For the most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen, I
neither expect nor solicit belief. Mad indeed would I be to expect it in a case
where my very senses reject their own evidence. Yet mad am I not—and very
surely do I not dream. But tomorrow I die, and today I would unburthen my
soul. My immediate purpose is to place before the world plainly, succinctly,
and without comment, a series of mere household events. In their
consequences these events have terrified—have tortured—have destroyed me.
Yet I will not attempt to expound them. To me they presented little but horror
—to many they will seem less terrible than baroques. Hereafter, perhaps, some
intellect may be found which will reduce my phantasm to the common place—
some intellect more calm, more logical, and far less excitable than my own,
which will perceive, in the circumstances I detail with awe, nothing more than
an ordinary succession of very natural causes and effects.
From my infancy I was noted for the docility and humanity of my disposition. My tenderness of heart was even so conspicuous as to make me
the jest of my companions. I was especially fond of animals, and was indulged
by my parents with a great variety of pets. With these I spent most of my time,
and never was so happy as when feeding and caressing them. This pe[Pg
150]culiarity of character grew with my growth, and in my manhood I derived
from it one of my principal sources of pleasure. To those who have cherished
an affection for a faithful and sagacious dog, I need hardly be at the trouble of
explaining the nature or the intensity of the gratification thus derivable. There
is something in the unselfish and self-sacrificing love of a brute which goes
directly to the heart of him who has had frequent occasion to test the paltry
friendship and gossamer fidelity of mere Man.
I married early, and was happy to find in my wife a disposition not
uncongenial with my own. Observing my partiality for domestic pets, she lost
no opportunity of procuring those of the most agreeable kind. We had birds,
gold-fish, a fine dog, rabbits, a small monkey, and a cat.
This latter was a remarkably large and beautiful animal, entirely black, and
sagacious to an astonishing degree. In speaking of his intelligence, my wife,
who at heart was not a little tinctured with superstition, made frequent allusion
to the ancient popular notion which regarded all black cats as witches in
disguise. Not that she was ever serious upon this point, and I mention the
matter at all for no better reason than that it happens just now to be
remembered.
Pluto—this was the cat's name—was my favourite pet and playmate. I
alone fed him, and he attended me wherever I went about the house. It was
even with difficulty that I could prevent him from following me through the
streets.
Our friendship lasted in this manner for several years,[Pg 151] during
which my general temperament and character—through the instrumentality of
the Fiend Intemperance—had (I blush to confess it) experienced a radical
alteration for the worse. I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more
regardless of the feelings of others. I suffered myself to use intemperate
language to my wife. At length, I even offered her personal violence. My pets
of course were made to feel the change in my disposition. I not only neglected
but ill-used them. For Pluto, however, I still retained sufficient regard to
restrain me from maltreating him, as I made no scruple of maltreating the
rabbits, the monkey, or even the dog, when by accident, or through affection,
they came in my way. But my disease grew upon me—for what disease is like
Alcohol!—and at length even Pluto, who was now becoming old, and
consequently somewhat peevish—even Pluto began to experience the effects
of my ill-temper.
One night, returning home much intoxicated from one of my haunts about
town, I fancied that the cat avoided my presence. I seized him, when, in his
fright at my violence, he inflicted a slight wound upon my hand with his teeth.
The fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer. My
original soul seemed at once to take its flight from my body, and a more than
fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured, thrilled every fiber of my frame. I took
from my waistcoat-pocket a penknife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the
throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket! I blush, I burn, I
shudder, while I pen the damnable atrocity.[Pg 152]
When reason returned with the morning—when I had slept off the fumes
of the night's debauch—I experienced a sentiment half of horror, half of
remorse, for the crime of which I had been guilty, but it was at best a feeble
and equivocal feeling, and the soul remained untouched. I again plunged into
excess, and soon drowned in wine all memory of the deed.
