose blood was boiling water! ?n #lace of corn, he had black stones for

his usual foodK and yet, in s#ite of so hard a diet, he was so strong andswift that he would drag a load more weighty than the grandest tem#le inthis city, at a rate sur#assing that of the flight of most birds!'M ):(1+MTwattleOM said the king!M'? saw, also, among these #eo#le a hen without feathers, but bigger thana camelK instead of flesh and bone she had iron and brickK her blood,like that of the horse, )to whom, in fact, she was nearly related,+ wasboiling waterK and like him she ate nothing but wood or black stones!This hen brought forth ery freLuently, a hundred chickens in the dayKand, after birth, they took u# their residence for seeral weeks withinthe stomach of their mother!'M ):(/+M=aO lalOM said the king!M'aroun Alraschid! ):((+ Another of these magi constructed )oflike material+ a creature that #ut to shame een the genius of him whomade itK for so great were its reasoning #owers that, in a second, it#erformed calculations of so ast an eHtent that they would hae reLuiredthe united labor of fifty thousand fleshy men for a year! ):(9+ But astill more wonderful conjuror fashioned for himself a mighty thing thatwas neither man nor beast, but which had brains of lead, intermiHed witha black matter like #itch, and fingers that it em#loyed with suchincredible s#eed and deHterity that it would hae had no trouble inwriting out twenty thousand co#ies of the oran in an hour, and this withso eHLuisite a #recision, that in all the co#ies there should not be

found one to ary from another by the breadth of the finest hair! Thisthing was of #rodigious strength, so that it erected or oerthrew themightiest em#ires at a breathK but its #owers were eHercised eLually foreil and for good!'MMidiculousOM said the king!M'Among this nation of necromancers there was also one who had in hiseins the blood of the salamandersK for he made no scru#le of sittingdown to smoke his chibouc in a red$hot oen until his dinner wasthoroughly roasted u#on its floor! ):(5+ Another had the faculty ofconerting the common metals into gold, without een looking at themduring the #rocess! ):(*+ Another had such a delicacy of touch that hemade a wire so fine as to be inisible! ):(V+ Another had such Luicknessof #erce#tion that he counted all the se#arate motions of an elastic

body, while it was s#ringing backward and forward at the rate of ninehundred millions of times in a second!'M ):(+MAbsurdOM said the king!M'Another of these magicians, by means of a fluid that nobody eer yetsaw, could make the cor#ses of his friends brandish their arms, kick outtheir legs, fight, or een get u# and dance at his will! ):(2+ Anotherhad cultiated his oice to so great an eHtent that he could hae madehimself heard from one end of the world to the other! ):(0+ Another hadso long an arm that he could sit down in -amascus and indite a letter at


22/161

BagdadCor indeed at any distance whatsoeer! ):91+ Another commanded thelightning to come down to him out of the heaens, and it came at hiscallK and sered him for a #laything when it came! Another took two loudsounds and out of them made a silence! Another constructed a dee#darkness out of two brilliant lights! ):9/+ Another made ice in a red$hotfurnace! ):9(+ Another directed the sun to #aint his #ortrait, and the

sun did! ):99+ Another took this luminary with the moon and the #lanets,and haing first weighed them with scru#ulous accuracy, #robed into theirde#ths and found out the solidity of the substance of which they weremade! But the whole nation is, indeed, of so sur#rising a necromanticability, that not een their infants, nor their commonest cats and dogshae any difficulty in seeing objects that do not eHist at all, or thatfor twenty millions of years before the birth of the nation itself hadbeen blotted out from the face of creation!M' ):95+MPre#osterousOM said the king!M'The wies and daughters of these incom#arably great and wise magi,'Mcontinued ;cheheraade, without being in any manner disturbed by thesefreLuent and most ungentlemanly interru#tions on the #art of her husband

CM'the wies and daughters of these eminent conjurers are eery thing

that is accom#lished and refinedK and would be eery thing that isinteresting and beautiful, but for an unha##y fatality that besets them,and from which not een the miraculous #owers of their husbands andfathers has, hitherto, been adeLuate to sae! ;ome fatalities come incertain sha#es, and some in othersCbut this of which ? s#eak has come inthe sha#e of a crotchet!'MMA whatNM said the king!M'A crotchet'M said ;cheheraade! M'aing been long

