The Rats in the Walls
Content
The Rats in the Walls
by H. P. Lovecraft Written August through September of 1923 Published in March of 1924 in Weird Tales
On 16 July 1923, I moved into Exham Priory after the last workman had finished his la ours! "he restoration had een a stu#endous task, for little had remained of the deserted #ile ut a shell$like ruin% yet e&ause it had een the seat of my an&estors, I let no ex#ense deter me! "he #la&e had not een inha ited sin&e the rei'n of James the (irst, when a tra'edy of intensely hideous, thou'h lar'ely unex#lained, nature had stru&k down the master, five of his &hildren, and several servants% and driven forth under a &loud of sus#i&ion and terror the third son, my lineal #ro'enitor and the only survivor of the a horred line! )ith this sole heir denoun&ed as a murderer, the estate had reverted to the &rown, nor had the a&&used man made any attem#t to ex&ul#ate himself or re'ain his #ro#erty! *haken y some horror 'reater than that of &ons&ien&e or the law, and ex#ressin' only a franti& wish to ex&lude the an&ient edifi&e from his si'ht and memory, )alter de la Poer, eleventh +aron Exham, fled to ,ir'inia and there founded the family whi&h y the next &entury had e&ome known as -ela#ore! Exham Priory had remained untenanted, thou'h later allotted to the estates of the .orrys family and mu&h studied e&ause of its #e&uliarly &om#osite ar&hite&ture% an ar&hite&ture involvin' /othi& towers restin' on a *axon or 0omanes1ue su stru&ture, whose foundation in turn was of a still earlier order or lend of orders $$ 0oman, and even -ruidi& or native 2ymri&, if le'ends s#eak truly! "his foundation was a very sin'ular thin', ein' mer'ed on one side with the solid limestone of the #re&i#i&e from whose rink the #riory overlooked a desolate valley three miles west of the villa'e of 3n&hester! 3r&hite&ts and anti1uarians loved to examine this stran'e reli& of for'otten &enturies, ut the &ountry folk hated it! "hey had hated it hundreds of years efore, when my an&estors lived there, and they hated it now, with the moss and mould of a andonment on it! I had not een a day in 3n&hester efore I knew I &ame of an a&&ursed house! 3nd this week workmen have lown u# Exham Priory, and are usy o literatin' the tra&es of its foundations! "he are statisti&s of my an&estry I had always known, to'ether with the fa&t that my first 3meri&an fore ear had &ome to the &olonies under a stran'e &loud! Of details, however, I had een ke#t wholly i'norant throu'h the #oli&y of reti&en&e always maintained y the -ela#ores! 4nlike our #lanter nei'h ours, we seldom oasted of &rusadin' an&estors or other mediaeval and 0enaissan&e heroes% nor was any kind of tradition handed down ex&e#t what may have een re&orded in the sealed envelo#e left efore the 2ivil )ar y every s1uire to his eldest son for #osthumous o#enin'! "he 'lories we &herished were those a&hieved sin&e the mi'ration% the 'lories of a #roud and honoura le, if somewhat reserved and unso&ial ,ir'inia line! -urin' the war our fortunes were extin'uished and our whole existen&e &han'ed y the urnin' of 2arfax, our home on the anks of the James! 5y 'randfather, advan&ed in years, had #erished in that in&endiary outra'e, and with him the envelo#e that had ound us all to the #ast! I &an re&all that fire today as I saw it then at the a'e of seven, with the federal soldiers shoutin', the women s&reamin', and the ne'roes howlin' and #rayin'! 5y father was in the army, defendin' 0i&hmond, and after many formalities my mother and I were #assed throu'h the lines to 6oin him! )hen the war ended we all moved north, when&e my mother had &ome% and I 'rew to manhood, middle a'e, and ultimate wealth as a stolid 7ankee! .either my father nor I ever knew what our hereditary envelo#e had &ontained, and as I mer'ed into the 'reyness of 5assa&husetts usiness life I lost all
interest in the mysteries whi&h evidently lurked far a&k in my family tree! 8ad I sus#e&ted their nature, how 'ladly I would have left Exham Priory to its moss, ats and &o we s9 5y father died in 19:;, ut without any messa'e to leave to me, or to my only &hild, 3lfred, a motherless oy of ten! It was this oy who reversed the order of family information, for althou'h I &ould 'ive him only 6estin' &on6e&tures a out the #ast, he wrote me of some very interestin' an&estral le'ends when the late war took him to En'land in 191< as an aviation offi&er! 3##arently the -ela#ores had a &olourful and #erha#s sinister history, for a friend of my son=s, 2a#t! Edward .orrys of the 0oyal (lyin' 2or#s, dwelt near the family seat at 3n&hester and related some #easant su#erstitions whi&h few novelists &ould e1ual for wildness and in&redi ility! .orrys himself, of &ourse, did not take them so seriously% ut they amused my son and made 'ood material for his letters to me! It was this le'endry whi&h definitely turned my attention to my transatlanti& herita'e, and made me resolve to #ur&hase and restore the family seat whi&h .orrys showed to 3lfred in its #i&tures1ue desertion, and offered to 'et for him at a sur#risin'ly reasona le fi'ure, sin&e his own un&le was the #resent owner! I ou'ht Exham Priory in 191>, ut was almost immediately distra&ted from my #lans of restoration y the return of my son as a maimed invalid! -urin' the two years that he lived I thou'ht of nothin' ut his &are, havin' even #la&ed my usiness under the dire&tion of #artners! In 1921, as I found myself ereaved and aimless, a retired manufa&turer no lon'er youn', I resolved to divert my remainin' years with my new #ossession! ,isitin' 3n&hester in -e&em er, I was entertained y 2a#t! .orrys, a #lum#, amia le youn' man who had thou'ht mu&h of my son, and se&ured his assistan&e in 'atherin' #lans and ane&dotes to 'uide in the &omin' restoration! Exham Priory itself I saw without emotion, a 6um le of totterin' mediaeval ruins &overed with li&hens and honey&om ed with rooks= nests, #er&hed #erilously u#on a #re&i#i&e, and denuded of floors or other interior features save the stone walls of the se#arate towers! 3s I 'radually re&overed the ima'e of the edifi&e as it had een when my an&estors left it over three &enturies efore, I e'an to hire workmen for the re&onstru&tion! In every &ase I was for&ed to 'o outside the immediate lo&ality, for the 3n&hester villa'ers had an almost un elieva le fear and hatred of the #la&e! "he sentiment was so 'reat that it was sometimes &ommuni&ated to the outside la ourers, &ausin' numerous desertions% whilst its s&o#e a##eared to in&lude oth the #riory and its an&ient family! 5y son had told me that he was somewhat avoided durin' his visits e&ause he was a de la Poer, and I now found myself su tly ostra&i?ed for a like reason until I &onvin&ed the #easants how little I knew of my herita'e! Even then they sullenly disliked me, so that I had to &olle&t most of the villa'e traditions throu'h the mediation of .orrys! )hat the #eo#le &ould not for'ive, #erha#s, was that I had &ome to restore a sym ol so a horrent to them% for, rationally or not, they viewed Exham Priory as nothin' less than a haunt of fiends and werewolves! Pie&in' to'ether the tales whi&h .orrys &olle&ted for me, and su##lementin' them with the a&&ounts of several savants who had studied the ruins, I dedu&ed that Exham Priory stood on the site of a #rehistori& tem#le% a -ruidi&al or ante$-ruidi&al thin' whi&h must have een &ontem#orary with *tonehen'e! "hat indes&ri a le rites had een &ele rated there, few dou ted, and there were un#leasant tales of the transferen&e of these rites into the 2y ele worshi# whi&h the 0omans had introdu&ed! Ins&ri#tions still visi le in the su $&ellar ore su&h unmistaka le letters as =-I,!!! OP* !!! 53/.3! 53"!!!=, si'n of the 5a'na 5ater whose dark worshi# was on&e vainly for idden to 0oman &iti?ens! 3n&hester had een the &am# of the third 3u'ustan le'ion, as many remains attest, and it was said that the tem#le of 2y ele was s#lendid and thron'ed with worshi##ers who #erformed nameless &eremonies at the iddin' of a Phry'ian #riest! "ales added that the fall of the old reli'ion did not end the or'ies at the tem#le, ut that the #riests lived on in the new faith without real &han'e! @ikewise was it said that the rites did not vanish with the 0oman #ower, and that &ertain amon' the *axons added to what remained of the tem#le, and 'ave it the essential outline it su se1uently #reserved, makin' it the &entre of a &ult feared throu'h half the he#tar&hy! 3 out 1::: 3!-! the #la&e is mentioned in a &hroni&le as ein' a su stantial stone #riory housin' a stran'e and #owerful monasti& order and surrounded y extensive 'ardens whi&h needed no walls to ex&lude a fri'htened #o#ula&e! It was never destroyed y the -anes, thou'h after the .orman
2on1uest it must have de&lined tremendously, sin&e there was no im#ediment when 8enry the "hird 'ranted the site to my an&estor, /il ert de la Poer, (irst +aron Exham, in 1261! Of my family efore this date there is no evil re#ort, ut somethin' stran'e must have ha##ened then! In one &hroni&le there is a referen&e to a de la Poer as A&ursed of /od in 13:<A, whilst villa'e le'endry had nothin' ut evil and franti& fear to tell of the &astle that went u# on the foundations of the old tem#le and #riory! "he fireside tales were of the most 'risly des&ri#tion, all the 'hastlier e&ause of their fri'htened reti&en&e and &loudy evasiveness! "hey re#resented my an&estors as a ra&e of hereditary daemons eside whom /illes de 0et? and the 5ar1uis de *ade would seem the veriest tyros, and hinted whis#erin'ly at their res#onsi ility for the o&&asional disa##earan&es of villa'ers throu'h several 'enerations! "he worst &hara&ters, a##arently, were the arons and their dire&t heirs% at least, most was whis#ered a out these! If of healthier in&linations, it was said, an heir would early and mysteriously die to make way for another more ty#i&al s&ion! "here seemed to e an inner &ult in the family, #resided over y the head of the house, and sometimes &losed ex&e#t to a few mem ers! "em#erament rather than an&estry was evidently the asis of this &ult, for it was entered y several who married into the family! @ady 5ar'aret "revor from 2ornwall, wife of /odfrey, the se&ond son of the fifth aron, e&ame a favourite ane of &hildren all over the &ountryside, and the daemon heroine of a #arti&ularly horri le old allad not yet extin&t near the )elsh order! Preserved in alladry, too, thou'h not illustratin' the same #oint, is the hideous tale of @ady 5ary de la Poer, who shortly after her marria'e to the Earl of *hrewsfield was killed y him and his mother, oth of the slayers ein' a solved and lessed y the #riest to whom they &onfessed what they dared not re#eat to the world! "hese myths and allads, ty#i&al as they were of &rude su#erstition, re#elled me 'reatly! "heir #ersisten&e, and their a##li&ation to so lon' a line of my an&estors, were es#e&ially annoyin'% whilst the im#utations of monstrous ha its #roved un#leasantly reminis&ent of the one known s&andal of my immediate fore ears $$ the &ase of my &ousin, youn' 0andol#h -ela#ore of 2arfax who went amon' the ne'roes and e&ame a voodoo #riest after he returned from the 5exi&an )ar! I was mu&h less distur ed y the va'uer tales of wails and howlin's in the arren, windswe#t valley eneath the limestone &liff% of the 'raveyard sten&hes after the s#rin' rains% of the flounderin', s1uealin' white thin' on whi&h *ir John 2lave=s horse had trod one ni'ht in a lonely field% and of the servant who had 'one mad at what he saw in the #riory in the full li'ht of day! "hese thin's were ha&kneyed s#e&tral lore, and I was at that time a #ronoun&ed s&e#ti&! "he a&&ounts of vanished #easants were less to e dismissed, thou'h not es#e&ially si'nifi&ant in view of mediaeval &ustom! Pryin' &uriosity meant death, and more than one severed head had een #u li&ly shown on the astions $$ now effa&ed $$ around Exham Priory! 