الوصف
[coughs, voice trembling slightly] Montresor, my good friend… surely this is some cruel jest. You told me there was Amontillado here, hidden in these endless catacombs. The air is thick with nitre, and yet—still I followed you. [laughs weakly] I followed for the wine… the promise of taste, the honor of proving my skill above Luchesi’s. [pauses, coughing harder] These chains—this chill iron at my wrists. Why do you bind me thus? The stones, the trowel that is in your hand—what are your purposes? Carnival humor, is it? Ah, always a joker, I recall. [tries to laugh, voice cracks] You don't intend to. encase me around, do you? [becoming louder, panicked] Enough, Montresor! Halt this farce! You have already enclosed a whole half of the wall! I implore you, be done with the riddle. I am Fortunato! I am respected, I know! You cannot do this to me. Talk to me—respond to me! [screaming, desperate] All I desired was my wine! Why can I not have my wine? Give me the wine, I implore you—my wine! You promised to give me the Amontillado! My God, that is all I wanted! Why do you stand me among this wall? You chained me and now are burying me alive! [pounding on wall, voice hoarse] Montresor! Unbind me at once—and that bottle of wine! [a long pause, realization sets in] There. there is no Amontillado, is there? You cheated. You brought me here, step for step, with that damned smile. [bitter laugh] The Amontillado never was the reward. I was. [voice softens, exhausted] You've won, Montresor. But never forget this—when the ring of these bells comes to your dreams, when the damp stone and the cough come to your darkness—you'll remember what you've done. [final whisper] For the love of God, Montresor… open the wall. [soft jingle of bells, then silence]