In the meantime the cat slowly recovered. The socket of the lost eye
presented, it is true, a frightful appearance, but he no longer appeared to suffer
any pain. He went about the house as usual, but, as might be expected, fled in
extreme terror at my approach. I had so much of my old heart left as to be at
first grieved by this evident dislike on the part of a creature which had once so
loved me. But this feeling soon gave place to irritation. And then came, as if to
my final and irrevocable overthrow, the spirit of Perverseness. Of this spirit
philosophy takes no account. Yet I am not more sure that my soul lives than I
am that perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart—one
of the indivisible primary faculties or sentiments which gave direction to the
character of Man. Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a
vile or a silly action for no other reason than because he knows he should not?
Have we not a perpetual inclination, in the teeth of our best judgment, to violate that which is Law, merely because we understand it to be such? This
spirit of perverseness, I say, came 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[Pg 153] 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 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 were
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
forward 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 recently spread. About this[Pg 154] 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 hung in a garden adjacent to the house.
Upon the alarm of fire this garden had been immediately filled by the crowd,
by some one of whom the animal must have been cut from the tree and thrown
through an open window into my chamber. This had probably been done with
the view of arousing me from sleep. The falling of other walls had compressed
the victim of my cruelty into the substance of the freshly-spread plaster; thelime of which, with the flames and the ammonia from the carcass, had then
accomplished the portraiture as I saw it.
Although I thus readily accounted to my reason, if not altogether to my
conscience, for the startling fact just detailed, it did not the less fail to make a
deep impression upon my fancy. For months I could not rid myself of the
phantasm of the cat, and during this period there came back into my spirit a
half-sentiment that seemed, but was not, remorse. I went so far as to regret the
loss of the animal, and to look about me among the vile haunts which I now
habitually frequented for[Pg 155] another pet of the same species, and of
somewhat similar appearance, with which to supply its place.
One night, as I sat half-stupefied in a den of more than infamy, my
attention was suddenly drawn to some black object, reposing upon the head of
one of the immense hogsheads of gin or of rum, which constituted the chief
furniture of the apartment. I had been looking steadily at the top of this
hogshead for some minutes, and what now caused me surprise was the fact
that I had not sooner perceived the object thereupon. I approached it, and
touched it with my hand. It was a black cat—a very large one—fully as large
as Pluto, and closely resembling him in every respect but one. Pluto had not a
white hair upon any portion of his body; but this cat had a large, although
indefinite splotch of white, covering nearly the whole region of the breast.
Upon my touching him he immediately arose, purred loudly, rubbed
against my hand, and appeared delighted with my notice. This, then, was the
very creature of which I was in search. I at once offered to purchase it of the
landlord; but this person made no claim to it—knew nothing of it—had never
seen it before.
I continued my caresses, and when I prepared to go home the animal
evinced a disposition to accompany me. I permitted it to do so, occasionally
stooping and patting it as I proceeded. When it reached the house it
domesticated itself at once, and became immediately a great favourite with my
wife.
For my own part, I soon found a dislike to it arising within me. This was
just the reverse of what I had anticipated, but—I know not how or why it was
—its[Pg 156] evident fondness for myself rather disgusted and annoyed. By
slow degrees these feelings of disgust and annoyance rose into the bitterness
of hatred. I avoided the creature; a certain sense of shame, and the
remembrance of my former deed of cruelty, preventing me from physically
abusing it. I did not, for some weeks, strike or otherwise violently ill-use it,
but gradually—very gradually—I came to look upon it with unutterable
loathing, and to flee silently from its odious presence as from the breath of a
pestilence.
What added, no doubt, to my hatred of the beast was the discovery, on the
morning after I brought it home, that, like Pluto, it also had been deprived of
one of its eyes. This circumstance, however, only endeared it to my wife, who,
as I have already said, possessed in a high degree that humanity of feeling
which had once been my distinguishing trait, and the source of my simplest
and purest pleasures.
