Peter Hammill - Act Five lyrics

again succumbed to the power

of her dark afflictions.

Her brother and her friend sat by her

and Montresor, although familiar with many

of the gross and wonderful

phenomena of morbid flesh

marvelled at the depth and completeness of her coma.

Life so exactly mirroring death

that only the merest of involuntary pulses

betrayed the presence of a Spirit hiding within.

In the cold hours before dawn they broke their vigil

and Montresor retired to a restless sleep

only to be woken as a grey light spread from the east

across the leaden tarn.

(Usher and the Herbalist enter)

USHER Montresor,

she is dead.

She is dead,

I sat by her,

I watched her;

I am alone.

USHER, That she should die so,

MONTRESOR, that she should die so young,

HERBALIST fate is cruel, fate is hard.

Why must innocence be punished?

Need a flower fall so fast?

Why must innocence be punished?

Was her soul too good to last?

Now the punishment is finished

And the fever... the fever called 'Living'...

that fever's conquered at last.

USHER Will you do something for me?

MONTRESOR With all my heart

USHER I wish my sister to be entombed

in one of the vaults beneath the House.

The family burial ground is remote,

to lead her cortege there would

require a strength of will I do not command.

Will you help me bear her?

MONTRESOR Of course, of course I will...

USHER Come then, before I fully realise my loss.

End of Act Five