e to my final overthrow. It was this
unfathomable longing of the soul _to vex itself_--to offer violence to
its own nature--to do wrong for the wrong's sake only--that urged me to
continue and finally to consummate the injury I had inflicted upon the
unoffending brute. One morning, in cool blood, I slipped a noose about
its neck and hung it to the limb of a tree;--hung it with the
tears streaming from my eyes, and with the bitterest remorse at my
heart;--hung it _because_ I knew that it had loved me, and _because_
I felt it had given me no reason of offence;--hung it _because_ I knew
that in so doing I was committing a sin--a deadly sin that would
so jeopardize my immortal soul as to place it--if such a thing wore
possible--even beyond the reach of the infinite mercy of the Most
Merciful and Most Terrible God.

On the night of the day on which this cruel deed was done, I was aroused
from sleep by the cry of fire. The curtains of my bed were in flames.
The whole house was blazing. It was with great difficulty that my wife,
a servant, and myself, made our escape from the conflagration. The
destruction was complete. My entire worldly wealth was swallowed up, and
I resigned myself thenceforward to despair.

I am above the weakness of seeking to establish a sequence of cause
and effect, between the disaster and the atrocity. But I am detailing a
chain of facts--and wish not to leave even a possible link imperfect.
On the day succeeding the fire, I visited the ruins. The walls, with
one exception, had fallen in. This exception was found in a compartment
wall, not very thick, which stood about the middle of the house, and
against which had rested the head of my bed. The plastering had here,
in great measure, resisted the action of the fire--a fact which I
attributed to its having been recently spread. About this wall a
dense crowd were collected, and many persons seemed to be examining a
particular portion of it with very minute and eager attention. The
words "strange!" "singular!" and other similar expressions, excited my
curiosity. I approached and saw, as if graven in _bas relief_ upon the
white surface, the figure of a gigantic _cat_. The impression was given
with an accuracy truly marvellous. There was a rope about the animal's
neck.

When I first beheld this apparition--for I could scarcely regard it as
less--my wonder and my terror were extreme. But at length reflection
came to my aid. The cat, I remembered, had been