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the fifth had disappeared in the same manner as
the preceding two, without the least distinguishable
alteration of external appearances. The remaining
four looked as the seven had originally
looked; that is, occupying, at irregular distances,
the top of the wall on that side of the dungeon.
The tall folding door, too, still seemed to stand beneath
in the centre of these four, as it had at first
stood in the centre of the seven. But he could no
longer doubt, what, on the preceding day, he
fancied might be the effect of visual deception.
The dungeon was smaller. The roof had lowered
—and the opposite ends had contracted the intermediate
distance by a space equal, he thought, to
that over which three windows had extended. He
was bewildered in vain imaginations to account for
these things. Some frightful purpose—some devilish
torture of mind or body—some unheard-of
device for producing exquisite misery, lurked, he
was sure, in what had taken place.
Oppressed with this belief, and distracted more
by the dreadful uncertainty of whatever fate impended,
than he could be dismayed, he thought, by
the knowledge of the worst, he sat ruminating, hour
after hour, yielding his fears in succession to every
haggard fancy. At last a horrible suspicion flashed
across his mind, and he started up with a frantic
air. “Yes! ” he exclaimed, looking wildly round
his dungeon, and shuddering as he spoke—“Yes:
it must be so! I see it!—I feel the maddening
truth like scorching flames upon my brain! Eternal
God ?—support me! It must be so!—Yes, yes,
that is to be my fate! Yon roof will descend! —
these walls will hem me round—and slowly, slowly,
crush me in their iron arms! Lord God! look
down upon me, and in mercy strike me with instant