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But these other apartments were densely crowded, and in them beat feverishly
the heart of life. And the revel went whirlingly on, until at length there
commenced the sounding of midnight upon the clock. And then the music ceased,
as I have told; and the evolutions of the waltzers were quieted; and there
was an uneasy cessation of all things as before. But now there were twelve
strokes to be sounded by the bell of the clock; and thus it happened, perhaps,
that more of thought crept, with more of time, into the meditations of
the thoughtful among those who revelled. And thus, too, it happened, perhaps,
that before the last echoes of the last chime had utterly sunk into silence,
there were many individuals in the crowd who had found leisure to become
aware of the presence of a masked figure which had arrested the attention
of no single individual before. And the rumor of this new presence having
spread itself whisperingly around, there arose at length from the whole
company a buzz, or murmur, expressive of disapprobation and surprise --then,
finally, of terror, of horror, and of disgust.
In an assembly of phantasms such as I have painted, it may well be supposed
that no ordinary appearance could have excited such sensation. In truth
the masquerade license of the night was nearly unlimited; but the figure
in question had out-Heroded Herod, and gone beyond the bounds of even the
prince's indefinite decorum. There are chords in the hearts of the most
reckless which cannot be touched without emotion. Even with the utterly
lost, to whom life and death are equally jests, there are matters of which
no jest can be made.
The
whole company, indeed, seemed now deeply to feel that in the costume and
bearing of the stranger neither wit nor propriety existed. The figure was
tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head to foot in the habiliments of the
grave. The mask which concealed the visage was made so nearly to resemble
the countenance of a stiffened corpse that the closest scrutiny must have
had difficulty in detecting the cheat. And yet all this might have been
endured, if not approved, by the mad revellers around. But the mummer
had gone so far as to assume the type of the Red
Death. His vesture was dabbled in blood --and his broad brow, with all
the features of the face, was besprinkled with the scarlet horror.
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