#ossessed of this idea, and bolsters being chea# in that country, thedays hae long gone by since it was #ossible to distinguish a woman froma dromedary$'MM;to#OM said the kingCM? can't stand that, and ? won't! "ou hae alreadygien me a dreadful headache with your lies! The day, too, ? #erceie, isbeginning to break! >ow long hae we been marriedNCmy conscience isgetting to be troublesome again! And then that dromedary touchCdo youtake me for a foolN 7#on the whole, you might as well get u# and bethrottled!MThese words, as ? learn from the M?sitsoornot,M both grieed andastonished ;cheheraadeK but, as she knew the king to be a man ofscru#ulous integrity, and Luite unlikely to forfeit his word, shesubmitted to her fate with a good grace! ;he deried, howeer, great

consolation, )during the tightening of the bowstring,+ from thereflection that much of the history remained still untold, and that the#etulance of her brute of a husband had rea#ed for him a most righteousreward, in de#riing him of many inconceiable adentures! >( anchor


23/161

A -E;E8T ?8T< T>E .AE%;T.! The ways of God in 8ature, as in Proidence, are not as our waysK norare the models that we frame any way commensurate to the astness,#rofundity, and unsearchableness of >is works, which hae a de#th inthem greater than the well of -emocritus! @ose#h Glanille!WE had now reached the summit of the loftiest crag! =or some minutes the

old man seemed too much eHhausted to s#eak!M8ot long ago,M said he at length, Mand ? could hae guided you on thisroute as well as the youngest of my sonsK but, about three years #ast,there ha##ened to me an eent such as neer ha##ened to mortal manCor atleast such as no man eer suried to tell ofCand the siH hours of deadlyterror which ? then endured hae broken me u# body and soul! "ou su##oseme a ery old manCbut ? am not! ?t took less than a single day to changethese hairs from a jetty black to white, to weaken my limbs, and tounstring my neres, so that ? tremble at the least eHertion, and amfrightened at a shadow! -o you know ? can scarcely look oer this littlecliff without getting giddyNMThe Mlittle cliff,M u#on whose edge he had so carelessly thrown himselfdown to rest that the weightier #ortion of his body hung oer it, while

he was only ke#t from falling by the tenure of his elbow on its eHtremeand sli##ery edgeCthis Mlittle cliffM arose, a sheer unobstructed#reci#ice of black shining rock, some fifteen or siHteen hundred feetfrom the world of crags beneath us! 8othing would hae tem#ted me towithin half a doen yards of its brink! ?n truth so dee#ly was ? eHcitedby the #erilous #osition of my com#anion, that ? fell at full length u#onthe ground, clung to the shrubs around me, and dared not een glanceu#ward at the skyCwhile ? struggled in ain to diest myself of the ideathat the ery foundations of the mountain were in danger from the fury ofthe winds! ?t was long before ? could reason myself into sufficientcourage to sit u# and look out into the distance!M"ou must get oer these fancies,M said the guide, Mfor ? hae broughtyou here that you might hae the best #ossible iew of the scene of that

eent ? mentionedCand to tell you the whole story with the s#ot justunder your eye!MMWe are now,M he continued, in that #articulariing manner whichdistinguished himCMwe are now close u#on the 8orwegian coastCin thesiHty$eighth degree of latitudeCin the great #roince of 8ordlandCand inthe dreary district of %ofoden! The mountain u#on whose to# we sit is>elseggen, the loudy! 8ow raise yourself u# a little higherChold on tothe grass if you feel giddyCsoCand look out, beyond the belt of a#orbeneath us, into the sea!M? looked diily, and beheld a wide eH#anse of ocean, whose waters woreso inky a hue as to bring at once to my mind the 8ubian geogra#her'saccount of the .are Tenebrarum! A #anorama more de#lorably desolate nohuman imagination can conceie! To the right and left, as far as the eye

could reach, there lay outstretched, like ram#arts of the world, lines ofhorridly black and beetling cliff, whose character of gloom was but themore forcibly illustrated by the surf which reared high u# against itswhite and ghastly crest, howling and shrieking foreer! @ust o##osite the#romontory u#on whose a#eH we were #laced, and at a distance of some fieor siH miles out at sea, there was isible a small, bleak$looking islandKor, more #ro#erly, its #osition was discernible through the wilderness ofsurge in which it was enelo#ed! About two miles nearer the land, arose


24/161

another of smaller sie, hideously craggy and barren, and encom#assed atarious interals by a cluster of dark rocks!The a##earance of the ocean, in the s#ace between the more distant islandand the shore, had something ery unusual about it! Although, at thetime, so strong a gale was blowing landward that a brig in the remoteoffing lay to under a double$reefed trysail, and constantly #lunged her

whole hull out of sight, still there was here nothing like a regularswell, but only a short, Luick, angry cross dashing of water in eerydirectionCas well in the teeth of the wind as otherwise!


