# Mounting google drive
from google.colab import drive
drive.mount('/content/drive')

# Downloading all the required libraries

# Importing all the required libraries
import os
import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
import re
import cv2
import string
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from matplotlib import style
from glob import glob
from natsort import natsorted
from tqdm import tqdm
style.use('ggplot')

Mounted at /content/drive

def show_image_grid(images, M, N, title='Title', figsize=8):
    # Assuming 'images' is a numpy array of shape (num_images, height, width, channels)
    if M==1:
        row_size = figsize
        col_size = figsize//4
    elif N==1:
        row_size = figsize//4
        col_size = figsize
    else:
        row_size, col_size = figsize, figsize

    fig, axes = plt.subplots(M, N, figsize=(row_size, col_size))

    if len(images.shape) < 4:
        images = np.expand_dims(images.copy(), axis=0)

    fig.suptitle(title)
    for i in range(M):
        for j in range(N):
            if M==1 and N==1:
                ax = axes
            elif M == 1 or N==1:
                ax = axes[max(i, j)]
            else:
                ax = axes[i, j]
            index = i * N + j
            if index < images.shape[0]:
                ax.imshow(cv2.cvtColor(images[index], cv2.COLOR_BGR2RGB))
            ax.axis('off')
    plt.tight_layout()
    plt.show()
    plt.clf()

def reconstruct_poem(poem_db, match_id):
    matched_poem = poem_db[match_id]
    freq_table, position_table = matched_poem
    max_idx = 0

    for idx_lst in position_table.values():
        max_idx = max(np.max(idx_lst), max_idx)

    poem_text = ['']*(max_idx+1)

    for key, value in position_table.items():
        for word_idx in value:
            poem_text[word_idx] = key

    return ' '.join(poem_text)

def create_lookup_table(text_data):
    poem_data = {}
    for poem_id, text in enumerate(text_data):
        freq_dict = {}
        position_dict = {}
        text = text.split()
        for idx, word in enumerate(text):
            if word in freq_dict:
                freq_dict[word] += 1
                position_dict[word].append(idx)
            else:
                freq_dict[word] = 1
                position_dict[word] = [idx]
        poem_data[f'poem_{poem_id}'] = [freq_dict, position_dict]
    return poem_data

def clean_text(text):
    text = text.lower()  # Lowercase
    text = re.sub(r'\d+', '', text)  # Remove numbers
    text = text.translate(str.maketrans('', '', string.punctuation))  # Remove punctuation
    text = re.sub(r'\W', ' ', text)  # Remove special characters
    text = BeautifulSoup(text, "html.parser").get_text()  # Remove HTML tags
    return text

def cosine_similarity_manual(vec1, vec2):
    dot_product = sum(vec1[word] * vec2.get(word, 0) for word in vec1)
    norm1 = sum(val ** 2 for val in vec1.values()) ** 0.5
    norm2 = sum(val ** 2 for val in vec2.values()) ** 0.5
    if norm1 == 0 or norm2 == 0:
        return 0
    return dot_product / (norm1 * norm2)

def search_poem(poem_db, poem_text):
    cleaned_poem_text = clean_text(poem_text)
    query_freq_dict = {}
    for word in cleaned_poem_text.split():
        if word in query_freq_dict:
            query_freq_dict[word] += 1
        else:
            query_freq_dict[word] = 1

    best_match = None
    best_score = -1

    for poem_id, (freq_dict, _) in poem_db.items():
        similarity = cosine_similarity_manual(query_freq_dict, freq_dict)
        if similarity > best_score:
            best_score = similarity
            best_match = poem_id

    return best_match

text_data = pd.read_csv('/content/drive/My Drive/ES670MM/dataset/A/preprocessed_data.csv', header=0)['text']
text_data = text_data.to_numpy()
print(f'Total poems: {text_data.shape}')

text_data = np.array([clean_text(text) for text in text_data])

