The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 3Poe, Edgar Allan
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The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 3
Poe, Edgar Allan
American fiction -- 19th century; Fantasy fiction; Horror tales, American
Rogers had died about eleven in the forenoon, in violent
convulsions; and the corpse presented in a few minutes after
death one of the most horrid and loathsome spectacles I ever
remember to have seen. The stomach was swollen immensely, like
that of a man who has been drowned and lain under water for many
weeks. The hands were in the same condition, while the face was
shrunken, shrivelled, and of a chalky whiteness, except where
relieved by two or three glaring red blotches like those
occasioned by the erysipelas: one of these blotches extended
diagonally across the face, completely covering up an eye as if
with a band of red velvet. In this disgusting condition the body
had been brought up from the cabin at noon to be thrown
overboard, when the mate getting a glimpse of it (for he now saw
it for the first time), and being either touched with remorse for
his crime or struck with terror at so horrible a sight, ordered
the men to sew the body up in its hammock, and allow it the usual
rites of sea-burial. Having given these directions, he went
below, as if to avoid any further sight of his victim. While
preparations were making to obey his orders, the gale came on
with great fury, and the design was abandoned for the present.
The corpse, left to itself, was washed into the larboard
scuppers, where it still lay at the time of which I speak,
floundering about with the furious lurches of the brig.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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