3 few of the tales were ex&eedin'ly #i&tures1ue, and made me wish I had learnt more of the &om#arative mytholo'y in my youth! "here was, for instan&e, the elief that a le'ion of at$win'ed devils ke#t wit&hes= sa ath ea&h ni'ht at the #riory $$ a le'ion whose sustenan&e mi'ht ex#lain the dis#ro#ortionate a undan&e of &oarse ve'eta les harvested in the vast 'ardens! 3nd, most vivid of all, there was the dramati& e#i& of the rats $$ the s&am#erin' army of o s&ene vermin whi&h had urst forth from the &astle three months after the tra'edy that doomed it to desertion $$ the lean, filthy, ravenous army whi&h had swe#t all efore it and devoured fowl, &ats, do's, ho's, shee#, and even two ha#less human ein's efore its fury was s#ent! 3round that unfor'etta le rodent army a whole se#arate &y&le of myths revolves, for it s&attered amon' the villa'e homes and rou'ht &urses and horrors in its train! *u&h was the lore that assailed me as I #ushed to &om#letion, with an elderly o stina&y, the work of restorin' my an&estral home! It must not e ima'ined for a moment that these tales formed my #rin&i#al #sy&holo'i&al environinent! On the other hand, I was &onstantly #raised and en&oura'ed y 2a#t! .orrys and the anti1uarians who surrounded and aided me! )hen the task was done, over two years after its &ommen&ement, I viewed the 'reat rooms, wains&oted walls, vaulted &eilin's, mullioned windows, and road stair&ases with a #ride whi&h fully &om#ensated for the #rodi'ious ex#ense of the restoration! Every attri ute of the 5iddle 3'es was &unnin'ly re#rodu&ed and the new #arts lended #erfe&tly with the
ori'inal walls and foundations! "he seat of my fathers was &om#lete, and I looked forward to redeemin' at last the lo&al fame of the line whi&h ended in me! I &ould reside here #ermanently, and #rove that a de la Poer Bfor I had ado#ted a'ain the ori'inal s#ellin' of the nameC need not e a fiend! 5y &omfort was #erha#s au'mented y the fa&t that, althou'h Exham Priory was mediaevally fitted, its interior was in truth wholly new and free from old vermin and old 'hosts alike! 3s I have said, I moved in on 16 July 1923! 5y household &onsisted of seven servants and nine &ats, of whi&h latter s#e&ies I am #arti&ularly fond! 5y eldest &at, A.i''er$5anA, was seven years old and had &ome with me from my home in +olton, 5assa&husetts% the others I had a&&umulated whilst livin' with 2a#t! .orrys= family durin' the restoration of the #riory! (or five days our routine #ro&eeded with the utmost #la&idity, my time ein' s#ent mostly in the &odifi&ation of old family data! I had now o tained some very &ir&umstantial a&&ounts of the final tra'edy and fli'ht of )alter de la Poer, whi&h I &on&eived to e the #ro a le &ontents of the hereditary #a#er lost in the fire at 2arfax! It a##eared that my an&estor was a&&used with mu&h reason of havin' killed all the other mem ers of his household, ex&e#t four servant &onfederates, in their slee#, a out two weeks after a sho&kin' dis&overy whi&h &han'ed his whole demeanour, ut whi&h, ex&e#t y im#li&ation, he dis&losed to no one save #erha#s the servants who assisted him and afterwards fled eyond rea&h! "his deli erate slau'hter, whi&h in&luded a father, three rothers, and two sisters, was lar'ely &ondoned y the villa'ers, and so sla&kly treated y the law that its #er#etrator es&a#ed honoured, unharmed, and undis'uised to ,ir'inia% the 'eneral whis#ered sentiment ein' that he had #ur'ed the land of an immemorial &urse! )hat dis&overy had #rom#ted an a&t so terri le, I &ould s&ar&ely even &on6e&ture! )alter de la Poer must have known for years the sinister tales a out his family, so that this material &ould have 'iven him no fresh im#ulse! 8ad he, then, witnessed some a##allin' an&ient rite, or stum led u#on some fri'htful and revealin' sym ol in the #riory or its vi&inityD 8e was re#uted to have een a shy, 'entle youth in En'land! In ,ir'inia he seemed not so mu&h hard or itter as harassed and a##rehensive! 8e was s#oken of in the diary of another 'entleman adventurer, (ran&is 8arley of +ellview, as a man of unexam#led 6usti&e, honour, and deli&a&y! On 22 July o&&urred the first in&ident whi&h, thou'h li'htly dismissed at the time, takes on a #reternatural si'nifi&an&e in relation to later events! It was so sim#le as to e almost ne'li'i le, and &ould not #ossi ly have een noti&ed under the &ir&umstan&es% for it must e re&alled that sin&e I was in a uildin' #ra&ti&ally fresh and new ex&e#t for the walls, and surrounded y a well$ alan&ed staff of servitors, a##rehension would have een a surd des#ite the lo&ality! )hat I afterward remem ered is merely this $$ that my old la&k &at, whose moods I know so well, was undou tedly alert and anxious to an extent wholly out of kee#in' with his natural &hara&ter! 8e roved from room to room, restless and distur ed, and sniffed &onstantly a out the walls whi&h formed #art of the /othi& stru&ture! I reali?e how trite this sounds $$ like the inevita le do' in the 'host story, whi&h always 'rowls efore his master sees the sheeted fi'ure $$ yet I &annot &onsistently su##ress it! "he followin' day a servant &om#lained of restlessness amon' all the &ats in the house! 8e &ame to me in my study, a lofty west room on the se&ond storey, with 'roined ar&hes, la&k oak #anellin', and a tri#le /othi& window overlookin' the limestone &liff and desolate valley% and even as he s#oke I saw the 6etty form of .i''er$5an &ree#in' alon' the west wall and s&rat&hin' at the new #anels whi&h overlaid the an&ient stone! I told the man that there must e a sin'ular odour or emanation from the old stonework, im#er&e#ti le to human senses, ut affe&tin' the deli&ate or'ans of &ats even throu'h the new woodwork! "his I truly elieved, and when the fellow su''ested the #resen&e of mi&e or rats, I mentioned that there had een no rats there for three hundred years, and that even the field mi&e of the surroundin' &ountry &ould hardly e found in these hi'h walls, where they had never een known to stray! "hat afternoon I &alled on 2a#t! .orrys, and he assured me that it would e 1uite in&redi le for field mi&e to infest the #riory in su&h a sudden and un#re&edented fashion!
"hat ni'ht, dis#ensin' as usual with a valet, I retired in the west tower &ham er whi&h I had &hosen as my own, rea&hed from the study y a stone stair&ase and short 'allery $$ the former #artly an&ient, the latter entirely restored! "his room was &ir&ular, very hi'h, and without wains&otin', ein' hun' with arras whi&h I had myself &hosen in @ondon! *eein' that .i''er$5an was with me, I shut the heavy /othi& door and retired y the li'ht of the ele&tri& ul s whi&h so &leverly &ounterfeited &andles, finally swit&hin' off the li'ht and sinkin' on the &arved and &ano#ied four$#oster, with the venera le &at in his a&&ustomed #la&e a&ross my feet! I did not draw the &urtains, ut 'a?ed out at the narrow window whi&h I fa&ed! "here was a sus#i&ion of aurora in the sky, and the deli&ate tra&eries of the window were #leasantly silhouetted! 3t some time I must have fallen 1uietly aslee#, for I re&all a distin&t sense of leavin' stran'e dreams, when the &at started violently from his #la&id #osition! I saw him in the faint auroral 'low, head strained forward, fore feet on my ankles, and hind feet stret&hed ehind! 8e was lookin' intensely at a #oint on the wall somewhat west of the window, a #oint whi&h to my eye had nothin' to mark it, ut toward whi&h all my attention was now dire&ted! 3nd as I wat&hed, I knew that .i''er$5an was not vainly ex&ited! )hether the arras a&tually moved I &annot say! I think it did, very sli'htly! +ut what I &an swear to is that ehind it I heard a low, distin&t s&urryin' as of rats or mi&e! In a moment the &at had 6um#ed odily on the s&reenin' ta#estry, rin'in' the affe&ted se&tion to the floor with his wei'ht, and ex#osin' a dam#, an&ient wall of stone% #at&hed here and there y the restorers, and devoid of any tra&e of rodent #rowlers! .i''er$5an ra&ed u# and down the floor y this #art of the wall, &lawin' the fallen arras and seemin'ly tryin' at times to insert a #aw etween the wall and the oaken floor! 8e found nothin', and after a time returned wearily to his #la&e a&ross my feet! I had not moved, ut I did not slee# a'ain that ni'ht! In the mornin' I 1uestioned all the servants, and found that none of them had noti&ed anythin' unusual, save that the &ook remem ered the a&tions of a &at whi&h had rested on her windowsill! "his &at had howled at some unknown hour of the ni'ht, awakin' the &ook in time for her to see him dart #ur#osefully out of the o#en door down the stairs! I drowsed away the noontime, and in the afternoon &alled a'ain on 2a#t! .orrys, who e&ame ex&eedin'ly interested in what I told him! "he odd in&idents $$ so sli'ht yet so &urious $$ a##ealed to his sense of the #i&tures1ue and eli&ited from him a num er of reminis&enses of lo&al 'hostly lore! )e were 'enuinely #er#lexed at the #resen&e of rats, and .orrys lent me some tra#s and Paris 'reen, whi&h I had the servants #la&e in strate'i& lo&alities when I returned! I retired early, ein' very slee#y, ut was harassed y dreams of the most horri le sort! I seemed to e lookin' down from an immense hei'ht u#on a twilit 'rotto, knee$dee# with filth, where a white$ earded daemon swineherd drove a out with his staff a flo&k of fun'ous, fla y easts whose a##earan&e filled me with unuttera le loathin'! "hen, as the swineherd #aused and nodded over his task, a mi'hty swarm of rats rained down on the stinkin' a yss and fell to devourin' easts and man alike! (rom this terrifi& vision I was a ru#tly awakened y the motions of .i''er$5an, who had een slee#in' as usual a&ross my feet! "his time I did not have to 1uestion the sour&e of his snarls and hisses, and of the fear whi&h made him sink his &laws into my ankle, un&ons&ious of their effe&t% for on every side of the &ham er the walls were alive with nauseous sound $$ the veminous slitherin' of ravenous, 'i'anti& rats! "here was now no aurora to show the state of the arras $$ the fallen se&tion of whi&h had een re#la&ed $ ut I was not too fri'htened to swit&h on the li'ht! 3s the ul s lea#t into radian&e I saw a hideous shakin' all over the ta#estry, &ausin' the somewhat #e&uliar desi'ns to exe&ute a sin'ular dan&e of death! "his motion disa##eared almost at on&e, and the sound with it! *#rin'in' out of ed, I #oked at the arras with the lon' handle of a warmin'$#an that rested near, and lifted one se&tion to see what lay eneath! "here was nothin' ut the #at&hed stone wall, and even the &at had lost his tense reali?ation of a normal #resen&es! )hen I examined the &ir&ular tra# that had een #la&ed in the room, I found all of the o#enin's s#run', thou'h no tra&e remained of what had een &au'ht and had es&a#ed!
