the black cat for the most wild yet most homely narrative which I am about to pin 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 unb birn 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 h
ave destroyed me yet I will not attempt to expound them to me they have presented little but horror to many they will seem less terrible than baroes Hereafter perhaps some intellect may be found which will reduce my fantasm to the commonplace 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 Gest 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 peculiarity 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 poultry friendship and gossamer Fidelity of mere man I married early and was happy to find in my wife a position not uncongenial with my own observing my partiality for domestic pets she lost no opportunity of procuring those of the mo
st agreeable kind we had Birds goldfish 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 illusion 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 mentioned the matter at all for no better reason t
han that it happens just now to be remembered Pluto this was the cat's name was my favorite 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 during which my general temperament and character through the instrumentality of the fiend in Temperance 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 retain sufficient regard to restrain me from maltreating him as I made no scruple of Mal treating 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 fish malevolence gin nurtured thrilled every fiber of my frame I took from my waste coat pocket a pen knife 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 pin the damnable atrocity 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 remo
rse 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 give direction to the character of man who has n
ot 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 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 offense 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 then forward to despair I am above the w
eakness 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 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 acti
on 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 word words strange singular and other similar Expressions excited my curiosity I approached and saw as if Graven in Boss relief upon the White surface the figure of a gigantic cat the impression was given with an accuracy truly marvelous 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 someone 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 the lime 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 fan fantasm 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 another pet of the same species and of somewhat similar appearance with which to supply its place one night as I sat half stupified 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 Hogs heads of Jin or of rum which consti
tuted the chief Furniture of the apartment I had been looking steadily at the top of this Hog's head 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 n
early 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 pattin
g it as I proceeded when it reached the house it domesticated itself at once and became immediately a great favorite 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 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 many 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 Rose t
o 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 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 th
is felon 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 mest Chamas 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 oh mournful and terrible engine of horror and of crime of Agony and of death and now was I indee
d 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 fast fashed 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 anymore 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 of the thing upon my face and its vast weight an incarnat
e nightmare that I had no power to shake off incumbent eternally upon my heart beneath the pressure of Torment such as these the feeble remnant of the good Within Me succumbed evil thoughts became my soul 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 abandon myself my uncomplaining wife alas was the most usual and the m
ost 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 Axe 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 goated by the interference into a rage more than demoniacal I withdrew my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in her brain she fell dead upon the spot without a groan this hideous murder accomplished I set myself forth with 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 neighbors many projects entered my mind at one period I thought of cutting the co
rpse 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 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 Sellar 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 red of the cellar I made no doubt that I could readily displace the bricks at this point insert the corpse and wall the hole up as bef
ore 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 relayed the whole structure as it originally stood having procured mortar sand and hair with every possible precaution I prepared a PL Master 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 right the wall did not present the slightest appearance of having been Disturbed the rubbish on the floor was picked up with the minutest care I looked around triumphantly and said to myself here at least then my labor 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 I slept even with the bu
rden 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 inquiries 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 th
e Assassin ass ination 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 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 Ed not in a muscle my heart beat calmly as that of one who Slumbers in innocence
I walked the cellar from in 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 bye gentlemen this this i
s a very well- constructed house in the Rabbid desired 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 mere frenzy of bravado I wrapped 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 n
o 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 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 exalt in the damnation of my my own thought
s 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 consig
ned me to the hangman I had walled the monster up within the tomb
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