Completely unnerved,
I leaped to my feet; but the measured rocking movement of Usher was
undisturbed. I rushed to the chair in which he sat. His eyes were bent
fixedly before him, and throughout his whole countenance there reigned
a stony rigidity. But, as I placed my hand upon his shoulder, there
came a strong shudder over his whole person; a sickly smile quivered
about his lips; and I saw that he spoke in a low, hurried, and
gibbering murmur, as if unconscious of my presence. Bending closely
over him, I at length drank in the hideous import of his words.
"Not hear it? --yes, I hear it, and have heard it. Long --long
--long --many minutes, many hours, many days, have I heard it --yet
I dared not --oh, pity me, miserable wretch that I am! --I dared not
--I dared not speak! We have put her living in the tomb! Said I not
that my senses were acute? I now tell you that I heard her first
feeble movements in the hollow coffin. I heard them --many, many
days ago --yet I dared not --I dared not speak! And now --to-night
--Ethelred --ha! ha! --the breaking of the hermit's door, and the
death-cry of the dragon, and the clangour of the shield! --say,
rather, the rending of her coffin, and the grating of the iron
hinges of her prison, and her struggles within the coppered archway of
the vault! Oh whither shall I fly? Will she not be here anon? Is she
not hurrying to upbraid me for my haste? Have I not heard her footstep
on the stair? Do I not distinguish that heavy and horrible beating
of her heart? MADMAN!" here he sprang furiously to his feet, and
shrieked out his syllables, as if in the effort he were giving up
his soul --"MADMAN! I TELL YOU THAT SHE NOW STANDS WITHOUT THE DOOR!"
As if in the superhuman energy of his utterance there had been found
the potency of a spell --the huge antique panels to which the
speaker pointed, threw slowly back, upon the instant, ponderous and
ebony jaws.
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