(urther slee# was out of the 1uestion, so li'htin' a &andle, I o#ened the door and went out in the 'allery towards the stairs to my study, .i''er$5an followin' at my heels! +efore we had rea&hed the stone ste#s, however, the &at darted ahead of me and vanished down the an&ient fli'ht! 3s I des&ended the stairs myself, I e&ame suddenly aware of sounds in the 'reat room elow% sounds of a nature whi&h &ould not e mistaken! "he oak$#anelled walls were alive with rats, s&am#erin' and millin' whilst .i''er$5an was ra&in' a out with the fury of a affled hunter! 0ea&hin' the ottom, I swit&hed on the li'ht, whi&h did not this time &ause the noise to su side! "he rats &ontinued their riot, stam#edin' with su&h for&e and distin&tness that I &ould finally assi'n to their motions a definite dire&tion! "hese &reatures, in num ers a##arently inexhausti le, were en'a'ed in one stu#endous mi'ration from in&on&eiva le hei'hts to some de#th &on&eiva ly or in&on&eiva ly elow! I now heard ste#s in the &orridor, and in another moment two servants #ushed o#en the massive door! "hey were sear&hin' the house for some unknown sour&e of distur an&e whi&h had thrown all the &ats into a snarlin' #ani& and &aused them to #lun'e #re&i#itately down several fli'hts of stairs and s1uat, yowlin', efore the &losed door to the su $&ellar! I asked them if they had heard the rats, ut they re#lied in the ne'ative! 3nd when I turned to &all their attention to the sounds in the #anels, I reali?ed that the noise had &eased! )ith the two men, I went down to the door of the su $&ellar, ut found the &ats already dis#ersed! @ater I resolved to ex#lore the &ry#t elow, ut for the #resent I merely made a round of the tra#s! 3ll were s#run', yet all were tenantless! *atisfyin' myself that no one had heard the rats save the felines and me, I sat in my study till mornin', thinkin' #rofoundly and re&allin' every s&ra# of le'end I had unearthed &on&ernin' the uildin' I inha ited! I sle#t some in the forenoon, leanin' a&k in the one &omforta le li rary &hair whi&h my mediaeval #lan of furnishin' &ould not anish! @ater I tele#honed to 2a#t! .orrys, who &ame over and hel#ed me ex#lore the su $&ellar! 3 solutely nothin' untoward was found, althou'h we &ould not re#ress a thrill at the knowled'e that this vault was uilt y 0oman hands! Every low ar&h and massive #illar was 0oman $$ not the de ased 0omanes1ue of the un'lin' *axons, ut the severe and harmonious &lassi&ism of the a'e of the 2aesars% indeed, the walls a ounded with ins&ri#tions familiar to the anti1uarians who had re#eatedly ex#lored the #la&e $$ thin's like AP! /E"3E! P0OP!!! "E5P!!! -O.3!!!A and A@! P03E/!!! ,*!!! PO."I(I!!! 3"7*!!!A "he referen&e to 3tys made me shiver, for I had read 2atullus and knew somethin' of the hideous rites of the Eastern 'od, whose worshi# was so mixed with that of 2y ele! .orrys and I, y the li'ht of lanterns, tried to inter#ret the odd and nearly effa&ed desi'ns on &ertain irre'ularly re&tan'ular lo&ks of stone 'enerally held to e altars, ut &ould make nothin' of them! )e remem ered that one #attern, a sort of rayed sun, was held y students to im#ly a non$0oman ori'in su''estin' that these altars had merely een ado#ted y the 0oman #riests from some older and #erha#s a ori'inal tem#le on the same site! On one of these lo&ks were some rown stains whi&h made me wonder! "he lar'est, in the &entre of the room, had &ertain features on the u##er surfa&e whi&h indi&ated its &onne&tion with fire $$ #ro a ly urnt offerin's! *u&h were the si'hts in that &ry#t efore whose door the &ats howled, and where .orrys and I now determined to #ass the ni'ht! 2ou&hes were rou'ht down y the servants, who were told not to mind any no&turnal a&tions of the &ats, and .i''er$5an was admitted as mu&h for hel# as for &om#anionshi#! )e de&ided to kee# the 'reat oak door $$ a modern re#li&a with slits for ventilation $$ ti'htly &losed% and, with this attended to, we retired with lanterns still urnin' to await whatever mi'ht o&&ur! "he vault was very dee# in the foundations of the #riory, and undou tedly far down on the fa&e of the eetlin' limestone &liff overlookin' the waste valley! "hat it had een the 'oal of the s&ufflin' and unex#laina le rats I &ould not dou t, thou'h why, I &ould not tell! 3s we lay there ex#e&tantly, I found my vi'il o&&asionally mixed with half$formed dreams from whi&h the uneasy motions of the &at a&ross my feet would rouse me!
"hese dreams were not wholesome, ut horri ly like the one I had had the ni'ht efore! I saw a'ain the twilit 'rotto, and the swineherd with his unmentiona le fun'ous easts wallowin' in filth, and as I looked at these thin's they seemed nearer and more distin&t $$ so distin&t that I &ould almost o serve their features! "hen I did o serve the fla y features of one of them $$ and awakened with su&h a s&ream that .i''er$ 5an started u#, whilst 2a#t! .orrys, who had not sle#t, lau'hed &onsidera ly! .orrys mi'ht have lau'hed more $$ or #erha#s less $$ had he known what it was that made me s&ream! +ut I did not remem er myself till later! 4ltimate horror often #aralyses memory in a mer&iful way! .orrys waked me when the #henomena e'an! Out of the same fri'htful dream I was &alled y his 'entle shakin' and his ur'in' to listen to the &ats! Indeed, there was mu&h to listen to, for eyond the &losed door at the head of the stone ste#s was a verita le ni'htmare of feline yellin' and &lawin', whilst .i''er$5an, unmindful of his kindred outside, was runnin' ex&itedly round the are stone walls, in whi&h I heard the same a el of s&urryin' rats that had trou led me the ni'ht efore! 3n a&ute terror now rose within me, for here were anomalies whi&h nothin' normal &ould well ex#lain! "hese rats, if not the &reatures of a madness whi&h I shared with the &ats alone, must e urrowin' and slidin' in 0oman walls I had thou'ht to e solid limestone lo&ks !!! unless #erha#s the a&tion of water throu'h more than seventeen &enturies had eaten windin' tunnels whi&h rodent odies had worn &lear and am#le !!! +ut even so, the s#e&tral horror was no less% for if these were livin' vermin why did not .orrys hear their dis'ustin' &ommotionD )hy did he ur'e me to wat&h .i''er$5an and listen to the &ats outside, and why did he 'uess wildly and va'uely at what &ould have aroused themD +y the time I had mana'ed to tell him, as rationally as I &ould, what I thou'ht I was hearin', my ears 'ave me the last fadin' im#ression of s&urryin'% whi&h had retreated still downward, far underneath this dee#est of su $&ellars till it seemed as if the whole &liff elow were riddled with 1uestin' rats! .orrys was not as s&e#ti&al as I had anti&i#ated, ut instead seemed #rofoundly moved! 8e motioned to me to noti&e that the &ats at the door had &eased their &lamour, as if 'ivin' u# the rats for lost% whilst .i''er$5an had a urst of renewed restlessness, and was &lawin' franti&ally around the ottom of the lar'e stone altar in the &entre of the room, whi&h was nearer .orrys= &ou&h than mine! 5y fear of the unknown was at this #oint very 'reat! *omethin' astoundin' had o&&urred, and I saw that 2a#t! .orrys, a youn'er, stouter, and #resuma ly more naturally materialisti& man, was affe&ted fully as mu&h as myself $$ #erha#s e&ause of his lifelon' and intimate familiarity with lo&al le'end! )e &ould for the moment do nothin' ut wat&h the old la&k &at as he #awed with de&reasin' fervour at the ase of the altar, o&&asionally lookin' u# and mewin' to me in that #ersuasive manner whi&h he used when he wished me to #erform some favour for him! .orrys now took a lantern &lose to the altar and examined the #la&e where .i''er$5an was #awin'% silently kneelin' and s&ra#in' away the li&hens of the &enturies whi&h 6oined the massive #re$0oman lo&k to the tessellated floor! 8e did not find anythin', and was a out to a andon his efforts when I noti&ed a trivial &ir&umstan&e whi&h made me shudder, even thou'h it im#lied nothin' more than I had already ima'ined! I told him of it, and we oth looked at its almost im#er&e#ti le manifestation with the fixedness of fas&inated dis&overy and a&knowled'ment! It was only this $$ that the flame of the lantern set down near the altar was sli'htly ut &ertainly fli&kerin' from a drau'ht of air whi&h it had not efore re&eived, and whi&h &ame indu ita ly from the &revi&e etween floor and altar where .orrys was s&ra#in' away the li&hens! )e s#ent the rest of the ni'ht in the rilliantly$li'hted study, nervously dis&ussin' what we should do next! "he dis&overy that some vault dee#er than the dee#est known masonry of the 0omans underlay this a&&ursed #ile, some vault unsus#e&ted y the &urious anti1uarians of three &enturies, would have een suffi&ient to ex&ite us without any a&k'round of the sinister! 3s it was, the fas&ination e&ame two$fold% and we #aused in dou t whether to a andon our sear&h and 1uit the #riory forever in su#erstitious &aution, or to 'ratify our sense of adventure and rave whatever horrors mi'ht await us in the unknown de#ths!
+y mornin' we had &om#romised, and de&ided to 'o to @ondon to 'ather a 'rou# of ar&haeolo'ists and s&ientifi& men fit to &o#e with the mystery! It should e mentioned that efore leavin' the su $&ellar we had vainly tried to move the &entral altar whi&h we now re&o'ni?ed as the 'ate to a new #it of nameless fear! )hat se&ret would o#en the 'ate, wiser men than we would have to find! -urin' many days in @ondon 2a#t! .orrys and I #resented our fa&ts, &on6e&tures, and le'endary ane&dotes to five eminent authorities, all men who &ould e trusted to res#e&t any family dis&losures whi&h future ex#lorations mi'ht develo#! )e found most of them little dis#osed to s&off ut, instead, intensely interested and sin&erely sym#atheti&! It is hardly ne&essary to name them all, ut I may say that they in&luded *ir )illiam +rinton, whose ex&avations in the "road ex&ited most of the world in their day! 3s we all took the train for 3n&hester I felt myself #oised on the rink of fri'htful revelations, a sensation sym oli?ed y the air of mournin' amon' the many 3meri&ans at the unex#e&ted death of the President on the other side of the world! On the evenin' of < 3u'ust we rea&hed Exham Priory, where the servants assured me that nothin' unusual had o&&urred! "he &ats, even old .i''er$5an, had een #erfe&tly #la&id, and not a tra# in the house had een s#run'! )e were to e'in ex#lorin' on the followin' dlay, awaitin' whi&h I assi'ned well$ a##ointed rooms to all my 'uests! I myself retired in my own tower &ham er, with .i''er$5an a&ross my feet! *lee# &ame 1ui&kly, ut hideous dreams assailed me! "here was a vision of a 0oman feast like that of "rimal&hio, with a horror in a &overed #latter! "hen &ame that damna le, re&urrent thin' a out the swineherd and his filthy drove in the twilit 'rotto! 7et when I awoke it was full dayli'ht, with normal sounds in the house elow! "he rats, livin' or s#e&tral, had not trou led me% and .i''er$5an was still 1uietly aslee#! On 'oin' down, I found that the same tran1uillity had #revailed elsewhere% a &ondition whi&h one of the assem led servants $$ a fellow named "hornton, devoted to the #sy&hi& $$ rather a surdly laid to the fa&t that I had now een shown the thin' whi&h &ertain for&es had wished to show me! 3ll was now ready, and at 11 3!5! our entire 'rou# of seven men, earin' #owerful ele&tri& sear&hli'hts and im#lements of ex&avation, went down to the su $&ellar and olted the door ehind us! .i''er$5an was with us, for the investi'ators found no o&&asion to de#ise his ex&ita ility, and were indeed anxious that he e #resent in &ase of o s&ure rodent manifestations! )e noted the 0oman ins&ri#tions and unknown altar desi'ns only riefly, for three of the savants had already seen them, and all knew their &hara&teristi&s! Prime attention was #aid to the momentous &entral altar, and within an hour *ir )illiam +rinton had &aused it to tilt a&kward, alan&ed y some unknown s#e&ies of &ounterwei'ht! "here now lay revealed su&h a horror as would have overwhelmed us had we not een #re#ared! "hrou'h a nearly s1uare o#enin' in the tiled floor, s#rawlin' on a fli'ht of stone ste#s so #rodi'iously worn that it was little more than an in&lined #lane at the &entre, was a 'hastly array of human or semi$human ones! "hose whi&h retained their &ollo&ation as skeletons showed attitudes of #ani& fear, and over all were the marks of rodent 'nawin'! "he skulls denoted nothin' short of utter idio&y, &retinism, or #rimitive semi$ a#edom! 3 ove the hellishly littered ste#s ar&hed a des&endin' #assa'e seemin'ly &hiselled from the solid ro&k, and &ondu&tin' a &urrent of air! "his &urrent was not a sudden and noxious rush as from a &losed vault, ut a &ool ree?e with somethin' of freshness in it! )e did not #ause lon', ut shiverin'ly e'an to &lear a #assa'e down the ste#s! It was then that *ir )illiam, examinin' the hewn walls, made the odd o servation that the #assa'e, a&&ordin' to the dire&tion of the strokes, must have een &hiselled from eneath! I must e very deli erate now, and &hoose my words! 3fter #lou'hin' down a few ste#s amidst the 'nawled ones we saw that there was li'ht ahead% not any mysti& #hos#hores&en&e, ut a filtered dayli'ht whi&h &ould not &ome ex&e#t from unknown fissures in the &liff that over$looked the waste valley! "hat su&h fissures had es&a#ed noti&e from outside was hardly remarka le, for not only is the valley wholly uninha ited, ut the &liff is so hi'h and eetlin' that only an aeronaut &ould study its fa&e in detail! 3 few ste#s more, and our reaths were literally snat&hed from us y what we saw% so literally that "hornton, the #sy&hi& investi'ator, a&tually fainted in the arms of the da?ed mem who stood ehind him! .orrys, his
#lum# fa&e utterly white and fla or hiss, and &over my eyes!