25/161

MThis,M said ? at length, to the old manCMthis can be nothing else thanthe great whirl#ool of the .aelstrXm!MM;o it is sometimes termed,M said he! MWe 8orwegians call it the .oskoe$strXm, from the island of .oskoe in the midway!MThe ordinary accounts of this orteH had by no means #re#ared me for what? saw! That of @onas amus, which is #erha#s the most circumstantial of

any, cannot im#art the faintest conce#tion either of the magnificence, orof the horror of the sceneCor of the wild bewildering sense of the noelwhich confounds the beholder! ? am not sure from what #oint of iew thewriter in Luestion sureyed it, nor at what timeK but it could neitherhae been from the summit of >elseggen, nor during a storm! There aresome #assages of his descri#tion, neertheless, which may be Luoted fortheir details, although their effect is eHceedingly feeble in coneyingan im#ression of the s#ectacle!MBetween %ofoden and .oskoe,M he says, Mthe de#th of the water is betweenthirty$siH and forty fathomsK but on the other side, toward er )urrgh+this de#th decreases so as not to afford a conenient #assage for aessel, without the risk of s#litting on the rocks, which ha##ens een inthe calmest weather! When it is flood, the stream runs u# the country

between %ofoden and .oskoe with a boisterous ra#idityK but the roar ofits im#etuous ebb to the sea is scarce eLualled by the loudest and mostdreadful cataractsK the noise being heard seeral leagues off, and theortices or #its are of such an eHtent and de#th, that if a shi# comeswithin its attraction, it is ineitably absorbed and carried down to thebottom, and there beat to #ieces against the rocksK and when the waterrelaHes, the fragments thereof are thrown u# again! But these interalsof tranLuility are only at the turn of the ebb and flood, and in calmweather, and last but a Luarter of an hour, its iolence graduallyreturning! When the stream is most boisterous, and its fury heightened bya storm, it is dangerous to come within a 8orway mile of it! Boats,yachts, and shi#s hae been carried away by not guarding against itbefore they were within its reach! ?t likewise ha##ens freLuently, that

whales come too near the stream, and are oer#owered by its iolenceK andthen it is im#ossible to describe their howlings and bellowings in theirfruitless struggles to disengage themseles! A bear once, attem#ting toswim from %ofoden to .oskoe, was caught by the stream and borne down,while he roared terribly, so as to be heard on shore! %arge stocks offirs and #ine trees, after being absorbed by the current, rise againbroken and torn to such a degree as if bristles grew u#on them! This#lainly shows the bottom to consist of craggy rocks, among which they arewhirled to and fro! This stream is regulated by the fluH and refluH ofthe seaCit being constantly high and low water eery siH hours! ?n theyear /V5*, early in the morning of ;eHagesima ;unday, it raged with suchnoise and im#etuosity that the ery stones of the houses on the coastfell to the ground!M

?n regard to the de#th of the water, ? could not see how this could haebeen ascertained at all in the immediate icinity of the orteH! TheMforty fathomsM must hae reference only to #ortions of the channel closeu#on the shore either of .oskoe or %ofoden! The de#th in the centre ofthe .oskoe$strXm must be immeasurably greaterK and no better #roof ofthis fact is necessary than can be obtained from een the sidelong glanceinto the abyss of the whirl which may be had from the highest crag of>elseggen! %ooking down from this #innacle u#on the howling Phlegethonbelow, ? could not hel# smiling at the sim#licity with which the honest


