I saw that the decrees of what
to me was Fate, were still issuing from those lips. I saw them
writhe with a deadly locution. I saw them fashion the syllables of
my name; and I shuddered because no sound succeeded. I saw, too, for a
few moments of delirious horror, the soft and nearly imperceptible
waving of the sable draperies which enwrapped the walls of the
apartment. And then my vision fell upon the seven tall candles upon
the table. At first they wore the aspect of charity, and seemed
white and slender angels who would save me; but then, all at once,
there came a most deadly nausea over my spirit, and I felt every fibre
in my frame thrill as if I had touched the wire of a galvanic battery,
while the angel forms became meaningless spectres, with heads of
flame, and I saw that from them there would be no help. And then there
stole into my fancy, like a rich musical note, the thought of what
sweet rest there must be in the grave. The thought came gently and
stealthily, and it seemed long before it attained full appreciation;
but just as my spirit came at length properly to feel and entertain
it, the figures of the judges vanished, as if magically, from before
me; the tall candles sank into nothingness; their flames went out
utterly; the blackness of darkness supervened; all sensations appeared
swallowed up in a mad rushing descent as of the soul into Hades.
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