y, sim#ly &ried out inarti&ulately% whilst I think that what I did was to 'as#
"he man ehind me $$ the only one of the #arty older than I $$ &roaked the ha&kneyed A5y /od9A in the most &ra&ked voi&e I ever heard! Of seven &ultivated men, only *ir )illiam +rinton retained his &om#osure, a thin' the more to his &redit e&ause he led the #arty and must have seen the si'ht first! It was a twilit 'rotto of enormous hei'ht, stret&hin' away farther than any eye &ould see% a su terraneous world of limitless mystery and horri le su''estion! "here were uildin's and other ar&hite&tural remains $$ in one terrified 'lan&e I saw a weird #attern of tumuli, a sava'e &ir&le of monoliths, a low$domed 0oman ruin, a s#rawlin' *axon #ile, and an early En'lish edifi&e of wood $$ ut all these were dwarfed y the 'houlish s#e&ta&le #resented y the 'eneral surfa&e of the 'round! (or yards a out the ste#s extended an insane tan'le of human ones, or ones at least as human as those on the ste#s! @ike a foamy sea they stret&hed, some fallen a#art, ut others wholly or #artly arti&ulated as skeletons% these latter invaria ly in #ostures of daemonia& fren?y, either fi'htin' off some mena&e or &lut&hin' other forms with &anni al intent! )hen -r "rask, the anthro#olo'ist, sto##ed to &lassify the skulls, he found a de'raded mixture whi&h utterly affled him! "hey were mostly lower than the Piltdown man in the s&ale of evolution, ut in every &ase definitely human! 5any were of hi'her 'rade, and a very few were the skulls of su#remely and sensitively develo#ed ty#es! 3ll the ones were 'nawed, mostly y rats, ut somewhat y others of the half$human drove! 5ixed with them were many tiny hones of rats $$ fallen mem ers of the lethal army whi&h &losed the an&ient e#i&! I wonder that any man amon' us lived and ke#t his sanity throu'h that hideous day of dis&overy! .ot 8offman nor 8uysmans &ould &on&eive a s&ene more wildly in&redi le, more freneti&ally re#ellent, or more /othi&ally 'rotes1ue than the twilit 'rotto throu'h whi&h we seven sta''ered% ea&h stum lin' on revelation after revelation, and tryin' to kee# for the non&e from thinkin' of the events whi&h must have taken #la&e there three hundred, or a thousand, or two thousand or ten thousand years a'o! It was the ante&ham er of hell, and #oor "hornton fainted a'ain when "rask told him that some of the skeleton thin's must have des&ended as 1uadru#eds throu'h the last twenty or more 'enerations! 8orror #iled on horror as we e'an to inter#ret the ar&hite&tural remains! "he 1uadru#ed thin's $$ with their o&&asional re&ruits from the i#ed &lass $$ had een ke#t in stone #ens, out of whi&h they must have roken in their last delirium of hun'er or rat$fear! "here had een 'reat herds of them, evidently fattened on the &oarse ve'eta les whose remains &ould e found as a sort of #oisonous ensila'e at the ottom of the hu'e stone ins older than 0ome! I knew now why my an&estors had had su&h ex&essive 'ardens $$ would to heaven I &ould for'et9 "he #ur#ose of the herds I did not have to ask! *ir )illiam, standin' with his sear&hli'ht in the 0oman ruin, translated aloud the most sho&kin' ritual I have ever known% and told of the diet of the antediluvian &ult whi&h the #riests of 2y ele found and min'led with their own! .orrys, used as he was to the tren&hes, &ould not walk strai'ht when he &ame out of the En'lish uildin'! It was a ut&her sho# and kit&hen $$ he had ex#e&ted that $$ ut it was too mu&h to see familiar En'lish im#lements in su&h a #la&e, and to read familiar En'lish 'raffiti there, some as re&ent as 161:! I &ould not 'o in that uildin' $$ that uildin' whose daemon a&tivities were sto##ed only y the da''er of my an&estor )alter de la Poer! )hat I did venture to enter was the low *axon uildin' whose oaken door had fallen, and there I found a terri le row of ten stone &ells with rusty ars! "hree had tenants, all skeletons of hi'h 'rade, and on the ony forefin'er of one I found a seal rin' with my own &oat$of$arms! *ir )illiam found a vault with far older &ells elow the 0oman &ha#el, ut these &ells were em#ty! +elow them was a low &ry#t with &ases of formally arran'ed ones, some of them earin' terri le #arallel ins&ri#tions &arved in @atin, /reek, and the ton'ue of Phyr'ia! 5eanwhile, -r "rask had o#ened one of the #rehistori& tumuli, and rou'ht to li'ht skulls whi&h were sli'htly more human than a 'orilla=s, and whi&h ore indes&ri a ly ideo'ra#hi& &arvin's! "hrou'h all this
horror my &at stalked un#ertur ed! On&e I saw him monstrously #er&hed ato# a mountain of ones, and wondered at the se&rets that mi'ht lie ehind his yellow eyes! 8avin' 'ras#ed to some sli'ht de'ree the fri'htful revelations of this twilit area $$ an area so hideously foreshadowed y my re&urrent dream $$ we turned to that a##arently oundless de#th of midni'ht &avern where no ray of li'ht from the &liff &ould #enetrate! )e shall never know what si'htless *ty'ian worlds yawn eyond the little distan&e we went, for it was de&ided that su&h se&rets are not 'ood for mankind! +ut there was #lenty to en'ross us &lose at hand, for we had not 'one far efore the sear&hli'hts showed that a&&ursed infinity of #its in whi&h the rats had feasted, and whose sudden la&k of re#lenishment had driven the ravenous rodent army first to turn on the livin' herds of starvin' thin's, and then to urst forth from the #riory in that histori& or'y of devastation whi&h the #easants will never for'et! /od9 those &arrion la&k #its of sawed, #i&ked ones and o#ened skulls9 "hose ni'htmare &hasms &hoked with the #ithe&anthro#oid, 2elti&, 0oman, and En'lish ones of &ountless unhallowed &enturies9 *ome of them were full, and none &an say how dee# they had on&e een! Others were still ottomless to our sear&hli'hts, and #eo#led y unnama le fan&ies! )hat, I thou'ht, of the ha#less rats that stum led into su&h tra#s amidst the la&kness of their 1uests in this 'risly "artarusD On&e my foot sli##ed near a horri ly yawnin' rink, and I had a moment of e&stati& fear! I must have een musin' a lon' time, for I &ould not see any of the #arty ut #lum# 2a#t! .orrys! "hen there &ame a sound from that inky, oundless, farther distan&e that I thou'ht I knew% and I saw my old la&k &at dart #ast me like a win'ed E'y#tian 'od, strai'ht into the illimita le 'ulf of the unknown! +ut I was not far ehind, for there was no dou t after another se&ond! It was the eldrit&h s&urryin' of those fiend$ orn rats, always 1uestin' for new horrors, and determined to lead me on even unto those 'rinnin' &averns of earth=s &entre where .yarlathote#, the mad fa&eless 'od, howls lindly in the darkness to the #i#in' of two amor#hous idiot flute$#layers! 5y sear&hli'ht ex#ired, ut still I ran! I heard voi&es, and yowls, and e&hoes, ut a ove all there 'ently rose that im#ious, insidious s&urryin'% 'ently risin', risin', as a stiff loated &or#se 'ently rises a ove an oily river that flows under the endless onyx rid'es to a la&k, #utrid sea! *omethin' um#ed into me $$ somethin' soft and #lum#! It must have een the rats% the vis&ous, 'elatinous, ravenous army that feast on the dead and the livin' !!! )hy shouldn=t rats eat a de la Poer as a de la Poer eats for idden thin'sD !!! "he war ate my oy, damn them all !!! and the 7anks ate 2arfax with flames and urnt /randsire -ela#ore and the se&ret !!! .o, no, I tell you, I am not that daemon swineherd in the twilit 'rotto9 It was not Edward .orrys= fat fa&e on that fla y fun'ous thin'9 )ho says I am a de la PoerD 8e lived, ut my oy died9 !!! *hall a .orrys hold the land of a de la PoerD !!! It=s voodoo, I tell you !!! that s#otted snake !!! 2urse you, "hornton, I=ll tea&h you to faint at what my family do9 !!! =* lood, thou stinkard, I=ll learn ye how to 'ust !!! wolde ye swynke me thilke wysD!!! 5a'na 5ater9 5a'na 5ater9!!! 3tys!!! -ia ad a'haidh=s ad aodaun!!! a'us as dunar&h ort9 -honas =s dholas ort, a'us leat$sa9!!! 4n'l unl!!! rrlh !!! &h&h&h!!! "his is what they say I said when they found me in the la&kness after three hours% found me &rou&hin' in the la&kness over the #lum#, half$eaten ody of 2a#t! .orrys, with my own &at lea#in' and tearin' at my throat! .ow they have lown u# Exham Priory, taken my .i''er$5an away from me, and shut me into this arred room at 8anwell with fearful whis#ers a out my heredity and ex#erien&e! "hornton is in the next room, ut they #revent me from talkin' to him! "hey are tryin', too, to su##ress most of the fa&ts &on&ernin' the #riory! )hen I s#eak of #oor .orrys they a&&use me of this hideous thin', ut they must know that I did not do it! "hey must know it was the rats% the slitherin' s&urryin' rats whose s&am#erin' will never let me slee#% the daemon rats that ra&e ehind the #addin' in this room and e&kon me down to 'reater horrors than I have ever known% the rats they &an never hear% the rats, the rats in the walls!