26/161

@onas amus records, as a matter difficult of belief, the anecdotes ofthe whales and the bearsK for it a##eared to me, in fact, a self$eidentthing, that the largest shi# of the line in eHistence, coming within theinfluence of that deadly attraction, could resist it as little as afeather the hurricane, and must disa##ear bodily and at once!The attem#ts to account for the #henomenonCsome of which, ? remember,

seemed to me sufficiently #lausible in #erusalCnow wore a ery differentand unsatisfactory as#ect! The idea generally receied is that this, aswell as three smaller ortices among the =erroe islands, Mhae no othercause than the collision of waes rising and falling, at fluH and refluH,against a ridge of rocks and sheles, which confines the water so that it#reci#itates itself like a cataractK and thus the higher the flood rises,the dee#er must the fall be, and the natural result of all is a whirl#oolor orteH, the #rodigious suction of which is sufficiently known bylesser eH#eriments!MCThese are the words of the Encyclo#Udia Britannica!ircher and others imagine that in the centre of the channel of the.aelstrXm is an abyss #enetrating the globe, and issuing in some eryremote #artCthe Gulf of Bothnia being somewhat decidedly named in oneinstance! This o#inion, idle in itself, was the one to which, as ? gaed,

my imagination most readily assentedK and, mentioning it to the guide, ?was rather sur#rised to hear him say that, although it was the iewalmost uniersally entertained of the subject by the 8orwegians, itneertheless was not his own! As to the former notion he confessed hisinability to com#rehend itK and here ? agreed with himCfor, howeerconclusie on #a#er, it becomes altogether unintelligible, and eenabsurd, amid the thunder of the abyss!M"ou hae had a good look at the whirl now,M said the old man, Mand ifyou will cree# round this crag, so as to get in its lee, and deaden theroar of the water, ? will tell you a story that will conince you ? oughtto know something of the .oskoe$strXm!M? #laced myself as desired, and he #roceeded!M.yself and my two brothers once owned a schooner$rigged smack of about

seenty tons burthen, with which we were in the habit of fishing amongthe islands beyond .oskoe, nearly to urrgh! ?n all iolent eddies at seathere is good fishing, at #ro#er o##ortunities, if one has only thecourage to attem#t itK but among the whole of the %ofoden coastmen, wethree were the only ones who made a regular business of going out to theislands, as ? tell you! The usual grounds are a great way lower down tothe southward! There fish can be got at all hours, without much risk, andtherefore these #laces are #referred! The choice s#ots oer here amongthe rocks, howeer, not only yield the finest ariety, but in far greaterabundanceK so that we often got in a single day, what the more timid ofthe craft could not scra#e together in a week! ?n fact, we made it amatter of des#erate s#eculationCthe risk of life standing instead oflabor, and courage answering for ca#ital!

MWe ke#t the smack in a coe about fie miles higher u# the coast thanthisK and it was our #ractice, in fine weather, to take adantage of thefifteen minutes' slack to #ush across the main channel of the .oskoe$strXm, far aboe the #ool, and then dro# down u#on anchorage somewherenear ere we used to remain until nearly time for slack$wateragain, when we weighed and made for home! We neer set out u#on thiseH#edition without a steady side wind for going and comingCone that wefelt sure would not fail us before our returnCand we seldom made a mis$


27/161

calculation u#on this #oint! Twice, during siH years, we were forced tostay all night at anchor on account of a dead calm, which is a rare thingindeed just about hereK and once we had to remain on the grounds nearly aweek, staring to death, owing to a gale which blew u# shortly after ourarrial, and made the channel too boisterous to be thought of! 7#on thisoccasion we should hae been drien out to sea in s#ite of eerything,

)for the whirl#ools threw us round and round so iolently, that, atlength, we fouled our anchor and dragged it+ if it had not been that wedrifted into one of the innumerable cross currentsChere to$day and goneto$morrowCwhich droe us under the lee of =limen, where, by good luck, webrought u#!M? could not tell you the twentieth #art of the difficulties weencountered 'on the grounds'Cit is a bad s#ot to be in, een in goodweatherCbut we made shift always to run the gauntlet of the .oskoe$strXmitself without accidentK although at times my heart has been in my mouthwhen we ha##ened to be a minute or so behind or before the slack! Thewind sometimes was not as strong as we thought it at starting, and thenwe made rather less way than we could wish, while the current renderedthe smack unmanageable! .y eldest brother had a son eighteen years old,