Total poems: (70,)

poem_db = create_lookup_table(text_data)

search_lst = [
                'i am a business man i am a methodical man method is the thing after all but there are no people',
                'as it is well known that the  wise men  came  from the east  and as mr touchandgo bullethead came from the east it follows that mr bullethead',
                'as mere mathematician he could not have reasoned at all and thus would have been at the mercy of the prefect',
                'i had no desire to oppose what i regarded as at best but a harmless and by no means an unnatural precaution     at the request of usher i personally aided him in the arrangements for the temporary entombment the body having'
             ]

for search_item in search_lst:
    matched_poem_idx = search_poem(poem_db, search_item)
    search_result = reconstruct_poem(poem_db, matched_poem_idx)
    print('='*10)
    print(f'For search text: {search_item}')
    print('Found poem: ')
    print(search_result)
    print('='*10)

==========
For search text: i am a business man i am a methodical man method is the thing after all but there are no people
Found poem: 
true nervous very very dreadfully nervous i had been and am but why will you say that i am mad the disease had sharpened my senses not destroyed not dulled them above all was the sense of hearing acute i heard all things in the heaven and in the earth i heard many things in hell how then am i mad hearken and observe how healthily how calmly i can tell you the whole story it is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain but once conceived it haunted me day and night object there was none passion there was none i loved the old man he had never wronged me he had never given me insult for his gold i had no desire i think it was his eye yes it was this he had the eye of a vulture a pale blue eye with a film over it whenever it fell upon me my blood ran cold and so by degrees very gradually i made up my mind to take the life of the old man and thus rid myself of the eye forever now this is the point you fancy me mad madmen know nothing but you should have seen me you should have seen how wisely i proceeded with what caution with what foresight with what dissimulation i went to work i was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before i killed him and every night about midnight i turned the latch of his door and opened it oh so gently and then when i had made an opening sufficient for my head i put in a dark lantern all closed closed that no light shone out and then i thrust in my head oh you would have laughed to see how cunningly i thrust it in i moved it slowly very very slowly so that i might not disturb the old man s sleep it took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that i could see him as he lay upon his bed ha would a madman have been so wise as this and then when my head was well in the room i undid the lantern cautiously oh so cautiously cautiously for the hinges creaked i undid it just so much that a single thin ray fell upon the vulture eye and this i did for seven long nights every night just at midnight but i found the eye always closed and so it was impossible to do the work for it was not the old man who vexed me but his evil eye and every morning when the day broke i went boldly into the chamber and spoke courageously to him calling him by name in a hearty tone and inquiring how he has passed the night so you see he would have been a very profound old man indeed to suspect that every night just at twelve i looked in upon him while he slept upon the eighth night i was more than usually cautious in opening the door a watch s minute hand moves more quickly than did mine never before that night had i felt the extent of my own powers of my sagacity i could scarcely contain my feelings of triumph to think that there i was opening the door little by little and he not even to dream of my secret deeds or thoughts i fairly chuckled at the idea and perhaps he heard me for he moved on the bed suddenly as if startled now you may think that i drew back but no his room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness for the shutters were close fastened through fear of robbers and so i knew that he could not see the opening of the door and i kept pushing it on steadily steadily i had my head in and was about to open the lantern when my thumb slipped upon the tin fastening and the old man sprang up in bed crying out who s there i kept quite still and said nothing for a whole hour i did not move a muscle and in the meantime i did not hear him lie down he was still sitting up in the bed listening just as i have done night after night hearkening to the death watches in the wall presently i heard a slight groan and i knew it was the groan of mortal terror it was not a groan of pain or of grief oh no it was the low stifled sound that arises from the bottom of the soul when overcharged with awe i knew the sound well many a night just at midnight when all the world slept it has welled up from my own bosom deepening with its dreadful echo the terrors that distracted me i say i knew it well i knew what the old man felt and pitied him although i chuckled at heart i knew that he had been lying awake ever since the first slight