by H. P. Lovecraft Written August through September of 1923 Published in March of 1924 in Weird Tales
On 16 July 1923, I moved into Exham Priory after the last workman had finished his la ours! "he restoration had een a stu#endous task, for little had remained of the deserted #ile ut a shell$like ruin% yet e&ause it had een the seat of my an&estors, I let no ex#ense deter me! "he #la&e had not een inha ited sin&e the rei'n of James the (irst, when a tra'edy of intensely hideous, thou'h lar'ely unex#lained, nature had stru&k down the master, five of his &hildren, and several servants% and driven forth under a &loud of sus#i&ion and terror the third son, my lineal #ro'enitor and the only survivor of the a horred line! )ith this sole heir denoun&ed as a murderer, the estate had reverted to the &rown, nor had the a&&used man made any attem#t to ex&ul#ate himself or re'ain his #ro#erty! *haken y some horror 'reater than that of &ons&ien&e or the law, and ex#ressin' only a franti& wish to ex&lude the an&ient edifi&e from his si'ht and memory, )alter de la Poer, eleventh +aron Exham, fled to ,ir'inia and there founded the family whi&h y the next &entury had e&ome known as -ela#ore! Exham Priory had remained untenanted, thou'h later allotted to the estates of the .orrys family and mu&h studied e&ause of its #e&uliarly &om#osite ar&hite&ture% an ar&hite&ture involvin' /othi& towers restin' on a *axon or 0omanes1ue su stru&ture, whose foundation in turn was of a still earlier order or lend of orders $$ 0oman, and even -ruidi& or native 2ymri&, if le'ends s#eak truly! "his foundation was a very sin'ular thin', ein' mer'ed on one side with the solid limestone of the #re&i#i&e from whose rink the #riory overlooked a desolate valley three miles west of the villa'e of 3n&hester! 3r&hite&ts and anti1uarians loved to examine this stran'e reli& of for'otten &enturies, ut the &ountry folk hated it! "hey had hated it hundreds of years efore, when my an&estors lived there, and they hated it now, with the moss and mould of a andonment on it! I had not een a day in 3n&hester efore I knew I &ame of an a&&ursed house! 3nd this week workmen have lown u# Exham Priory, and are usy o literatin' the tra&es of its foundations! "he are statisti&s of my an&estry I had always known, to'ether with the fa&t that my first 3meri&an fore ear had &ome to the &olonies under a stran'e &loud! Of details, however, I had een ke#t wholly i'norant throu'h the #oli&y of reti&en&e always maintained y the -ela#ores! 4nlike our #lanter nei'h ours, we seldom oasted of &rusadin' an&estors or other mediaeval and 0enaissan&e heroes% nor was any kind of tradition handed down ex&e#t what may have een re&orded in the sealed envelo#e left efore the 2ivil )ar y every s1uire to his eldest son for #osthumous o#enin'! "he 'lories we &herished were those a&hieved sin&e the mi'ration% the 'lories of a #roud and honoura le, if somewhat reserved and unso&ial ,ir'inia line! -urin' the war our fortunes were extin'uished and our whole existen&e &han'ed y the urnin' of 2arfax, our home on the anks of the James! 5y 'randfather, advan&ed in years, had #erished in that in&endiary outra'e, and with him the envelo#e that had ound us all to the #ast! I &an re&all that fire today as I saw it then at the a'e of seven, with the federal soldiers shoutin', the women s&reamin', and the ne'roes howlin' and #rayin'! 5y father was in the army, defendin' 0i&hmond, and after many formalities my mother and I were #assed throu'h the lines to 6oin him! )hen the war ended we all moved north, when&e my mother had &ome% and I 'rew to manhood, middle a'e, and ultimate wealth as a stolid 7ankee! .either my father nor I ever knew what our hereditary envelo#e had &ontained, and as I mer'ed into the 'reyness of 5assa&husetts usiness life I lost all
interest in the mysteries whi&h evidently lurked far a&k in my family tree! 8ad I sus#e&ted their nature, how 'ladly I would have left Exham Priory to its moss, ats and &o we s9 5y father died in 19:;, ut without any messa'e to leave to me, or to my only &hild, 3lfred, a motherless oy of ten! It was this oy who reversed the order of family information, for althou'h I &ould 'ive him only 6estin' &on6e&tures a out the #ast, he wrote me of some very interestin' an&estral le'ends when the late war took him to En'land in 191< as an aviation offi&er! 3##arently the -ela#ores had a &olourful and #erha#s sinister history, for a friend of my son=s, 2a#t! Edward .orrys of the 0oyal (lyin' 2or#s, dwelt near the family seat at 3n&hester and related some #easant su#erstitions whi&h few novelists &ould e1ual for wildness and in&redi ility! .orrys himself, of &ourse, did not take them so seriously% ut they amused my son and made 'ood material for his letters to me! It was this le'endry whi&h definitely turned my attention to my transatlanti& herita'e, and made me resolve to #ur&hase and restore the family seat whi&h .orrys showed to 3lfred in its #i&tures1ue desertion, and offered to 'et for him at a sur#risin'ly reasona le fi'ure, sin&e his own un&le was the #resent owner! I ou'ht Exham Priory in 191>, ut was almost immediately distra&ted from my #lans of restoration y the return of my son as a maimed invalid! -urin' the two years that he lived I thou'ht of nothin' ut his &are, havin' even #la&ed my usiness under the dire&tion of #artners! In 1921, as I found myself ereaved and aimless, a retired manufa&turer no lon'er youn', I resolved to divert my remainin' years with my new #ossession! ,isitin' 3n&hester in -e&em er, I was entertained y 2a#t! .orrys, a #lum#, amia le youn' man who had thou'ht mu&h of my son, and se&ured his assistan&e in 'atherin' #lans and ane&dotes to 'uide in the &omin' restoration! Exham Priory itself I saw without emotion, a 6um le of totterin' mediaeval ruins &overed with li&hens and honey&om ed with rooks= nests, #er&hed #erilously u#on a #re&i#i&e, and denuded of floors or other interior features save the stone walls of the se#arate towers! 3s I 'radually re&overed the ima'e of the edifi&e as it had een when my an&estors left it over three &enturies efore, I e'an to hire workmen for the re&onstru&tion! In every &ase I was for&ed to 'o outside the immediate lo&ality, for the 3n&hester villa'ers had an almost un elieva le fear and hatred of the #la&e! "he sentiment was so 'reat that it was sometimes &ommuni&ated to the outside la ourers, &ausin' numerous desertions% whilst its s&o#e a##eared to in&lude oth the #riory and its an&ient family! 5y son had told me that he was somewhat avoided durin' his visits e&ause he was a de la Poer, and I now found myself su tly ostra&i?ed for a like reason until I &onvin&ed the #easants how little I knew of my herita'e! Even then they sullenly disliked me, so that I had to &olle&t most of the villa'e traditions throu'h the mediation of .orrys! )hat the #eo#le &ould not for'ive, #erha#s, was that I had &ome to restore a sym ol so a horrent to them% for, rationally or not, they viewed Exham Priory as nothin' less than a haunt of fiends and werewolves! Pie&in' to'ether the tales whi&h .orrys &olle&ted for me, and su##lementin' them with the a&&ounts of several savants who had studied the ruins, I dedu&ed that Exham Priory stood on the site of a #rehistori& tem#le% a -ruidi&al or ante$-ruidi&al thin' whi&h must have een &ontem#orary with *tonehen'e! "hat indes&ri a le rites had een &ele rated there, few dou ted, and there were un#leasant tales of the transferen&e of these rites into the 2y ele worshi# whi&h the 0omans had introdu&ed! Ins&ri#tions still visi le in the su $&ellar ore su&h unmistaka le letters as =-I,!!! OP* !!! 53/.3! 53"!!!=, si'n of the 5a'na 5ater whose dark worshi# was on&e vainly for idden to 0oman &iti?ens! 3n&hester had een the &am# of the third 3u'ustan le'ion, as many remains attest, and it was said that the tem#le of 2y ele was s#lendid and thron'ed with worshi##ers who #erformed nameless &eremonies at the iddin' of a Phry'ian #riest! "ales added that the fall of the old reli'ion did not end the or'ies at the tem#le, ut that the #riests lived on in the new faith without real &han'e! @ikewise was it said that the rites did not vanish with the 0oman #ower, and that &ertain amon' the *axons added to what remained of the tem#le, and 'ave it the essential outline it su se1uently #reserved, makin' it the &entre of a &ult feared throu'h half the he#tar&hy! 3 out 1::: 3!-! the #la&e is mentioned in a &hroni&le as ein' a su stantial stone #riory housin' a stran'e and #owerful monasti& order and surrounded y extensive 'ardens whi&h needed no walls to ex&lude a fri'htened #o#ula&e! It was never destroyed y the -anes, thou'h after the .orman
2on1uest it must have de&lined tremendously, sin&e there was no im#ediment when 8enry the "hird 'ranted the site to my an&estor, /il ert de la Poer, (irst +aron Exham, in 1261! Of my family efore this date there is no evil re#ort, ut somethin' stran'e must have ha##ened then! In one &hroni&le there is a referen&e to a de la Poer as A&ursed of /od in 13:<A, whilst villa'e le'endry had nothin' ut evil and franti& fear to tell of the &astle that went u# on the foundations of the old tem#le and #riory! "he fireside tales were of the most 'risly des&ri#tion, all the 'hastlier e&ause of their fri'htened reti&en&e and &loudy evasiveness! "hey re#resented my an&estors as a ra&e of hereditary daemons eside whom /illes de 0et? and the 5ar1uis de *ade would seem the veriest tyros, and hinted whis#erin'ly at their res#onsi ility for the o&&asional disa##earan&es of villa'ers throu'h several 'enerations! "he worst &hara&ters, a##arently, were the arons and their dire&t heirs% at least, most was whis#ered a out these! If of healthier in&linations, it was said, an heir would early and mysteriously die to make way for another more ty#i&al s&ion! "here seemed to e an inner &ult in the family, #resided over y the head of the house, and sometimes &losed ex&e#t to a few mem ers! "em#erament rather than an&estry was evidently the asis of this &ult, for it was entered y several who married into the family! @ady 5ar'aret "revor from 2ornwall, wife of /odfrey, the se&ond son of the fifth aron, e&ame a favourite ane of &hildren all over the &ountryside, and the daemon heroine of a #arti&ularly horri le old allad not yet extin&t near the )elsh order! Preserved in alladry, too, thou'h not illustratin' the same #oint, is the hideous tale of @ady 5ary de la Poer, who shortly after her marria'e to the Earl of *hrewsfield was killed y him and his mother, oth of the slayers ein' a solved and lessed y the #riest to whom they &onfessed what they dared not re#eat to the world! "hese myths and allads, ty#i&al as they were of &rude su#erstition, re#elled me 'reatly! "heir #ersisten&e, and their a##li&ation to so lon' a line of my an&estors, were es#e&ially annoyin'% whilst the im#utations of monstrous ha its #roved un#leasantly reminis&ent of the one known s&andal of my immediate fore ears $$ the &ase of my &ousin, youn' 0andol#h -ela#ore of 2arfax who went amon' the ne'roes and e&ame a voodoo #riest after he returned from the 5exi&an )ar! I was mu&h less distur ed y the va'uer tales of wails and howlin's in the arren, windswe#t valley eneath the limestone &liff% of the 'raveyard sten&hes after the s#rin' rains% of the flounderin', s1uealin' white thin' on whi&h *ir John 2lave=s horse had trod one ni'ht in a lonely field% and of the servant who had 'one mad at what he saw in the #riory in the full li'ht of day! "hese thin's were ha&kneyed s#e&tral lore, and I was at that time a #ronoun&ed s&e#ti&! "he a&&ounts of vanished #easants were less to e dismissed, thou'h not es#e&ially si'nifi&ant in view of mediaeval &ustom! Pryin' &uriosity meant death, and more than one severed head had een #u li&ly shown on the astions $$ now effa&ed $$ around Exham Priory! 