ugh long inanition. Even amid the agonies of that
period, the human nature craved food. With painful effort I outstretched
my left arm as far as my bonds permitted, and took possession of the
small remnant which had been spared me by the rats. As I put a portion
of it within my lips, there rushed to my mind a half formed thought of
joy--of hope. Yet what business had I with hope? It was, as I say, a
half formed thought--man has many such which are never completed. I felt
that it was of joy--of hope; but felt also that it had perished in its
formation. In vain I struggled to perfect--to regain it. Long suffering
had nearly annihilated all my ordinary powers of mind. I was an
imbecile--an idiot.

The vibration of the pendulum was at right angles to my length. I saw
that the crescent was designed to cross the region of the heart.
It would fray the serge of my robe--it would return and repeat its
operations--again--and again. Notwithstanding terrifically wide sweep
(some thirty feet or more) and the its hissing vigor of its descent,
sufficient to sunder these very walls of iron, still the fraying of my
robe would be all that, for several minutes, it would accomplish. And
at this thought I paused. I dared not go farther than this reflection. I
dwelt upon it with a pertinacity of attention--as if, in so dwelling,
I could arrest here the descent of the steel. I forced myself to
ponder upon the sound of the crescent as it should pass across the
garment--upon the peculiar thrilling sensation which the friction of
cloth produces on the nerves. I pondered upon all this frivolity until
my teeth were on edge.

Down--steadily down it crept. I took a frenzied pleasure in contrasting
its downward with its lateral velocity. To the right--to the left--far
and wide--with the shriek of a damned spirit; to my heart with the
stealthy pace of the tiger! I alternately laughed and howled as the one
or the other idea grew predominant.

Down--certainly, relentlessly down! It vibrated within three inches of
my bosom! I struggled violently, furiously, to free my left arm. This
was free only from the elbow to the hand. I could reach the latter, from
the platter beside me, to my mouth, with great effort, but no farther.
Could I have broken the fastenings above the elbow, I would have seized
and attempted to arrest the pendulum. I might as well have attempted to
arrest an avalanche!

Down--still unceasingly--still inevitably down! I gasped and str