and ? had two stout boys of my own! These would hae been of greatassistance at such times, in using the swee#s, as well as afterward infishingCbut, somehow, although we ran the risk ourseles, we had not theheart to let the young ones get into the dangerCfor, after all is saidand done, it was a horrible danger, and that is the truth!M?t is now within a few days of three years since what ? am going to tellyou occurred! ?t was on the tenth day of @uly, /2$, a day which the#eo#le of this #art of the world will neer forgetCfor it was one inwhich blew the most terrible hurricane that eer came out of the heaens!And yet all the morning, and indeed until late in the afternoon, therewas a gentle and steady breee from the south$west, while the sun shonebrightly, so that the oldest seaman among us could not hae foreseen whatwas to follow!

MThe three of usCmy two brothers and myselfChad crossed oer to theislands about two o'clock P! .!, and had soon nearly loaded the smackwith fine fish, which, we all remarked, were more #lenty that day than wehad eer known them! ?t was just seen, by my watch, when we weighed andstarted for home, so as to make the worst of the ;trXm at slack water,which we knew would be at eight!MWe set out with a fresh wind on our starboard Luarter, and for some times#anked along at a great rate, neer dreaming of danger, for indeed wesaw not the slightest reason to a##rehend it! All at once we were takenaback by a breee from oer >elseggen! This was most unusualCsomethingthat had neer ha##ened to us beforeCand ? began to feel a little uneasy,without eHactly knowing why! We #ut the boat on the wind, but could makeno headway at all for the eddies, and ? was u#on the #oint of #ro#osing

to return to the anchorage, when, looking astern, we saw the wholehorion coered with a singular co##er$colored cloud that rose with themost amaing elocity!M?n the meantime the breee that had headed us off fell away, and we weredead becalmed, drifting about in eery direction! This state of things,howeer, did not last long enough to gie us time to think about it! ?nless than a minute the storm was u#on usCin less than two the sky wasentirely oercastCand what with this and the driing s#ray, it becamesuddenly so dark that we could not see each other in the smack!


28/161

M;uch a hurricane as then blew it is folly to attem#t describing! Theoldest seaman in 8orway neer eH#erienced any thing like it! We had letour sails go by the run before it cleerly took usK but, at the first#uff, both our masts went by the board as if they had been sawed offCthemainmast taking with it my youngest brother, who had lashed himself to itfor safety!

Mow my elder brother esca#ed destruction ?cannot say, for ? neer had an o##ortunity of ascertaining! =or my #art,as soon as ? had let the foresail run, ? threw myself flat on deck, withmy feet against the narrow gunwale of the bow, and with my hands gras#inga ring$bolt near the foot of the fore$mast! ?t was mere instinct that#rom#ted me to do thisCwhich was undoubtedly the ery best thing ? couldhae doneCfor ? was too much flurried to think!M=or some moments we were com#letely deluged, as ? say, and all this time

? held my breath, and clung to the bolt! When ? could stand it no longer? raised myself u#on my knees, still kee#ing hold with my hands, and thusgot my head clear! Presently our little boat gae herself a shake, justas a dog does in coming out of the water, and thus rid herself, in somemeasure, of the seas! ? was now trying to get the better of the stu#orthat had come oer me, and to collect my senses so as to see what was tobe done, when ? felt somebody gras# my arm! ?t was my elder brother, andmy heart lea#ed for joy, for ? had made sure that he was oerboardCbutthe neHt moment all this joy was turned into horrorCfor he #ut his mouthclose to my ear, and screamed out the word '.oskoe$strXmO'M8o one eer will know what my feelings were at that moment! ? shook fromhead to foot as if ? had had the most iolent fit of the ague! ? knewwhat he meant by that one word well enoughC? knew what he wished to make

me understand! With the wind that now droe us on, we were bound for thewhirl of the ;trXm, and nothing could sae usOM"ou #erceie that in crossing the ;trXm channel, we always went a longway u# aboe the whirl, een in the calmest weather, and then had to waitand watch carefully for the slackCbut now we were driing right u#on the#ool itself, and in such a hurricane as thisO 'To be sure,' ? thought,'we shall get there just about the slackCthere is some little ho#e inthat'Cbut in the neHt moment ? cursed myself for being so great a fool asto dream of ho#e at all! ? knew ery well that we were doomed, had webeen ten times a ninety$gun shi#!MBy this time the first fury of the tem#est had s#ent itself, or #erha#swe did not feel it so much, as we scudded before it, but at all eentsthe seas, which at first had been ke#t down by the wind, and lay flat and