noise when he had turned in the bed his fears had been ever since growing upon him he had been trying to fancy them causeless but could not he had been saying to himself it is nothing but the wind in the chimney it is only a mouse crossing the floor or it is merely a cricket which has made a single chirp yes he had been trying to comfort himself with these suppositions but he had found all in vain all in vain because death in approaching him had stalked with his black shadow before him and enveloped the victim and it was the mournful influence of the unperceived shadow that caused him to feel although he neither saw nor heard to feel the presence of my head within the room when i had waited a long time very patiently without hearing him lie down i resolved to open a little a very very little crevice in the lantern so i opened it you cannot imagine how stealthily stealthily until at length a simple dim ray like the thread of the spider shot from out the crevice and fell full upon the vulture eye it was open wide wide open and i grew furious as i gazed upon it i saw it with perfect distinctness all a dull blue with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones but i could see nothing else of the old man s face or person for i had directed the ray as if by instinct precisely upon the damned spot and have i not told you that what you mistake for madness is but overacuteness of the sense now i say there came to my ears a low dull quick sound such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton i knew that sound well too it was the beating of the old man s heart it increased my fury as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage but even yet i refrained and kept still i scarcely breathed i held the lantern motionless i tried how steadily i could maintain the ray upon the eve meantime the hellish tattoo of the heart increased it grew quicker and quicker and louder and louder every instant the old man s terror must have been extreme it grew louder i say louder every moment do you mark me well i have told you that i am nervous so i am and now at the dead hour of the night amid the dreadful silence of that old house so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror yet for some minutes longer i refrained and stood still but the beating grew louder louder i thought the heart must burst and now a new anxiety seized me the sound would be heard by a neighbour the old man s hour had come with a loud yell i threw open the lantern and leaped into the room he shrieked once once only in an instant i dragged him to the floor and pulled the heavy bed over him i then smiled gaily to find the deed so far done but for many minutes the heart beat on with a muffled sound this however did not vex me it would not be heard through the wall at length it ceased the old man was dead i removed the bed and examined the corpse yes he was stone stone dead i placed my hand upon the heart and held it there many minutes there was no pulsation he was stone dead his eye would trouble me no more if still you think me mad you will think so no longer when i describe the wise precautions i took for the concealment of the body the night waned and i worked hastily but in silence first of all i dismembered the corpse i cut off the head and the arms and the legs i then took up three planks from the flooring of the chamber and deposited all between the scantlings i then replaced the boards so cleverly so cunningly that no human eye not even his could have detected any thing wrong there was nothing to wash out no stain of any kind no bloodspot whatever i had been too wary for that a tub had caught all ha ha when i had made an end of these labors it was four o clock still dark as midnight as the bell sounded the hour there came a knocking at the street door i went down to open it with a light heart for what had i now to fear there entered three men who introduced themselves with perfect suavity as officers of the police a shriek had been heard by a neighbour during the night suspicion of foul play had been aroused information had been lodged at the police office and they the officers had been deputed to search the premises i smiled for what had i to fear i bade the gentlemen welcome the shriek i said was my own in a dream the old man i mentioned was absent in the country i took my visitors all over the house i bade them search search well i led them at length to his chamber i showed them his treasures secure undisturbed in the enthusiasm of my confidence i brought chairs into the room and desired them here to rest from their fatigues while i myself in the wild audacity of my perfect triumph placed my own seat upon the very spot beneath which reposed the corpse of the victim the officers were satisfied my manner had convinced them i was singularly at ease they sat and while i answered cheerily they chatted of familiar things but ere long i felt myself getting pale and wished them gone my head ached and i fancied a ringing in my ears but still they sat and still chatted the ringing became more distinct it continued and became more distinct i talked more freely to get rid of the feeling but it continued and gained definiteness until at length i found that the noise was not within my ears no doubt i now grew very pale