Hours, perhaps days, go past. I do not know how many, but the terror does not stop. I have counted the moves of the pendulum... watched the blade come lower and lower... heard the hissing get louder and louder. Already I can smell the metal of the sharp blade, and I push my body up to it. 'Come! Cut me! Be quick, give me death!' I sleep, wake, and sleep again. And still the pendulum moves from side to side above me, and the blade comes nearer and nearer. When it reaches me, it will cut across my body, into my heart. I cannot stop watching it now. I cry out, I laugh, I scream, and still the blade comes nearer. So many long hours of terror. When will they end? I am hungry, and put out my hand to take the last piece of meat from the plate on the floor. Wait! A thought comes into my head. Could I...? It is only a small hope, but... The rats are still with me, waiting around my bed, watching me with their red, hungry eyes. 'What food', I think, 'do they eat in that terrible pit?' They can smell the piece of meat in my hand. I can see their eyes, watching. The meat is full of fat, and if I put the fat on the ropes around my body.. I do this. Then I lie still.

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