3 few of the tales were ex&eedin'ly #i&tures1ue, and made me wish I had learnt more of the &om#arative mytholo'y in my youth! "here was, for instan&e, the elief that a le'ion of at$win'ed devils ke#t wit&hes= sa ath ea&h ni'ht at the #riory $$ a le'ion whose sustenan&e mi'ht ex#lain the dis#ro#ortionate a undan&e of &oarse ve'eta les harvested in the vast 'ardens! 3nd, most vivid of all, there was the dramati& e#i& of the rats $$ the s&am#erin' army of o s&ene vermin whi&h had urst forth from the &astle three months after the tra'edy that doomed it to desertion $$ the lean, filthy, ravenous army whi&h had swe#t all efore it and devoured fowl, &ats, do's, ho's, shee#, and even two ha#less human ein's efore its fury was s#ent! 3round that unfor'etta le rodent army a whole se#arate &y&le of myths revolves, for it s&attered amon' the villa'e homes and rou'ht &urses and horrors in its train! *u&h was the lore that assailed me as I #ushed to &om#letion, with an elderly o stina&y, the work of restorin' my an&estral home! It must not e ima'ined for a moment that these tales formed my #rin&i#al #sy&holo'i&al environinent! On the other hand, I was &onstantly #raised and en&oura'ed y 2a#t! .orrys and the anti1uarians who surrounded and aided me! )hen the task was done, over two years after its &ommen&ement, I viewed the 'reat rooms, wains&oted walls, vaulted &eilin's, mullioned windows, and road stair&ases with a #ride whi&h fully &om#ensated for the #rodi'ious ex#ense of the restoration! Every attri ute of the 5iddle 3'es was &unnin'ly re#rodu&ed and the new #arts lended #erfe&tly with the
ori'inal walls and foundations! "he seat of my fathers was &om#lete, and I looked forward to redeemin' at last the lo&al fame of the line whi&h ended in me! I &ould reside here #ermanently, and #rove that a de la Poer Bfor I had ado#ted a'ain the ori'inal s#ellin' of the nameC need not e a fiend! 5y &omfort was #erha#s au'mented y the fa&t that, althou'h Exham Priory was mediaevally fitted, its interior was in truth wholly new and free from old vermin and old 'hosts alike! 3s I have said, I moved in on 16 July 1923! 5y household &onsisted of seven servants and nine &ats, of whi&h latter s#e&ies I am #arti&ularly fond! 5y eldest &at, A.i''er$5anA, was seven years old and had &ome with me from my home in +olton, 5assa&husetts% the others I had a&&umulated whilst livin' with 2a#t! .orrys= family durin' the restoration of the #riory! (or five days our routine #ro&eeded with the utmost #la&idity, my time ein' s#ent mostly in the &odifi&ation of old family data! I had now o tained some very &ir&umstantial a&&ounts of the final tra'edy and fli'ht of )alter de la Poer, whi&h I &on&eived to e the #ro a le &ontents of the hereditary #a#er lost in the fire at 2arfax! It a##eared that my an&estor was a&&used with mu&h reason of havin' killed all the other mem ers of his household, ex&e#t four servant &onfederates, in their slee#, a out two weeks after a sho&kin' dis&overy whi&h &han'ed his whole demeanour, ut whi&h, ex&e#t y im#li&ation, he dis&losed to no one save #erha#s the servants who assisted him and afterwards fled eyond rea&h! "his deli erate slau'hter, whi&h in&luded a father, three rothers, and two sisters, was lar'ely &ondoned y the villa'ers, and so sla&kly treated y the law that its #er#etrator es&a#ed honoured, unharmed, and undis'uised to ,ir'inia% the 'eneral whis#ered sentiment ein' that he had #ur'ed the land of an immemorial &urse! )hat dis&overy had #rom#ted an a&t so terri le, I &ould s&ar&ely even &on6e&ture! )alter de la Poer must have known for years the sinister tales a out his family, so that this material &ould have 'iven him no fresh im#ulse! 8ad he, then, witnessed some a##allin' an&ient rite, or stum led u#on some fri'htful and revealin' sym ol in the #riory or its vi&inityD 8e was re#uted to have een a shy, 'entle youth in En'land! In ,ir'inia he seemed not so mu&h hard or itter as harassed and a##rehensive! 8e was s#oken of in the diary of another 'entleman adventurer, (ran&is 8arley of +ellview, as a man of unexam#led 6usti&e, honour, and deli&a&y! On 22 July o&&urred the first in&ident whi&h, thou'h li'htly dismissed at the time, takes on a #reternatural si'nifi&an&e in relation to later events! It was so sim#le as to e almost ne'li'i le, and &ould not #ossi ly have een noti&ed under the &ir&umstan&es% for it must e re&alled that sin&e I was in a uildin' #ra&ti&ally fresh and new ex&e#t for the walls, and surrounded y a well$ alan&ed staff of servitors, a##rehension would have een a surd des#ite the lo&ality! )hat I afterward remem ered is merely this $$ that my old la&k &at, whose moods I know so well, was undou tedly alert and anxious to an extent wholly out of kee#in' with his natural &hara&ter! 8e roved from room to room, restless and distur ed, and sniffed &onstantly a out the walls whi&h formed #art of the /othi& stru&ture! I reali?e how trite this sounds $$ like the inevita le do' in the 'host story, whi&h always 'rowls efore his master sees the sheeted fi'ure $$ yet I &annot &onsistently su##ress it! "he followin' day a servant &om#lained of restlessness amon' all the &ats in the house! 8e &ame to me in my study, a lofty west room on the se&ond storey, with 'roined ar&hes, la&k oak #anellin', and a tri#le /othi& window overlookin' the limestone &liff and desolate valley% and even as he s#oke I saw the 6etty form of .i''er$5an &ree#in' alon' the west wall and s&rat&hin' at the new #anels whi&h overlaid the an&ient stone! I told the man that there must e a sin'ular odour or emanation from the old stonework, im#er&e#ti le to human senses, ut affe&tin' the deli&ate or'ans of &ats even throu'h the new woodwork! "his I truly elieved, and when the fellow su''ested the #resen&e of mi&e or rats, I mentioned that there had een no rats there for three hundred years, and that even the field mi&e of the surroundin' &ountry &ould hardly e found in these hi'h walls, where they had never een known to stray! "hat afternoon I &alled on 2a#t! .orrys, and he assured me that it would e 1uite in&redi le for field mi&e to infest the #riory in su&h a sudden and un#re&edented fashion!
"hat ni'ht, dis#ensin' as usual with a valet, I retired in the west tower &ham er whi&h I had &hosen as my own, rea&hed from the study y a stone stair&ase and short 'allery $$ the former #artly an&ient, the latter entirely restored! "his room was &ir&ular, very hi'h, and without wains&otin', ein' hun' with arras whi&h I had myself &hosen in @ondon! *eein' that .i''er$5an was with me, I shut the heavy /othi& door and retired y the li'ht of the ele&tri& ul s whi&h so &leverly &ounterfeited &andles, finally swit&hin' off the li'ht and sinkin' on the &arved and &ano#ied four$#oster, with the venera le &at in his a&&ustomed #la&e a&ross my feet! I did not draw the &urtains, ut 'a?ed out at the narrow window whi&h I fa&ed! "here was a sus#i&ion of aurora in the sky, and the deli&ate tra&eries of the window were #leasantly silhouetted! 3t some time I must have fallen 1uietly aslee#, for I re&all a distin&t sense of leavin' stran'e dreams, when the &at started violently from his #la&id #osition! I saw him in the faint auroral 'low, head strained forward, fore feet on my ankles, and hind feet stret&hed ehind! 8e was lookin' intensely at a #oint on the wall somewhat west of the window, a #oint whi&h to my eye had nothin' to mark it, ut toward whi&h all my attention was now dire&ted! 3nd as I wat&hed, I knew that .i''er$5an was not vainly ex&ited! )hether the arras a&tually moved I &annot say! I think it did, very sli'htly! +ut what I &an swear to is that ehind it I heard a low, distin&t s&urryin' as of rats or mi&e! In a moment the &at had 6um#ed odily on the s&reenin' ta#estry, rin'in' the affe&ted se&tion to the floor with his wei'ht, and ex#osin' a dam#, an&ient wall of stone% #at&hed here and there y the restorers, and devoid of any tra&e of rodent #rowlers! .i''er$5an ra&ed u# and down the floor y this #art of the wall, &lawin' the fallen arras and seemin'ly tryin' at times to insert a #aw etween the wall and the oaken floor! 8e found nothin', and after a time returned wearily to his #la&e a&ross my feet! I had not moved, ut I did not slee# a'ain that ni'ht! In the mornin' I 1uestioned all the servants, and found that none of them had noti&ed anythin' unusual, save that the &ook remem ered the a&tions of a &at whi&h had rested on her windowsill! "his &at had howled at some unknown hour of the ni'ht, awakin' the &ook in time for her to see him dart #ur#osefully out of the o#en door down the stairs! I drowsed away the noontime, and in the afternoon &alled a'ain on 2a#t! .orrys, who e&ame ex&eedin'ly interested in what I told him! "he odd in&idents $$ so sli'ht yet so &urious $$ a##ealed to his sense of the #i&tures1ue and eli&ited from him a num er of reminis&enses of lo&al 'hostly lore! )e were 'enuinely #er#lexed at the #resen&e of rats, and .orrys lent me some tra#s and Paris 'reen, whi&h I had the servants #la&e in strate'i& lo&alities when I returned! I retired early, ein' very slee#y, ut was harassed y dreams of the most horri le sort! I seemed to e lookin' down from an immense hei'ht u#on a twilit 'rotto, knee$dee# with filth, where a white$ earded daemon swineherd drove a out with his staff a flo&k of fun'ous, fla y easts whose a##earan&e filled me with unuttera le loathin'! "hen, as the swineherd #aused and nodded over his task, a mi'hty swarm of rats rained down on the stinkin' a yss and fell to devourin' easts and man alike! (rom this terrifi& vision I was a ru#tly awakened y the motions of .i''er$5an, who had een slee#in' as usual a&ross my feet! "his time I did not have to 1uestion the sour&e of his snarls and hisses, and of the fear whi&h made him sink his &laws into my ankle, un&ons&ious of their effe&t% for on every side of the &ham er the walls were alive with nauseous sound $$ the veminous slitherin' of ravenous, 'i'anti& rats! "here was now no aurora to show the state of the arras $$ the fallen se&tion of whi&h had een re#la&ed $ ut I was not too fri'htened to swit&h on the li'ht! 3s the ul s lea#t into radian&e I saw a hideous shakin' all over the ta#estry, &ausin' the somewhat #e&uliar desi'ns to exe&ute a sin'ular dan&e of death! "his motion disa##eared almost at on&e, and the sound with it! *#rin'in' out of ed, I #oked at the arras with the lon' handle of a warmin'$#an that rested near, and lifted one se&tion to see what lay eneath! "here was nothin' ut the #at&hed stone wall, and even the &at had lost his tense reali?ation of a normal #resen&es! )hen I examined the &ir&ular tra# that had een #la&ed in the room, I found all of the o#enin's s#run', thou'h no tra&e remained of what had een &au'ht and had es&a#ed!