but i talked more fluently and with a heightened voice yet the sound increased and what could i do it was a low dull quick sound much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton i gasped for breath and yet the officers heard it not i talked more quickly more vehemently but the noise steadily increased i arose and argued about trifles in a high key and with violent gesticulations but the noise steadily increased why would they not be gone i paced the floor to and fro with heavy strides as if excited to fury by the observations of the men but the noise steadily increased oh god what could i do i foamed i raved i swore i swung the chair upon which i had been sitting and grated it upon the boards but the noise arose over all and continually increased it grew louder louder louder and still the men chatted pleasantly and smiled was it possible they heard not almighty god no no they heard they suspected they knew they were making a mockery of my horrorthis i thought and this i think but anything was better than this agony anything was more tolerable than this derision i could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer i felt that i must scream or die and now again hark louder louder louder louder villains i shrieked dissemble no more i admit the deed tear up the planks here here it is the beating of his hideous heart
==========
==========
For search text: as it is well known that the  wise men  came  from the east  and as mr touchandgo bullethead came from the east it follows that mr bullethead
Found poem: 
nullus enim locus sine genio est servius la musique says marmontel in those contes moraux which in all our translations we have insisted upon calling moral tales as if in mockery of their spirit la musique est le seul des talents qui jouissent de luimeme tous les autres veulent des temoins he here confounds the pleasure derivable from sweet sounds with the capacity for creating them no more than any other talent is that for music susceptible of complete enjoyment where there is no second party to appreciate its exercise and it is only in common with other talents that it produces effects which may be fully enjoyed in solitude the idea which the raconteur has either failed to entertain clearly or has sacrificed in its expression to his national love of point is doubtless the very tenable one that the higher order of music is the most thoroughly estimated when we are exclusively alone the proposition in this form will be admitted at once by those who love the lyre for its own sake and for its spiritual uses but there is one pleasure still within the reach of fallen mortality and perhaps only one which owes even more than does music to the accessory sentiment of seclusion i mean the happiness experienced in the contemplation of natural scenery in truth the man who would behold aright the glory of god upon earth must in solitude behold that glory to me at least the presence not of human life only but of life in any other form than that of the green things which grow upon the soil and are voiceless is a stain upon the landscape is at war with the genius of the scene i love indeed to regard the dark valleys and the gray rocks and the waters that silently smile and the forests that sigh in uneasy slumbers and the proud watchful mountains that look down upon all i love to regard these as themselves but the colossal members of one vast animate and sentient whole a whole whose form that of the sphere is the most perfect and most inclusive of all whose path is among associate planets whose meek handmaiden is the moon whose mediate sovereign is the sun whose life is eternity whose thought is that of a god whose enjoyment is knowledge whose destinies are lost in immensity whose cognizance of ourselves is akin with our own cognizance of the animalculae which infest the brain a being which we in consequence regard as purely inanimate and material much in the same manner as these animalculae must thus regard us our telescopes and our mathematical investigations assure us on every hand notwithstanding the cant of the more ignorant of the priesthood that space and therefore that bulk is an important consideration in the eyes of the almighty the cycles in which the stars move are those best adapted for the evolution without collision of the greatest possible number of bodies the forms of those bodies are accurately such as within a given surface to include the greatest possible amount of matter while the surfaces themselves are so disposed as to accommodate a denser population than could be accommodated on the same surfaces otherwise arranged nor is it any argument against bulk being an object with god that space itself is infinite for there may be an infinity of matter to fill it and since we see clearly that the endowment of matter with vitality is a principle indeed as far as our judgments extend the leading principle in the operations of deity it is scarcely logical to imagine it confined to the regions of the minute where we daily trace it and not extending to those of the august as we find cycle within cycle without end yet all revolving around one fardistant centre which is the godhead may we not analogically suppose in the same manner life within life the less within the greater and all