Edgar Allen Poe
he thousand injuries of Fortunato I had
borne as I best could
but when he ventured upon insult
I vowed revenge. You
who so well know the nature of my soul
will not
suppose
however
that I gave utterance to a threat.
AT LENGTH I would be avenged; this was a point definitively settled - but the very definitiveness with
which it was resolved precluded the idea of risk.
I must not only punish
but punish with impunity.
A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes
its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the
avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him
who has done the wrong.
rue! nervous
very
very dreadfully nervous
I had been and am; but why WILL you say
that I am mad? The disease had sharpened
my senses
not destroyed
not dulled them. Above
all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things
in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things
in hell. How then am I mad? Hearken! and ob-
serve how healthily
how calmly
I can tell you the
whole story.