(urther slee# was out of the 1uestion, so li'htin' a &andle, I o#ened the door and went out in the 'allery towards the stairs to my study, .i''er$5an followin' at my heels! +efore we had rea&hed the stone ste#s, however, the &at darted ahead of me and vanished down the an&ient fli'ht! 3s I des&ended the stairs myself, I e&ame suddenly aware of sounds in the 'reat room elow% sounds of a nature whi&h &ould not e mistaken! "he oak$#anelled walls were alive with rats, s&am#erin' and millin' whilst .i''er$5an was ra&in' a out with the fury of a affled hunter! 0ea&hin' the ottom, I swit&hed on the li'ht, whi&h did not this time &ause the noise to su side! "he rats &ontinued their riot, stam#edin' with su&h for&e and distin&tness that I &ould finally assi'n to their motions a definite dire&tion! "hese &reatures, in num ers a##arently inexhausti le, were en'a'ed in one stu#endous mi'ration from in&on&eiva le hei'hts to some de#th &on&eiva ly or in&on&eiva ly elow! I now heard ste#s in the &orridor, and in another moment two servants #ushed o#en the massive door! "hey were sear&hin' the house for some unknown sour&e of distur an&e whi&h had thrown all the &ats into a snarlin' #ani& and &aused them to #lun'e #re&i#itately down several fli'hts of stairs and s1uat, yowlin', efore the &losed door to the su $&ellar! I asked them if they had heard the rats, ut they re#lied in the ne'ative! 3nd when I turned to &all their attention to the sounds in the #anels, I reali?ed that the noise had &eased! )ith the two men, I went down to the door of the su $&ellar, ut found the &ats already dis#ersed! @ater I resolved to ex#lore the &ry#t elow, ut for the #resent I merely made a round of the tra#s! 3ll were s#run', yet all were tenantless! *atisfyin' myself that no one had heard the rats save the felines and me, I sat in my study till mornin', thinkin' #rofoundly and re&allin' every s&ra# of le'end I had unearthed &on&ernin' the uildin' I inha ited! I sle#t some in the forenoon, leanin' a&k in the one &omforta le li rary &hair whi&h my mediaeval #lan of furnishin' &ould not anish! @ater I tele#honed to 2a#t! .orrys, who &ame over and hel#ed me ex#lore the su $&ellar! 3 solutely nothin' untoward was found, althou'h we &ould not re#ress a thrill at the knowled'e that this vault was uilt y 0oman hands! Every low ar&h and massive #illar was 0oman $$ not the de ased 0omanes1ue of the un'lin' *axons, ut the severe and harmonious &lassi&ism of the a'e of the 2aesars% indeed, the walls a ounded with ins&ri#tions familiar to the anti1uarians who had re#eatedly ex#lored the #la&e $$ thin's like AP! /E"3E! P0OP!!! "E5P!!! -O.3!!!A and A@! P03E/!!! ,*!!! PO."I(I!!! 3"7*!!!A "he referen&e to 3tys made me shiver, for I had read 2atullus and knew somethin' of the hideous rites of the Eastern 'od, whose worshi# was so mixed with that of 2y ele! .orrys and I, y the li'ht of lanterns, tried to inter#ret the odd and nearly effa&ed desi'ns on &ertain irre'ularly re&tan'ular lo&ks of stone 'enerally held to e altars, ut &ould make nothin' of them! )e remem ered that one #attern, a sort of rayed sun, was held y students to im#ly a non$0oman ori'in su''estin' that these altars had merely een ado#ted y the 0oman #riests from some older and #erha#s a ori'inal tem#le on the same site! On one of these lo&ks were some rown stains whi&h made me wonder! "he lar'est, in the &entre of the room, had &ertain features on the u##er surfa&e whi&h indi&ated its &onne&tion with fire $$ #ro a ly urnt offerin's! *u&h were the si'hts in that &ry#t efore whose door the &ats howled, and where .orrys and I now determined to #ass the ni'ht! 2ou&hes were rou'ht down y the servants, who were told not to mind any no&turnal a&tions of the &ats, and .i''er$5an was admitted as mu&h for hel# as for &om#anionshi#! )e de&ided to kee# the 'reat oak door $$ a modern re#li&a with slits for ventilation $$ ti'htly &losed% and, with this attended to, we retired with lanterns still urnin' to await whatever mi'ht o&&ur! "he vault was very dee# in the foundations of the #riory, and undou tedly far down on the fa&e of the eetlin' limestone &liff overlookin' the waste valley! "hat it had een the 'oal of the s&ufflin' and unex#laina le rats I &ould not dou t, thou'h why, I &ould not tell! 3s we lay there ex#e&tantly, I found my vi'il o&&asionally mixed with half$formed dreams from whi&h the uneasy motions of the &at a&ross my feet would rouse me!
"hese dreams were not wholesome, ut horri ly like the one I had had the ni'ht efore! I saw a'ain the twilit 'rotto, and the swineherd with his unmentiona le fun'ous easts wallowin' in filth, and as I looked at these thin's they seemed nearer and more distin&t $$ so distin&t that I &ould almost o serve their features! "hen I did o serve the fla y features of one of them $$ and awakened with su&h a s&ream that .i''er$ 5an started u#, whilst 2a#t! .orrys, who had not sle#t, lau'hed &onsidera ly! .orrys mi'ht have lau'hed more $$ or #erha#s less $$ had he known what it was that made me s&ream! +ut I did not remem er myself till later! 4ltimate horror often #aralyses memory in a mer&iful way! .orrys waked me when the #henomena e'an! Out of the same fri'htful dream I was &alled y his 'entle shakin' and his ur'in' to listen to the &ats! Indeed, there was mu&h to listen to, for eyond the &losed door at the head of the stone ste#s was a verita le ni'htmare of feline yellin' and &lawin', whilst .i''er$5an, unmindful of his kindred outside, was runnin' ex&itedly round the are stone walls, in whi&h I heard the same a el of s&urryin' rats that had trou led me the ni'ht efore! 3n a&ute terror now rose within me, for here were anomalies whi&h nothin' normal &ould well ex#lain! "hese rats, if not the &reatures of a madness whi&h I shared with the &ats alone, must e urrowin' and slidin' in 0oman walls I had thou'ht to e solid limestone lo&ks !!! unless #erha#s the a&tion of water throu'h more than seventeen &enturies had eaten windin' tunnels whi&h rodent odies had worn &lear and am#le !!! +ut even so, the s#e&tral horror was no less% for if these were livin' vermin why did not .orrys hear their dis'ustin' &ommotionD )hy did he ur'e me to wat&h .i''er$5an and listen to the &ats outside, and why did he 'uess wildly and va'uely at what &ould have aroused themD +y the time I had mana'ed to tell him, as rationally as I &ould, what I thou'ht I was hearin', my ears 'ave me the last fadin' im#ression of s&urryin'% whi&h had retreated still downward, far underneath this dee#est of su $&ellars till it seemed as if the whole &liff elow were riddled with 1uestin' rats! .orrys was not as s&e#ti&al as I had anti&i#ated, ut instead seemed #rofoundly moved! 8e motioned to me to noti&e that the &ats at the door had &eased their &lamour, as if 'ivin' u# the rats for lost% whilst .i''er$5an had a urst of renewed restlessness, and was &lawin' franti&ally around the ottom of the lar'e stone altar in the &entre of the room, whi&h was nearer .orrys= &ou&h than mine! 5y fear of the unknown was at this #oint very 'reat! *omethin' astoundin' had o&&urred, and I saw that 2a#t! .orrys, a youn'er, stouter, and #resuma ly more naturally materialisti& man, was affe&ted fully as mu&h as myself $$ #erha#s e&ause of his lifelon' and intimate familiarity with lo&al le'end! )e &ould for the moment do nothin' ut wat&h the old la&k &at as he #awed with de&reasin' fervour at the ase of the altar, o&&asionally lookin' u# and mewin' to me in that #ersuasive manner whi&h he used when he wished me to #erform some favour for him! .orrys now took a lantern &lose to the altar and examined the #la&e where .i''er$5an was #awin'% silently kneelin' and s&ra#in' away the li&hens of the &enturies whi&h 6oined the massive #re$0oman lo&k to the tessellated floor! 8e did not find anythin', and was a out to a andon his efforts when I noti&ed a trivial &ir&umstan&e whi&h made me shudder, even thou'h it im#lied nothin' more than I had already ima'ined! I told him of it, and we oth looked at its almost im#er&e#ti le manifestation with the fixedness of fas&inated dis&overy and a&knowled'ment! It was only this $$ that the flame of the lantern set down near the altar was sli'htly ut &ertainly fli&kerin' from a drau'ht of air whi&h it had not efore re&eived, and whi&h &ame indu ita ly from the &revi&e etween floor and altar where .orrys was s&ra#in' away the li&hens! )e s#ent the rest of the ni'ht in the rilliantly$li'hted study, nervously dis&ussin' what we should do next! "he dis&overy that some vault dee#er than the dee#est known masonry of the 0omans underlay this a&&ursed #ile, some vault unsus#e&ted y the &urious anti1uarians of three &enturies, would have een suffi&ient to ex&ite us without any a&k'round of the sinister! 3s it was, the fas&ination e&ame two$fold% and we #aused in dou t whether to a andon our sear&h and 1uit the #riory forever in su#erstitious &aution, or to 'ratify our sense of adventure and rave whatever horrors mi'ht await us in the unknown de#ths!
+y mornin' we had &om#romised, and de&ided to 'o to @ondon to 'ather a 'rou# of ar&haeolo'ists and s&ientifi& men fit to &o#e with the mystery! It should e mentioned that efore leavin' the su $&ellar we had vainly tried to move the &entral altar whi&h we now re&o'ni?ed as the 'ate to a new #it of nameless fear! )hat se&ret would o#en the 'ate, wiser men than we would have to find! -urin' many days in @ondon 2a#t! .orrys and I #resented our fa&ts, &on6e&tures, and le'endary ane&dotes to five eminent authorities, all men who &ould e trusted to res#e&t any family dis&losures whi&h future ex#lorations mi'ht develo#! )e found most of them little dis#osed to s&off ut, instead, intensely interested and sin&erely sym#atheti&! It is hardly ne&essary to name them all, ut I may say that they in&luded *ir )illiam +rinton, whose ex&avations in the "road ex&ited most of the world in their day! 3s we all took the train for 3n&hester I felt myself #oised on the rink of fri'htful revelations, a sensation sym oli?ed y the air of mournin' amon' the many 3meri&ans at the unex#e&ted death of the President on the other side of the world! On the evenin' of < 3u'ust we rea&hed Exham Priory, where the servants assured me that nothin' unusual had o&&urred! "he &ats, even old .i''er$5an, had een #erfe&tly #la&id, and not a tra# in the house had een s#run'! )e were to e'in ex#lorin' on the followin' dlay, awaitin' whi&h I assi'ned well$ a##ointed rooms to all my 'uests! I myself retired in my own tower &ham er, with .i''er$5an a&ross my feet! *lee# &ame 1ui&kly, ut hideous dreams assailed me! "here was a vision of a 0oman feast like that of "rimal&hio, with a horror in a &overed #latter! "hen &ame that damna le, re&urrent thin' a out the swineherd and his filthy drove in the twilit 'rotto! 7et when I awoke it was full dayli'ht, with normal sounds in the house elow! "he rats, livin' or s#e&tral, had not trou led me% and .i''er$5an was still 1uietly aslee#! On 'oin' down, I found that the same tran1uillity had #revailed elsewhere% a &ondition whi&h one of the assem led servants $$ a fellow named "hornton, devoted to the #sy&hi& $$ rather a surdly laid to the fa&t that I had now een shown the thin' whi&h &ertain for&es had wished to show me! 3ll was now ready, and at 11 3!5! our entire 'rou# of seven men, earin' #owerful ele&tri& sear&hli'hts and im#lements of ex&avation, went down to the su $&ellar and olted the door ehind us! .i''er$5an was with us, for the investi'ators found no o&&asion to de#ise his ex&ita ility, and were indeed anxious that he e #resent in &ase of o s&ure rodent manifestations! )e noted the 0oman ins&ri#tions and unknown altar desi'ns only riefly, for three of the savants had already seen them, and all knew their &hara&teristi&s! Prime attention was #aid to the momentous &entral altar, and within an hour *ir )illiam +rinton had &aused it to tilt a&kward, alan&ed y some unknown s#e&ies of &ounterwei'ht! "here now lay revealed su&h a horror as would have overwhelmed us had we not een #re#ared! "hrou'h a nearly s1uare o#enin' in the tiled floor, s#rawlin' on a fli'ht of stone ste#s so #rodi'iously worn that it was little more than an in&lined #lane at the &entre, was a 'hastly array of human or semi$human ones! "hose whi&h retained their &ollo&ation as skeletons showed attitudes of #ani& fear, and over all were the marks of rodent 'nawin'! "he skulls denoted nothin' short of utter idio&y, &retinism, or #rimitive semi$ a#edom! 3 ove the hellishly littered ste#s ar&hed a des&endin' #assa'e seemin'ly &hiselled from the solid ro&k, and &ondu&tin' a &urrent of air! "his &urrent was not a sudden and noxious rush as from a &losed vault, ut a &ool ree?e with somethin' of freshness in it! )e did not #ause lon', ut shiverin'ly e'an to &lear a #assa'e down the ste#s! It was then that *ir )illiam, examinin' the hewn walls, made the odd o servation that the #assa'e, a&&ordin' to the dire&tion of the strokes, must have een &hiselled from eneath! I must e very deli erate now, and &hoose my words! 3fter #lou'hin' down a few ste#s amidst the 'nawled ones we saw that there was li'ht ahead% not any mysti& #hos#hores&en&e, ut a filtered dayli'ht whi&h &ould not &ome ex&e#t from unknown fissures in the &liff that over$looked the waste valley! "hat su&h fissures had es&a#ed noti&e from outside was hardly remarka le, for not only is the valley wholly uninha ited, ut the &liff is so hi'h and eetlin' that only an aeronaut &ould study its fa&e in detail! 3 few ste#s more, and our reaths were literally snat&hed from us y what we saw% so literally that "hornton, the #sy&hi& investi'ator, a&tually fainted in the arms of the da?ed mem who stood ehind him! .orrys, his
#lum# fa&e utterly white and fla or hiss, and &over my eyes!
