THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM

The pit and the pendulum

The pit and the pendulum is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe.

The story is about a prisoner that has been sentenced to death during the Inquisition.He narrates how he received the sentence and lost consciousness.Upon waking up, he realizes he is in a dark place where he can´t distinguish anything.
At first, the prisoner thinks that he is in a tomb, but he discovers that he is in a dungeon, maybe, in a dungeon inToledo.He tried to explore it by placing a hem of his ropes against the wall, but he fainted.

When he wakes up, he finds food and water nearby.He tries to measure the room again and counts one hundred steps.

While he is crossing the room, he slips on the hem of his robe and discovers a pit with water.He almost falls into it.

After loosing consciousness again, the prisoner wakes up and drinks more water. After drinking, he falls asleep again and imagines that the water had been spiked.

When he wakes up, the next time, he discovers that he´s bound to a wooden board by ropes.
He looks up and noticed that a pendulum is swinging slowly back and forth and it is descending towards him .He panicked but was able to attract rats to his bonds with meat left for him to eat and they started to chew the ropes.
The prisoner was free.

Then, he sees that the walls have become red-hot and begun moving inwards, driving him into the center of the room towards the pit.

As the prisoner begins to fall into the pit, he hears voices.An arm catches and rescues him.The French Army has taken Toledo and the inquisition is about to finish.