frothing, now got u# into absolute mountains! A singular change, too, hadcome oer the heaens! Around in eery direction it was still as black as#itch, but nearly oerhead there burst out, all at once, a circular riftof clear skyCas clear as ? eer sawCand of a dee# bright blueCand throughit there blaed forth the full moon with a lustre that ? neer beforeknew her to wear! ;he lit u# eery thing about us with the greatestdistinctnessCbut, oh God, what a scene it was to light u#OM? now made one or two attem#ts to s#eak to my brotherCbut, in somemanner which ? could not understand, the din had so increased that ?


29/161

could not make him hear a single word, although ? screamed at the to# ofmy oice in his ear! Presently he shook his head, looking as #ale asdeath, and held u# one of his fingers, as if to say 'listenO 'MAt first ? could not make out what he meantCbut soon a hideous thoughtflashed u#on me! ? dragged my watch from its fob! ?t was not going! ?glanced at its face by the moonlight, and then burst into tears as ?

flung it far away into the ocean! ?t had run down at seen o'clockO Wewere behind the time of the slack, and the whirl of the ;trXm was in fullfuryOMWhen a boat is well built, #ro#erly trimmed, and not dee# laden, thewaes in a strong gale, when she is going large, seem always to sli# frombeneath herCwhich a##ears ery strange to a landsmanCand this is what iscalled riding, in sea #hrase! Well, so far we had ridden the swells erycleerlyK but #resently a gigantic sea ha##ened to take us right underthe counter, and bore us with it as it roseCu#Cu#Cas if into the sky! ?would not hae belieed that any wae could rise so high! And then downwe came with a swee#, a slide, and a #lunge, that made me feel sick anddiy, as if ? was falling from some lofty mountain$to# in a dream! Butwhile we were u# ? had thrown a Luick glance aroundCand that one glance

was all sufficient! ? saw our eHact #osition in an instant! The .oskoe$;trXm whirl#ool was about a Luarter of a mile dead aheadCbut no more likethe eery$day .oskoe$;trXm, than the whirl as you now see it is like amill$race! ?f ? had not known where we were, and what we had to eH#ect, ?should not hae recognised the #lace at all! As it was, ? inoluntarilyclosed my eyes in horror! The lids clenched themseles together as if ina s#asm!M?t could not hae been more than two minutes afterward until we suddenlyfelt the waes subside, and were enelo#ed in foam! The boat made a shar#half turn to larboard, and then shot off in its new direction like athunderbolt! At the same moment the roaring noise of the water wascom#letely drowned in a kind of shrill shriekCsuch a sound as you mightimagine gien out by the waste$#i#es of many thousand steam$essels,

letting off their steam all together! We were now in the belt of surfthat always surrounds the whirlK and ? thought, of course, that anothermoment would #lunge us into the abyssCdown which we could only seeindistinctly on account of the amaing elocity with which we wore bornealong! The boat did not seem to sink into the water at all, but to skimlike an air$bubble u#on the surface of the surge! >er starboard side wasneHt the whirl, and on the larboard arose the world of ocean we had left!?t stood like a huge writhing wall between us and the horion!M?t may a##ear strange, but now, when we were in the ery jaws of thegulf, ? felt more com#osed than when we were only a##roaching it! >aingmade u# my mind to ho#e no more, ? got rid of a great deal of that terrorwhich unmanned me at first! ? su##ose it was des#air that strung myneres!

M?t may look like boastingCbut what ? tell you is truthC? began toreflect how magnificent a thing it was to die in such a manner, and howfoolish it was in me to think of so #altry a consideration as my ownindiidual life, in iew of so wonderful a manifestation of God's #ower!? do beliee that ? blushed with shame when this idea crossed my mind!After a little while ? became #ossessed with the keenest curiosity aboutthe whirl itself! ? #ositiely felt a wish to eH#lore its de#ths, een atthe sacrifice ? was going to makeK and my #rinci#al grief was that ?should neer be able to tell my old com#anions on shore about the


