d
causeway. Suddenly there shot along the path a wild light, and I
turned to see whence a gleam so unusual could have issued; for the
vast house and its shadows were alone behind me. The radiance was that
of the full, setting, and blood-red moon, which now shone vividly
through that once barely discernible fissure, of which I have before
spoken as extending from the roof of the building, in a zigzag
direction, to the base. While I gazed, this fissure rapidly
widened--there came a fierce breath of the whirlwind--the entire orb
of the satellite burst at once upon my sight--my brain reeled as I saw
the mighty walls rushing asunder--there was a long tumultuous shouting
sound like the voice of a thousand waters--and the deep and dank tarn
at my feet closed sullenly and silently over the fragments of the
"_House of Usher_."

NOTES

[1] _The Fall of the House of Usher_ was written in 1839 and published
at the end of the same year in his Tales of the Grotesque and of the
Arabesque.

[2] 70: Motto de Beranger. Popular French lyric poet (1780-1857). "His
heart is a suspended lute; as soon as it is touched it resounds."

[3] 71:23 tarn. A small mountain lake.

[4] 76:7 ennuye. Mentally wearied or bored.

[5] 78:11 bounden. An archaic word.

[6] 79:19 Dread. Reading of the first edition, "Her figure, her air,
her features,--all, in their very minutest development, were
those--were identically (I can use no other sufficient term), were
identically those of the Roderick Usher who sat beside me. A feeling
of stupor," etc.

[7] 80:16 Improvisations. Extemporaneous composition of poetry or
music.

[8] 81:4 von Weber. The celebrated German composer (1786-1826).

[9] 81:20 Fuseli. An artist and professor of painting at the Royal
Academy in London (1741-1825).

[10] 82:24 "The Haunted Palace." First published in the _Baltimore
Museum_ for April, 1839.

[11] 83:18 Porphyrogene. Of royal birth.

[12] 84:16 for other men. Watson, Dr. Percival, and especially the
Bishop of Llandaff. See "Chemical Essays," Vol. V.

[13] 85:16 Ververt et Chartreuse. Two poems by Jean Baptiste Cresset
(1709-1777).

[Footenote 14] 85:17 Belphegor. Satire on Marriage by Machiavelli
(1469-1527).

[15] 85:17 Heaven and Hell. Extracts from "Arcana Coelestia" by
Swedenborg (1688-1772).

[16] 85:18 Subterranean Voyage of Nicholas Klimm. A celebrated poem by
Ludwig Holberg (1684-1754).

[17] 85:19 Chiromancy. Palmistry applied to the future.