Act Five Lyrics - Hammill Peter

CHORUS Late that evening the Lady Madeline 

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