reams!

FROM "THE FALL OP THE HOUSE OF USHER."

At the termination of this sentence I started, and for a moment paused;
for it appeared to me (although I at once concluded that my excited
fancy had deceived me)--it appeared to me that, from some very remote
portion of the mansion there came, indistinctly, to my ears what might
have been, in its exact similarity of character, the echo (but a
stifled and dull one certainly) of the very cracking and ripping sound
which Sir Launcelot had so particularly described. It was, beyond
doubt, the coincidence alone which had arrested my attention; for amid
the rattling of the sashes of the casements, and, the ordinary
commingled noises of the still-increasing storm, the sound, in itself,
had nothing, surely, which should have interested or disturbed me. I
continued the story.

* * * * * * * *

Here again I paused abruptly, and now with a feeling of wild
amazement--for there could be no doubt whatever that, in this instance,
I did actually hear (although from what direction it proceeded I found
it impossible to say) a low and apparently distant, but harsh,
protracted, and most unusual screaming or grating sound, the exact
counterpart of what my fancy had already conjured up for the dragon's
unnatural shriek, as described by the romancer. Oppressed, as I
certainly was, upon the occurrence of this second and most
extraordinary coincidence, by a thousand conflicting sensations, in
which wonder and extreme terror were predominant, I still retained
sufficient presence of mind to avoid exciting, by any observation, the
sensitive nervousness of my companion. I was by no means certain that
he had noticed the sounds in question; although, assuredly, a strange
alteration had, during the last few minutes, taken place in his
demeanor. From a position fronting my own he had gradually brought
round his chair so as to sit with his face to the door of the chamber,
and thus I could but partially perceive his features, although I saw
that his lips trembled as if he were murmuring inaudibly. His head had
dropped upon his breast; yet I knew that he was not asleep, from the
wide and rigid opening of the eye as I caught a glance of it in
profile. The motion of his body, too, was at variance with this idea;
for he rocked from side to side with a gentle yet constant and uniform
sway. Having rapidly taken notice of all this I resumed the narrative
of Sir Lau