Sketches for variation on the final scene from "Masque of the Red Death" by Edgar A. Poe

"And the revel went whirlingly on, until at length there commenced the sounding of midnight upon the clock."



















"But now there were twelve strokes to be sounded by the bell of the clock.."














"The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure."













"There were buffoons, there were improvisatori, there were ballet-dancers, there were musicians.."






















"..there was Beauty.."





















"..there was wine."














"All these and security were within. Without was the Red Death."




















"And thus, too, it happened, perhaps, that before the last echoes of the last chime had utterly sunk into silence, there were many individuals in the crowd who had found leisure to become aware of the presence of a masked figure which had arrested the attention of no single individual before."





















"..whose tall figure stood erect and motionless within the shadow of the ebony clock.."

















"And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all."