y, sim#ly &ried out inarti&ulately% whilst I think that what I did was to 'as#
"he man ehind me $$ the only one of the #arty older than I $$ &roaked the ha&kneyed A5y /od9A in the most &ra&ked voi&e I ever heard! Of seven &ultivated men, only *ir )illiam +rinton retained his &om#osure, a thin' the more to his &redit e&ause he led the #arty and must have seen the si'ht first! It was a twilit 'rotto of enormous hei'ht, stret&hin' away farther than any eye &ould see% a su terraneous world of limitless mystery and horri le su''estion! "here were uildin's and other ar&hite&tural remains $$ in one terrified 'lan&e I saw a weird #attern of tumuli, a sava'e &ir&le of monoliths, a low$domed 0oman ruin, a s#rawlin' *axon #ile, and an early En'lish edifi&e of wood $$ ut all these were dwarfed y the 'houlish s#e&ta&le #resented y the 'eneral surfa&e of the 'round! (or yards a out the ste#s extended an insane tan'le of human ones, or ones at least as human as those on the ste#s! @ike a foamy sea they stret&hed, some fallen a#art, ut others wholly or #artly arti&ulated as skeletons% these latter invaria ly in #ostures of daemonia& fren?y, either fi'htin' off some mena&e or &lut&hin' other forms with &anni al intent! )hen -r "rask, the anthro#olo'ist, sto##ed to &lassify the skulls, he found a de'raded mixture whi&h utterly affled him! "hey were mostly lower than the Piltdown man in the s&ale of evolution, ut in every &ase definitely human! 5any were of hi'her 'rade, and a very few were the skulls of su#remely and sensitively develo#ed ty#es! 3ll the ones were 'nawed, mostly y rats, ut somewhat y others of the half$human drove! 5ixed with them were many tiny hones of rats $$ fallen mem ers of the lethal army whi&h &losed the an&ient e#i&! I wonder that any man amon' us lived and ke#t his sanity throu'h that hideous day of dis&overy! .ot 8offman nor 8uysmans &ould &on&eive a s&ene more wildly in&redi le, more freneti&ally re#ellent, or more /othi&ally 'rotes1ue than the twilit 'rotto throu'h whi&h we seven sta''ered% ea&h stum lin' on revelation after revelation, and tryin' to kee# for the non&e from thinkin' of the events whi&h must have taken #la&e there three hundred, or a thousand, or two thousand or ten thousand years a'o! It was the ante&ham er of hell, and #oor "hornton fainted a'ain when "rask told him that some of the skeleton thin's must have des&ended as 1uadru#eds throu'h the last twenty or more 'enerations! 8orror #iled on horror as we e'an to inter#ret the ar&hite&tural remains! "he 1uadru#ed thin's $$ with their o&&asional re&ruits from the i#ed &lass $$ had een ke#t in stone #ens, out of whi&h they must have roken in their last delirium of hun'er or rat$fear! "here had een 'reat herds of them, evidently fattened on the &oarse ve'eta les whose remains &ould e found as a sort of #oisonous ensila'e at the ottom of the hu'e stone ins older than 0ome! I knew now why my an&estors had had su&h ex&essive 'ardens $$ would to heaven I &ould for'et9 "he #ur#ose of the herds I did not have to ask! *ir )illiam, standin' with his sear&hli'ht in the 0oman ruin, translated aloud the most sho&kin' ritual I have ever known% and told of the diet of the antediluvian &ult whi&h the #riests of 2y ele found and min'led with their own! .orrys, used as he was to the tren&hes, &ould not walk strai'ht when he &ame out of the En'lish uildin'! It was a ut&her sho# and kit&hen $$ he had ex#e&ted that $$ ut it was too mu&h to see familiar En'lish im#lements in su&h a #la&e, and to read familiar En'lish 'raffiti there, some as re&ent as 161:! I &ould not 'o in that uildin' $$ that uildin' whose daemon a&tivities were sto##ed only y the da''er of my an&estor )alter de la Poer! )hat I did venture to enter was the low *axon uildin' whose oaken door had fallen, and there I found a terri le row of ten stone &ells with rusty ars! "hree had tenants, all skeletons of hi'h 'rade, and on the ony forefin'er of one I found a seal rin' with my own &oat$of$arms! *ir )illiam found a vault with far older &ells elow the 0oman &ha#el, ut these &ells were em#ty! +elow them was a low &ry#t with &ases of formally arran'ed ones, some of them earin' terri le #arallel ins&ri#tions &arved in @atin, /reek, and the ton'ue of Phyr'ia! 5eanwhile, -r "rask had o#ened one of the #rehistori& tumuli, and rou'ht to li'ht skulls whi&h were sli'htly more human than a 'orilla=s, and whi&h ore indes&ri a ly ideo'ra#hi& &arvin's! "hrou'h all this
horror my &at stalked un#ertur ed! On&e I saw him monstrously #er&hed ato# a mountain of ones, and wondered at the se&rets that mi'ht lie ehind his yellow eyes! 8avin' 'ras#ed to some sli'ht de'ree the fri'htful revelations of this twilit area $$ an area so hideously foreshadowed y my re&urrent dream $$ we turned to that a##arently oundless de#th of midni'ht &avern where no ray of li'ht from the &liff &ould #enetrate! )e shall never know what si'htless *ty'ian worlds yawn eyond the little distan&e we went, for it was de&ided that su&h se&rets are not 'ood for mankind! +ut there was #lenty to en'ross us &lose at hand, for we had not 'one far efore the sear&hli'hts showed that a&&ursed infinity of #its in whi&h the rats had feasted, and whose sudden la&k of re#lenishment had driven the ravenous rodent army first to turn on the livin' herds of starvin' thin's, and then to urst forth from the #riory in that histori& or'y of devastation whi&h the #easants will never for'et! /od9 those &arrion la&k #its of sawed, #i&ked ones and o#ened skulls9 "hose ni'htmare &hasms &hoked with the #ithe&anthro#oid, 2elti&, 0oman, and En'lish ones of &ountless unhallowed &enturies9 *ome of them were full, and none &an say how dee# they had on&e een! Others were still ottomless to our sear&hli'hts, and #eo#led y unnama le fan&ies! )hat, I thou'ht, of the ha#less rats that stum led into su&h tra#s amidst the la&kness of their 1uests in this 'risly "artarusD On&e my foot sli##ed near a horri ly yawnin' rink, and I had a moment of e&stati& fear! I must have een musin' a lon' time, for I &ould not see any of the #arty ut #lum# 2a#t! .orrys! "hen there &ame a sound from that inky, oundless, farther distan&e that I thou'ht I knew% and I saw my old la&k &at dart #ast me like a win'ed E'y#tian 'od, strai'ht into the illimita le 'ulf of the unknown! +ut I was not far ehind, for there was no dou t after another se&ond! It was the eldrit&h s&urryin' of those fiend$ orn rats, always 1uestin' for new horrors, and determined to lead me on even unto those 'rinnin' &averns of earth=s &entre where .yarlathote#, the mad fa&eless 'od, howls lindly in the darkness to the #i#in' of two amor#hous idiot flute$#layers! 5y sear&hli'ht ex#ired, ut still I ran! I heard voi&es, and yowls, and e&hoes, ut a ove all there 'ently rose that im#ious, insidious s&urryin'% 'ently risin', risin', as a stiff loated &or#se 'ently rises a ove an oily river that flows under the endless onyx rid'es to a la&k, #utrid sea! *omethin' um#ed into me $$ somethin' soft and #lum#! It must have een the rats% the vis&ous, 'elatinous, ravenous army that feast on the dead and the livin' !!! )hy shouldn=t rats eat a de la Poer as a de la Poer eats for idden thin'sD !!! "he war ate my oy, damn them all !!! and the 7anks ate 2arfax with flames and urnt /randsire -ela#ore and the se&ret !!! .o, no, I tell you, I am not that daemon swineherd in the twilit 'rotto9 It was not Edward .orrys= fat fa&e on that fla y fun'ous thin'9 )ho says I am a de la PoerD 8e lived, ut my oy died9 !!! *hall a .orrys hold the land of a de la PoerD !!! It=s voodoo, I tell you !!! that s#otted snake !!! 2urse you, "hornton, I=ll tea&h you to faint at what my family do9 !!! =* lood, thou stinkard, I=ll learn ye how to 'ust !!! wolde ye swynke me thilke wysD!!! 5a'na 5ater9 5a'na 5ater9!!! 3tys!!! -ia ad a'haidh=s ad aodaun!!! a'us as dunar&h ort9 -honas =s dholas ort, a'us leat$sa9!!! 4n'l unl!!! rrlh !!! &h&h&h!!! "his is what they say I said when they found me in the la&kness after three hours% found me &rou&hin' in the la&kness over the #lum#, half$eaten ody of 2a#t! .orrys, with my own &at lea#in' and tearin' at my throat! .ow they have lown u# Exham Priory, taken my .i''er$5an away from me, and shut me into this arred room at 8anwell with fearful whis#ers a out my heredity and ex#erien&e! "hornton is in the next room, ut they #revent me from talkin' to him! "hey are tryin', too, to su##ress most of the fa&ts &on&ernin' the #riory! )hen I s#eak of #oor .orrys they a&&use me of this hideous thin', ut they must know that I did not do it! "hey must know it was the rats% the slitherin' s&urryin' rats whose s&am#erin' will never let me slee#% the daemon rats that ra&e ehind the #addin' in this room and e&kon me down to 'reater horrors than I have ever known% the rats they &an never hear% the rats, the rats in the walls!