30/161

mysteries ? should see! These, no doubt, were singular fancies to occu#ya man's mind in such eHtremityCand ? hae often thought since, that thereolutions of the boat around the #ool might hae rendered me a littlelight$headed!MThere was another circumstance which tended to restore my self$#ossessionK and this was the cessation of the wind, which could not reach

us in our #resent situationCfor, as you saw yourself, the belt of surf isconsiderably lower than the general bed of the ocean, and this latter nowtowered aboe us, a high, black, mountainous ridge! ?f you hae neerbeen at sea in a heay gale, you can form no idea of the confusion ofmind occasioned by the wind and s#ray together! They blind, deafen, andstrangle you, and take away all #ower of action or reflection! But wewere now, in a great measure, rid of these annoyancesCjust as death$condemned felons in #rison are allowed #etty indulgences, forbidden themwhile their doom is yet uncertain!M>ow often we made the circuit of the belt it is im#ossible to say! Wecareered round and round for #erha#s an hour, flying rather thanfloating, getting gradually more and more into the middle of the surge,and then nearer and nearer to its horrible inner edge! All this time ?

had neer let go of the ring$bolt! .y brother was at the stern, holdingon to a small em#ty water$cask which had been securely lashed under thecoo# of the counter, and was the only thing on deck that had not beenswe#t oerboard when the gale first took us! As we a##roached the brinkof the #it he let go his hold u#on this, and made for the ring, fromwhich, in the agony of his terror, he endeaored to force my hands, as itwas not large enough to afford us both a secure gras#! ? neer feltdee#er grief than when ? saw him attem#t this actCalthough ? knew he wasa madman when he did itCa raing maniac through sheer fright! ? did notcare, howeer, to contest the #oint with him! ? knew it could make nodifference whether either of us held on at allK so ? let him hae thebolt, and went astern to the cask! This there was no great difficulty indoingK for the smack flew round steadily enough, and u#on an een keelC

only swaying to and fro, with the immense swee#s and swelters of thewhirl! ;carcely had ? secured myself in my new #osition, when we gae awild lurch to starboard, and rushed headlong into the abyss! ? muttered ahurried #rayer to God, and thought all was oer!MAs ? felt the sickening swee# of the descent, ? had instinctielytightened my hold u#on the barrel, and closed my eyes! =or some seconds ?dared not o#en themCwhile ? eH#ected instant destruction, and wonderedthat ? was not already in my death$struggles with the water! But momentafter moment ela#sed! ? still lied! The sense of falling had ceasedK andthe motion of the essel seemed much as it had been before, while in thebelt of foam, with the eHce#tion that she now lay more along! ? tookcourage, and looked once again u#on the scene!M8eer shall ? forget the sensations of awe, horror, and admiration with

which ? gaed about me! The boat a##eared to be hanging, as if by magic,midway down, u#on the interior surface of a funnel ast in circumference,#rodigious in de#th, and whose #erfectly smooth sides might hae beenmistaken for ebony, but for the bewildering ra#idity with which they s#unaround, and for the gleaming and ghastly radiance they shot forth, as therays of the full moon, from that circular rift amid the clouds which ?hae already described, streamed in a flood of golden glory along theblack walls, and far away down into the inmost recesses of the abyss!


31/161

MAt first ? was too much confused to obsere anything accurately! Thegeneral burst of terrific grandeur was all that ? beheld! When ?recoered myself a little, howeer, my gae fell instinctiely downward!?n this direction ? was able to obtain an unobstructed iew, from themanner in which the smack hung on the inclined surface of the #ool! ;hewas Luite u#on an een keelCthat is to say, her deck lay in a #lane

#arallel with that of the waterCbut this latter slo#ed at an angle ofmore than forty$fie degrees, so that we seemed to be lying u#on ourbeam$ends! ? could not hel# obsering, neertheless, that ? had scarcelymore difficulty in maintaining my hold and footing in this situation,than if we had been u#on a dead leelK and this, ? su##ose, was owing tothe s#eed at which we reoled!MThe rays of the moon seemed to search the ery bottom of the #rofoundgulfK but still ? could make out nothing distinctly, on account of athick mist in which eerything there was enelo#ed, and oer which therehung a magnificent rainbow, like that narrow and tottering bridge which.ussulmen say is the only #athway between Time and Eternity! This mist,or s#ray, was no doubt occasioned by the clashing of the great walls ofthe funnel, as they all met together at the bottomCbut the yell that went