With my aversion to this cat, however, its partiality for myself seemed to
increase. It followed my footsteps with a pertinacity which it would be
difficult to make the reader comprehend. Whenever I sat, it would crouch
beneath my chair or spring upon my knees, covering me with its loathsome
caresses. If I arose to walk it would get between my feet and thus nearly throw
me down, or, fastening its long and sharp claws in my dress, clamber in this
manner to my breast. At such times, although I longed to destroy it with a
blow, I was yet withheld from so doing, partly by a memory of my former
crime, but chiefly—let me confess it at once—by absolute dread of the beast.
[Pg 157]
This dread was not exactly a dread of physical evil—and yet I should be at
a loss how otherwise to define it. I am almost ashamed to own—yes, even in
this felon's cell, I am almost ashamed to own—that the terror and horror with
which the animal inspired me had been heightened by one of the merest
chimeras it would be possible to conceive. My wife had called my attention
more than once to the character of the mark of white hair, of which I have
spoken, and which constituted the sole visible difference between the strange
beast and the one I had destroyed. The reader will remember that this mark,
although large, had been originally very indefinite, but by slow degrees—
degrees nearly imperceptible, and which for a long time my reason struggled
to reject as fanciful—it had at length assumed a rigorous distinctness of
outline. It was now the representation of an object that I shudder to name—
and for this above all I loathed and dreaded, and would have rid myself of the
monster had I dared—it was now, I say, the image of a hideous—of a ghastly
thing—of the Gallows!—O, mournful and terrible engine of horror and of
crime—of agony and of death!
And now was I indeed wretched beyond the wretchedness of mere
humanity. And a brute beast—whose fellow I had contemptuously destroyed
—a brute beast to work out for me—for me a man, fashioned in the image of
the High God—so much of insufferable woe! Alas! neither by day nor by
night knew I the blessing of rest any more! During the former the creature left
me no moment alone; and in the latter I started hourly from dreams of
unutterable fear, to find the hot breath[Pg 158] of the thing upon my face, and
its vast weight—an incarnate nightmare that I had no power to shake off—
incumbent eternally upon my heart!
Beneath the pressure of torments such as these, the feeble remnant of the
good within me succumbed. Evil thoughts became my sole intimates—the
darkest and most evil of thoughts. The moodiness of my usual temper
increased to hatred of all things and of all mankind; while from the sudden
frequent and ungovernable outbursts of a fury to which I now blindly
abandoned myself, my uncomplaining wife, alas! was the most usual and the
most patient of sufferers.
One day she accompanied me upon some household errand into the cellar
of the old building which our poverty compelled us to inhabit. The cat
followed me down the steep stairs, and nearly throwing me headlong,
exasperated me to madness. Uplifting an ax, and forgetting in my wrath the
childish dread which had hitherto stayed my hand, I aimed a blow at the
animal, which of course would have proved instantly fatal had it descended as
I wished. But this blow was arrested by the hand of my wife. Goaded by the
interference into a rage more than demoniacal, I withdrew my arm from her
grasp and buried the ax in her brain. She fell dead upon the spot without a
groan.
This hideous murder accomplished, I set myself forthwith and with entire
deliberation to the task of concealing the body. I knew that I could not remove
it from the house, either by day or by night, without the risk of being observed
by the neighbours. Many projects entered my mind. At one period I thought of
cut[Pg 159]ting the corpse into minute fragments and destroying them by fire.
At another I resolved to dig a grave for it in the floor of the cellar. Again, I
deliberated about casting it in the well in the yard—about packing it in a box,
as if merchandise, with the usual arrangements, and so getting a porter to take
it from the house. Finally I hit upon what I considered a far better expedient
than either of these. I determined to wall it up in the cellar—as the monks of
the middle ages are recorded to have walled up their victims.
For a purpose such as this the cellar was well adapted. Its walls were
loosely constructed and had lately been plastered throughout with a rough
plaster, which the dampness of the atmosphere had prevented from hardening.
Moreover, in one of the walls was a projection caused by a false chimney or
fireplace, that had been filled up and made to resemble the rest of the cellar. I
made no doubt that I could readily displace the bricks at this point, insert the
corpse, and wall the whole up as before, so that no eye could detect anything
suspicious.
