The Cask of Amontillado
The Cask of Amontillado is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe.There are two characters, the narrator Montresor and the wine connoisseur Fortunato. The story starts with Montresor describing how the final insult that Fortunato cast upon him has pushed him too far, and so he had to perform the murder which follows.
The scene is the Carnival, somewhere in Italy. Montresor finds his "friend", inebriated and dressed in motley, at dusk and induces him to follow the narrator into the catacombs to discover if the cask of amontillado is worth the price paid.
They walk and talk; discussing Fortunato's health, the Montresor family motto (Nemo me impune lacessit - No-one insults me with impunity), and membership of the Freemasons (with double meaning), whilst the ominous atmosphere increases as they continue to the damp, nitrous air of the Montresor crypt.
Dumbfounded at the absence of the amontillado at the end of their passage, Fortunato is suddenly chained to the wall. Montresor proceeds to build a wall, sealing him off to die from lack of air. Fortunato proceeds from shock to sobriety to screams to desperation -
"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, MONTRESOR!"
"Yes," I said, "for the love of God!"
-to final silence as the last bricks are laid.