u# to the >eaens from out of that mist, ? dare not attem#t to describe!M


32/161

com#letely absorbedCthat the others had entered the whirl at so late a#eriod of the tide, or, for some reason, had descended so slowly afterentering, that they did not reach the bottom before the turn of the floodcame, or of the ebb, as the case might be! ? conceied it #ossible, ineither instance, that they might thus be whirled u# again to the leel ofthe ocean, without undergoing the fate of those which had been drawn in

more early, or absorbed more ra#idly! ? made, also, three im#ortantobserations! The first was, that, as a general rule, the larger thebodies were, the more ra#id their descentCthe second, that, between twomasses of eLual eHtent, the one s#herical, and the other of any othersha#e, the su#eriority in s#eed of descent was with the s#hereCthe third,that, between two masses of eLual sie, the one cylindrical, and theother of any other sha#e, the cylinder was absorbed the more slowly!;ince my esca#e, ? hae had seeral conersations on this subject with anold school$master of the districtK and it was from him that ? learned theuse of the words 'cylinder' and 's#here!' >e eH#lained to meCalthough ?hae forgotten the eH#lanationChow what ? obsered was, in fact, thenatural conseLuence of the forms of the floating fragmentsCand showed mehow it ha##ened that a cylinder, swimming in a orteH, offered more

resistance to its suction, and was drawn in with greater difficulty thanan eLually bulky body, of any form whateer! ):/+MThere was one startling circumstance which went a great way in enforcingthese obserations, and rendering me anHious to turn them to account, andthis was that, at eery reolution, we #assed something like a barrel, orelse the yard or the mast of a essel, while many of these things, whichhad been on our leel when ? first o#ened my eyes u#on the wonders of thewhirl#ool, were now high u# aboe us, and seemed to hae moed but littlefrom their original station!M? no longer hesitated what to do! ? resoled to lash myself securely tothe water cask u#on which ? now held, to cut it loose from the counter,and to throw myself with it into the water! ? attracted my brother'sattention by signs, #ointed to the floating barrels that came near us,

and did eerything in my #ower to make him understand what ? was about todo! ? thought at length that he com#rehended my designCbut, whether thiswas the case or not, he shook his head des#airingly, and refused to moefrom his station by the ring$bolt! ?t was im#ossible to reach himK theemergency admitted of no delayK and so, with a bitter struggle, ?resigned him to his fate, fastened myself to the cask by means of thelashings which secured it to the counter, and #reci#itated myself with itinto the sea, without another moment's hesitation!MThe result was #recisely what ? had ho#ed it might be! As it is myselfwho now tell you this taleCas you see that ? did esca#eCand as you arealready in #ossession of the mode in which this esca#e was effected, andmust therefore antici#ate all that ? hae farther to sayC? will bring mystory Luickly to conclusion! ?t might hae been an hour, or thereabout,

after my Luitting the smack, when, haing descended to a ast distancebeneath me, it made three or four wild gyrations in ra#id succession,and, bearing my loed brother with it, #lunged headlong, at once andforeer, into the chaos of foam below! The barrel to which ? was attachedsunk ery little farther than half the distance between the bottom of thegulf and the s#ot at which ? lea#ed oerboard, before a great change took#lace in the character of the whirl#ool! The slo#e of the sides of theast funnel became momently less and less stee#! The gyrations of thewhirl grew, gradually, less and less iolent! By degrees, the froth and


33/161

the rainbow disa##eared, and the bottom of the gulf seemed slowly tou#rise! The sky was clear, the winds had gone down, and the full moon wassetting radiantly in the west, when ? found myself on the surface of theocean, in full iew of the shores of %ofoden, and aboe the s#ot wherethe #ool of the .oskoe$strXm had been! ?t was the hour of the slackCbutthe sea still heaed in mountainous waes from the effects of the

hurricane! ? was borne iolently into the channel of the ;trXm, and in afew minutes was hurried down the coast into the 'grounds' of thefishermen! A boat #icked me u#CeHhausted from fatigueCand )now that thedanger was remoed+ s#eechless from the memory of its horror! Those whodrew me on board were my old mates and daily com#anionsCbut they knew meno more than they would hae known

Documents

The Works of Edgar Allan Poe Volume 2