{"id":"01KG6YHB0QRW34DX436HX5M17S","cid":"bafkreibontjxmqhgcm4g6tfrojzfgfugpb5qcyajinkpatkkf6i25vjqia","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":8569,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:55.413Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 10","source_file":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","start_line":8506,"text":"the ideals, however wild, of ancient fable, but equally in aspect as in\r\norganism be an original production; the more terrible to behold, the\r\nbetter.\r\n\r\nSuch, then, were the suppositions as to the present scheme, and the\r\nreserved intent. How, at the very threshold, so unlooked for a\r\ncatastrophe overturned all, or rather, what was the conjecture here, is\r\nnow to be set forth.\r\n\r\nIt was thought that on the day preceding the fatality, his visitors\r\nhaving left him, Bannadonna had unpacked the belfry image, adjusted it,\r\nand placed it in the retreat provided—a sort of sentry-box in one\r\ncorner of the belfry; in short, throughout the night, and for some part\r\nof the ensuing morning, he had been engaged in arranging everything\r\nconnected with the domino; the issuing from the sentry-box each sixty\r\nminutes; sliding along a grooved way, like a railway; advancing to the\r\nclock-bell, with uplifted manacles; striking it at one of the twelve\r\njunctions of the four-and-twenty hands; then wheeling, circling the\r\nbell, and retiring to its post, there to bide for another sixty\r\nminutes, when the same process was to be repeated; the bell, by a\r\ncunning mechanism, meantime turning on its vertical axis, so as to\r\npresent, to the descending mace, the clasped hands of the next two\r\nfigures, when it would strike two, three, and so on, to the end. The\r\nmusical metal in this time-bell being so managed in the fusion, by some\r\nart, perishing with its originator, that each of the clasps of the\r\nfour-and-twenty hands should give forth its own peculiar resonance when\r\nparted.\r\n\r\nBut on the magic metal, the magic and metallic stranger never struck\r\nbut that one stroke, drove but that one nail, served but that one\r\nclasp, by which Bannadonna clung to his ambitious life. For, after\r\nwinding up the creature in the sentry-box, so that, for the present,\r\nskipping the intervening hours, it should not emerge till the hour of\r\none, but should then infallibly emerge, and, after deftly oiling the\r\ngrooves whereon it was to slide, it was surmised that the mechanician\r\nmust then have hurried to the bell, to give his final touches to its\r\nsculpture. True artist, he here became absorbed; and absorption still\r\nfurther intensified, it may be, by his striving to abate that strange\r\nlook of Una; which, though, before others, he had treated with such\r\nunconcern, might not, in secret, have been without its thorn.\r\n\r\nAnd so, for the interval, he was oblivious of his creature; which, not\r\noblivious of him, and true to its creation, and true to its heedful\r\nwinding up, left its post precisely at the given moment; along its\r\nwell-oiled route, slid noiselessly towards its mark; and, aiming at the\r\nhand of Una, to ring one clangorous note, dully smote the intervening\r\nbrain of Bannadonna, turned backwards to it; the manacled arms then\r\ninstantly up-springing to their hovering poise. The falling body\r\nclogged the thing’s return; so there it stood, still impending over\r\nBannadonna, as if whispering some post-mortem terror. The chisel lay\r\ndropped from the hand, but beside the hand; the oil-flask spilled\r\nacross the iron track.\r\n\r\nIn his unhappy end, not unmindful of the rare genius of the\r\nmechanician, the republic decreed him a stately funeral. It was\r\nresolved that the great bell—the one whose casting had been jeopardized\r\nthrough the timidity of the ill-starred workman—should be rung upon the\r\nentrance of the bier into the cathedral. The most robust man of the\r\ncountry round was assigned the office of bell-ringer.\r\n\r\nBut as the pall-bearers entered the cathedral porch, naught but a\r\nbroken and disastrous sound, like that of some lone Alpine land-slide,\r\nfell from the tower upon their ears. And then, all was hushed.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 10"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGCCBQ15QDEM5CEG7CHSQ","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YHB0M1VHD96FHEX3ENFSP","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6YHB0QK36JJDN8RG8XZ37B","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:58.167Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:58:08.062Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}