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The Mask of the Red Death
The
"
Red
Death
"
had
long
devastated
the
country
.
No
pestilence
had
ever
been
so
fatal
,
or
so
hideous
.
Blood
was
its
Avatar
and
its
seal
--
the
redness
and
the
horror
of
blood
.
There
were
sharp
pains
,
and
sudden
dizziness
,
and
then
profuse
bleeding
at
the
pores
,
with
dissolution
.
The
scarlet
stains
upon
the
body
and
especially
upon
the
face
of
the
victim
,
were
the
pest
ban
which
shut
him
out
from
the
aid
and
from
the
sympathy
of
his
fellow-men
.
And
the
whole
seizure
,
progress
and
termination
of
the
disease
,
were
the
incidents
of
half
an
hour
.
But
the
Prince
Prospero
was
happy
and
dauntless
and
sagacious
.
When
his
dominions
were
half
depopulated
,
he
summoned
to
his
presence
a
thousand
hale
and
light-hearted
friends
from
among
the
knights
and
dames
of
his
court
,
and
with
these
retired
to
the
deep
seclusion
of
one
of
his
castellated
abbeys
.
This
was
an
extensive
and
magnificent
structure
,
the
creation
of
the
prince
's
own
eccentric
yet
august
taste
.
A
strong
and
lofty
wall
girdled
it
in
.
This
wall
had
gates
of
iron
.
The
courtiers
,
having
entered
,
brought
furnaces
and
massy
hammers
and
welded
the
bolts
.
They
resolved
to
leave
means
neither
of
ingress
or
egress
to
the
sudden
impulses
of
despair
or
of
frenzy
from
within
.
The
abbey
was
amply
provisioned
.
With
such
precautions
the
courtiers
might
bid
defiance
to
contagion
.
The
external
world
could
take
care
of
itself
.
In
the
meantime
it
was
folly
to
grieve
,
or
to
think
.
The
prince
had
provided
all
the
appliances
of
pleasure
.
There
were
buffoons
,
there
were
improvisatori
,
there
were
ballet-dancers
,
there
were
musicians
,
there
was
Beauty
,
there
was
wine
.
All
these
and
security
were
within
.
Without
was
the
"
Red
Death
.
"
It
was
toward
the
close
of
the
fifth
or
sixth
month
of
his
seclusion
,
and
while
the
pestilence
raged
most
furiously
abroad
,
that
the
Prince
Prospero
entertained
his
thousand
friends
at
a
masked
ball
of
the
most
unusual
magnificence
.
It
was
a
voluptuous
scene
,
that
masquerade
.
But
first
let
me
tell
of
the
rooms
in
which
it
was
held
.
There
were
seven
--
an
imperial
suite
.
In
many
palaces
,
however
,
such
suites
form
a
long
and
straight
vista
,
while
the
folding
doors
slide
back
nearly
to
the
walls
on
either
hand
,
so
that
the
view
of
the
whole
extent
is
scarcely
impeded
.
Here
the
case
was
very
different
;
as
might
have
been
expected
from
the
duke
's
love
of
the
bizarre
.
The
apartments
were
so
irregularly
disposed
that
the
vision
embraced
but
little
more
than
one
at
a
time
.
There
was
a
sharp
turn
at
every
twenty
or
thirty
yards
,
and
at
each
turn
a
novel
effect
.
To
the
right
and
left
,
in
the
middle
of
each
wall
,
a
tall
and
narrow
Gothic
window
looked
out
upon
a
closed
corridor
which
pursued
the
windings
of
the
suite
.
These
windows
were
of
stained
glass
whose
color
varied
in
accordance
with
the
prevailing
hue
of
the
decorations
of
the
chamber
into
which
it
opened
.
That
at
the
eastern
extremity
was
hung
,
for
example
,
in
blue
--
and
vividly
blue
were
its
windows
.
The
second
chamber
was
purple
in
its
ornaments
and
tapestries
,
and
here
the
panes
were
purple
.
The
third
was
green
throughout
,
and
so
were
the
casements
.
