It was about dusk, one evening during the supreme madness of the carnival season, that I encountered my friend.  He accosted me with excessive warmth, for he had been drinking much.  The man wore motley.  He had on a tight-fitting parti-striped dress, and his head was surmounted by the conical cap and bells.  I was so pleased to see him, that I thought I should never have done wringing his hand.

I said to him — “My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met.  How remarkably well you are looking to-day!  But I have received a pipe of what passes for Amontillado, and I have my doubts.”

“How?” said he.  “Amontillado?  A pipe?  Impossible!  And in the middle of the carnival!”

“I have my doubts,” I replied; “and I was silly enough to pay the full Amontillado price without consulting you in the matter.  You were not to be found, and I was fearful of losing a bargain.”

    “Amontillado!”

    “I have my doubts.”

    “Amontillado!”

    “And I must satisfy them.”

    “Amontillado!”

“As you are engaged, I am on my way to Luchesi.  If any one has a critical turn, it is he.  He will tell me —­”

    “Luchesi cannot tell Amontillado from Sherry.”

“And yet some fools will have it that his taste is a match for your own.”

    “Come, let us go.”

    “Whither?”

    “To your vaults.”

“My friend, no; I will not impose upon your good nature.  I perceive you have an engagement.  Luchesi —­”

    “I have no engagement; — come.”

“My friend, no.  It is not the engagement, but the severe cold with which I perceive you are afflicted.  The vaults are insufferably damp.  They are encrusted with nitre.”

“Let us go, nevertheless.  The cold is merely nothing.  Amontillado!  You have been imposed upon.  And as for Luchesi, he cannot distinguish Sherry from Amontillado.”

Thus speaking, Fortunato possessed himself of my arm.  Putting on a mask of black silk, and drawing a roquelaire closely about my person, I suffered him to hurry me to my palazzo.

There were no attendants at home; they had absconded to make merry in honor of the time.  I had told them that I should not return until the morning, and had given them explicit orders not to stir from the house.  These orders were sufficient, I well knew, to insure their immediate disappearance, one and all, as soon as my back was turned.

I took from their sconces two flambeaux, and giving one to Fortunato, bowed him through several suites of rooms to the archway that led into the vaults.  I passed down a long and winding staircase, requesting him to be cautious as he followed.  We came at length to the foot of the descent, and stood together on the damp ground of the catacombs of the Montresors.

The gait of my friend was unsteady, and the bells upon his cap jingled as he strode.