Valdemar at this moment, that there was a general shrinking back
from the region of the bed.
I now feel that I have reached a point of this narrative at which
every reader will be startled into positive disbelief. It is my
business, however, simply to proceed.
There was no longer the faintest sign of vitality in M. Valdemar;
and concluding him to be dead, we were consigning him to the charge of
the nurses, when a strong vibratory motion was observable in the
tongue. This continued for perhaps a minute. At the expiration of this
period, there issued from the distended and motionless jaws a voice
--such as it would be madness in me to attempt describing. There
are, indeed, two or three epithets which might be considered as
applicable to it in part; I might say, for example, that the sound was
harsh, and broken and hollow; but the hideous whole is
indescribable, for the simple reason that no similar sounds have
ever jarred upon the ear of humanity. There were two particulars,
nevertheless, which I thought then, and still think, might fairly be
stated as characteristic of the intonation --as well adapted to convey
some idea of its unearthly peculiarity. In the first place, the
voice seemed to reach our ears --at least mine --from a vast distance,
or from some deep cavern within the earth.
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