The
fourth
was
furnished
and
lighted
with
orange
--
the
fifth
with
white
--
the
sixth
with
violet
.
The
seventh
apartment
was
closely
shrouded
in
black
velvet
tapestries
that
hung
all
over
the
ceiling
and
down
the
walls
,
falling
in
heavy
folds
upon
a
carpet
of
the
same
material
and
hue
.
But
in
this
chamber
only
,
the
color
of
the
windows
failed
to
correspond
with
the
decorations
.
The
panes
here
were
scarlet
--
a
deep
blood
color
.
Now
in
no
one
of
the
seven
apartments
was
there
any
lamp
or
candelabrum
,
amid
the
profusion
of
golden
ornaments
that
lay
scattered
to
and
fro
or
depended
from
the
roof
.
There
was
no
light
of
any
kind
emanating
from
lamp
or
candle
within
the
suite
of
chambers
.
But
in
the
corridors
that
followed
the
suite
,
there
stood
,
opposite
to
each
window
,
a
heavy
tripod
,
bearing
a
brazier
of
fire
that
protected
its
rays
through
the
tinted
glass
and
so
glaringly
illumined
the
room
.
And
thus
were
produced
a
multitude
of
gaudy
and
fantastic
appearances
.
But
in
the
western
or
black
chamber
the
effect
of
the
fire-light
that
streamed
upon
the
dark
hangings
through
the
blood-tinted
panes
,
was
ghastly
in
the
extreme
,
and
produced
so
wild
a
look
upon
the
countenances
of
those
who
entered
,
that
there
were
few
of
the
company
bold
enough
to
set
foot
within
its
precincts
at
all
.
It
was
in
this
apartment
,
also
,
that
there
stood
against
the
western
wall
,
a
gigantic
clock
of
ebony
.
Its
pendulum
swung
to
and
fro
with
a
dull
,
heavy
,
monotonous
clang
;
and
when
the
minute-hand
made
the
circuit
of
the
face
,
and
the
hour
was
to
be
stricken
,
there
came
from
the
brazen
lungs
of
the
clock
a
sound
which
was
clear
and
loud
and
deep
and
exceedingly
musical
,
but
of
so
peculiar
a
note
and
emphasis
that
,
at
each
lapse
of
an
hour
,
the
musicians
of
the
orchestra
were
constrained
to
pause
,
momentarily
,
in
their
performance
,
to
hearken
to
the
sound
;
and
thus
the
waltzers
perforce
ceased
their
evolutions
;
and
there
was
a
brief
disconcert
of
the
whole
gay
company
;
and
,
while
the
chimes
of
the
clock
yet
rang
,
it
was
observed
that
the
giddiest
grew
pale
,
and
the
more
aged
and
sedate
passed
their
hands
over
their
brows
as
if
in
confused
reverie
or
meditation
.
But
when
the
echoes
had
fully
ceased
,
a
light
laughter
at
once
pervaded
the
assembly
;
the
musicians
looked
at
each
other
and
smiled
as
if
at
their
own
nervousness
and
folly
,
and
made
whispering
vows
,
each
to
the
other
,
that
the
next
chiming
of
the
clock
should
produce
in
them
no
similar
emotion
;
and
then
,
after
the
lapse
of
sixty
minutes
,
(
which
embrace
three
thousand
and
six
hundred
seconds
of
the
Time
that
flies
,
)
there
came
yet
another
chiming
of
the
clock
,
and
then
were
the
same
disconcert
and
tremulousness
and
meditation
as
before
.
But
,
in
spite
of
these
things
,
it
was
a
gay
and
magnificent
revel
.
The
tastes
of
the
duke
were
peculiar
.
He
had
a
fine
eye
for
colors
and
effects
.
He
disregarded
the
decora
of
mere
fashion
.
His
plans
were
bold
and
fiery
,
and
his
conceptions
glowed
with
barbaric
lustre
.
There
are
some
who
would
have
thought
him
mad
.
His
followers
felt
that
he
was
not
.
It
was
necessary
to
hear
and
see
and
touch
him
to
be
sure
that
he
was
not
.
