Prince Prospero plans an embellished and bold masquerade
in an attempt to prevent the doom of the Red Death from reaching him and his courtiers
as they revel in the seclusion of one of his "castellated abbeys." However, as the clock
strikes twelve times on the hour of midnight there is an uneasiness among the guests as
they detect the presence of a masked figure unfamiliar to any of them. Throughout the
chambers, a rumor, a buzz, surprise, terror, then, finally horror and disgust fills the
chambers. Even amongst such bizarre figures as the masked guests of Prince Prospero,
this figure "out-Herolded Herod," and exceeded the bounds of the "prince's indefinite
decorum." For, this guest has exceeded "those matters of which no jest can be
made."
The entire company of guests senses the insult to
decorum of this uninvited guest. For, he is as though shrouded for burial. His mask
resembles the head of a cadaver. Moreover, his vestment is dabbled in blood and his
features "besprinkled with the scarlet horror." It is this bloodied "vesture" that
effects the greatest horror in the Prince's guests. The terrified guests part and
shrink back against the walls as this intruder makes his way through the various
chambers to the Prince who has demanded to know "Who
dares?"
After the Prince approaches with a drawn dagger,
there is a cry and his dagger falls; instantly, the Prince lies prostrate in death.
Then, one-by-one the revelers in the "blood-bedewed halls of their reel," die in a
desperate and despairing position as the falmes of the tripods go out and the clock
strikes no more.
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