And in this calculation I was not deceived. By means of a crowbar I easily
dislodged the bricks, and having carefully deposited the body against the inner
wall, I propped it in that position, while with little trouble I relaid the whole
structure as it originally stood. Having procured mortar, sand, and hair with
every possible precaution, I prepared a plaster which could not be distinguished from the old, and with this I very carefully went over the new
brick-work. When I had finished I felt satisfied that all was all right. The wall
did not present the slightest appearance of having been dis[Pg 160]turbed. The
rubbish on the floor was picked up with the minutest care. I looked around
triumphantly, and said to myself—"Here at last, then, my labour has not been
in vain."
My next step was to look for the beast which had been the cause of so
much wretchedness, for I had at length firmly resolved to put it to death. Had I
been able to meet with it at the moment there could have been no doubt of its
fate, but it appeared that the crafty animal had been alarmed at the violence of
my previous anger, and forbore to present itself in my present mood. It is
impossible to describe or to imagine the deep, the blissful sense of relief which
the absence of the detested creature occasioned in my bosom. It did not make
its appearance during the night—and thus for one night at least since its
introduction into the house I soundly and tranquilly slept, aye, slept even with
the burden of murder upon my soul!
The second and the third day passed, and still my tormentor came not.
Once again I breathed as a freeman. The monster, in terror, had fled the
premises forever! I should behold it no more! My happiness was supreme! The
guilt of my dark deed disturbed me but little. Some few enquiries had been
made, but these had been readily answered. Even a search had been instituted
—but of course nothing was to be discovered. I looked upon my future felicity
as secured.
Upon the fourth day of the assassination, a party of the police came very
unexpectedly into the house, and proceeded again to make rigorous
investigation of the premises. Secure, however, in the inscrutability of my[Pg
161] place of concealment, I felt no embarrassment whatever. The officers
bade me accompany them in their search. They left no nook or corner
unexplored. At length, for the third or fourth time they descended into the
cellar. I quivered not in a muscle. My heart beat calmly as that of one who
slumbers in innocence. I walked the cellar from end to end. I folded my arms
upon my bosom, and roamed easily to and fro. The police were thoroughly
satisfied, and prepared to depart. The glee at my heart was too strong to be
restrained. I burned to say if but one word by way of triumph, and to render
doubly sure their assurance of my guiltlessness.
"Gentlemen," I said at last, as the party ascended the steps, "I delight to
have allayed your suspicions. I wish you all health, and a little more courtesy.
By the by, gentlemen, this—this is a very well-constructed house," [In the
rabid desire to say something easily, I scarcely knew what I uttered at all,] "I
may say an excellently well-constructed house. These walls—are you going,
gentlemen?—these walls are solidly put together;" and here, through the merefrenzy of bravado, I rapped heavily with a cane which I held in my hand upon
that very portion of the brick-work behind which stood the corpse of the wife
of my bosom.
But may God shield and deliver me from the fangs of the arch-fiend! No
sooner had the reverberation of my blows sunk into silence than I was
answered by a voice from within the tomb!—by a cry, at first muffled and
broken, like the sobbing of a child, and then quickly swelling into one long,
loud, and continuous scream, utterly anomalous and inhuman—a howl—a
wailing[Pg 162] shriek, half of horror and half of triumph, such as might have
arisen only out of hell, conjointly from the throats of the damned in their
agony and of the demons that exult in the damnation.
Of my own thoughts it is folly to speak. Swooning, I staggered to the
opposite wall. For one instant the party upon the stairs remained motionless,
through extremity of terror and of awe. In the next a dozen stout arms were
toiling at the wall. It fell bodily. The corpse, already greatly decayed and
clotted with gore, stood erect before the eyes of the spectators. Upon its head,
with red extended mouth and solitary eye of fire, sat the hideous beast whose
craft had seduced me into murder, and whose informing voice had consigned
me to the hangman. I had walled the monster up within the tomb.