A few nights later, William Legrand had a second, vivid dream.
His enemies, a cruel inquisitorial sect of ecclesiastics, had left him secured with leather lashings to a low wooden platform in a dimly lit chamber. Above him a massive pendulum swung back and forth and was slowly lowering toward him. The weight of the metal ball that formed its bob would have been enough to crush him but attached below it was an enormous human tooth. It was vastly larger than a normal tooth and its cutting edge had been sharpened to a keenness matched only by sword blades made of the finest Damascus steel.
As his doom slowly approached, Legrand heard a soft but clear voice called "Will you not return that which you have stolen?" Legrand, who prided himself on his honesty, denied having stolen anything. The voice, more in sorrow than anger, then passed judgment on him and the pendulum continued to descend.
It drew closer and closer until one mighty swing cut some of Legrand's lashings. His eyes followed it up to the top of its trajectory where it hung in the air for a moment. It then began its fatal swing and Legrand screamed in terror and awoke beside his wife.
Literary Comment[]
This dream is based on Edgar Allan Poe's short story The Pit and the Pendulum.
| ||||||||