The narrator of the story has been sentenced to execution via a swinging pendulum, sharpened to kill him. He is tied and unable to move and his only company are the rats in the pit.
Sentenced to death by the Spanish Inquisition, the imprisoned narrator finds himself in absolute darkness, in danger of falling to his death into a pit in the centre of the cell.
He is utterly despondent. It feels as if he can barely stand.
Historical References
•The Jacobin Club (1)
•Inquisitors, the Spanish Inquisition (throughout)
