The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 3Poe, Edgar Allan
General
The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 3
Poe, Edgar Allan
American fiction -- 19th century; Fantasy fiction; Horror tales, American
had no means of summoning them to my aid without leaving the room
for many minutes—and this I could not venture to do. I therefore
struggled alone in my endeavors to call back the spirit ill
hovering. In a short period it was certain, however, that a
relapse had taken place; the color disappeared from both eyelid
and cheek, leaving a wanness even more than that of marble; the
lips became doubly shrivelled and pinched up in the ghastly
expression of death; a repulsive clamminess and coldness
overspread rapidly the surface of the body; and all the usual
rigorous illness immediately supervened. I fell back with a
shudder upon the couch from which I had been so startlingly
aroused, and again gave myself up to passionate waking visions of
Ligeia.
An hour thus elapsed when (could it be possible?) I was a second
time aware of some vague sound issuing from the region of the
bed. I listened—in extremity of horror. The sound came again—it
was a sigh. Rushing to the corpse, I saw—distinctly saw—a tremor
upon the lips. In a minute afterward they relaxed, disclosing a
bright line of the pearly teeth. Amazement now struggled in my
bosom with the profound awe which had hitherto reigned there
alone. I felt that my vision grew dim, that my reason wandered;
and it was only by a violent effort that I at length succeeded in
nerving myself to the task which duty thus once more had pointed
out. There was now a partial glow upon the forehead and upon the
cheek and throat; a perceptible warmth pervaded the whole frame;
there was even a slight pulsation at the heart. The lady lived;
and with redoubled ardor I betook myself to the task of
restoration. I chafed and bathed the temples and the hands, and
used every exertion which experience, and no little medical
reading, could suggest. But in vain. Suddenly, the color fled,
the pulsation ceased, the lips resumed the expression of the
dead, and, in an instant afterward, the whole body took upon
itself the icy chilliness, the livid hue, the intense rigidity,
the sunken outline, and all the loathsome peculiarities of that
which has been, for many days, a tenant of the tomb.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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