within the spirit divine in short we are madly erring through selfesteem in believing man in either his temporal or future destinies to be of more moment in the universe than that vast clod of the valley which he tills and contemns and to which he denies a soul for no more profound reason than that he does not behold it in operation these fancies and such as these have always given to my meditations among the mountains and the forests by the rivers and the ocean a tinge of what the everyday world would not fail to term fantastic my wanderings amid such scenes have been many and farsearching and often solitary and the interest with which i have strayed through many a dim deep valley or gazed into the reflected heaven of many a bright lake has been an interest greatly deepened by the thought that i have strayed and gazed alone what flippant frenchman was it who said in allusion to the wellknown work of zimmerman that la solitude est une belle chose mais il faut quelqu un pour vous dire que la solitude est une belle chose the epigram cannot be gainsayed but the necessity is a thing that does not exist it was during one of my lonely journeyings amid a far distant region of mountain locked within mountain and sad rivers and melancholy tarn writhing or sleeping within all that i chanced upon a certain rivulet and island i came upon them suddenly in the leafy june and threw myself upon the turf beneath the branches of an unknown odorous shrub that i might doze as i contemplated the scene i felt that thus only should i look upon it such was the character of phantasm which it wore on all sides save to the west where the sun was about sinking arose the verdant walls of the forest the little river which turned sharply in its course and was thus immediately lost to sight seemed to have no exit from its prison but to be absorbed by the deep green foliage of the trees to the east while in the opposite quarter so it appeared to me as i lay at length and glanced upward there poured down noiselessly and continuously into the valley a rich golden and crimson waterfall from the sunset fountains of the sky about midway in the short vista which my dreamy vision took in one small circular island profusely verdured reposed upon the bosom of the stream so blended bank and shadow there that each seemed pendulous in air so mirrorlike was the glassy water that it was scarcely possible to say at what point upon the slope of the emerald turf its crystal dominion began my position enabled me to include in a single view both the eastern and western extremities of the islet and i observed a singularlymarked difference in their aspects the latter was all one radiant harem of garden beauties it glowed and blushed beneath the eyes of the slant sunlight and fairly laughed with flowers the grass was short springy sweetscented and asphodelinterspersed the trees were lithe mirthful erect bright slender and graceful of eastern figure and foliage with bark smooth glossy and particolored there seemed a deep sense of life and joy about all and although no airs blew from out the heavens yet every thing had motion through the gentle sweepings to and fro of innumerable butterflies that might have been mistaken for tulips with wings the other or eastern end of the isle was whelmed in the blackest shade a sombre yet beautiful and peaceful gloom here pervaded all things the trees were dark in color and mournful in form and attitude wreathing themselves into sad solemn and spectral shapes that conveyed ideas of mortal sorrow and untimely death the grass wore the deep tint of the cypress and the heads of its blades hung droopingly and hither and thither among it were many small unsightly hillocks low and narrow and not very long that had the aspect of graves but were not although over and all about them the rue and the rosemary clambered the shade of the trees fell heavily upon the water and seemed to bury itself therein impregnating the depths of the element with darkness i fancied that each shadow as the sun descended lower and lower separated itself sullenly from the trunk that gave it birth and thus became absorbed by the stream while other shadows issued momently from the trees taking the place of their predecessors thus entombed this idea having once seized upon my fancy greatly excited it and i lost myself forthwith in revery if ever island were enchanted said i to myself this is it this is the haunt of the few gentle fays who remain from the wreck of the race are these green tombs theirs or do they yield up their sweet lives as mankind yield up their own in dying do they not rather waste away mournfully rendering unto god little by little their existence as these trees render up shadow after shadow exhausting their substance unto dissolution what the wasting tree is to the water that imbibes its shade growing thus blacker by what it preys upon may not the life of the fay be to the death which engulfs it as i thus mused with halfshut eyes while the sun sank rapidly to rest and eddying currents careered round and round the island bearing upon their bosom large dazzling white flakes of the bark of the sycamoreflakes which in their multiform positions upon the water a quick imagination might have converted into any thing it pleased while i thus mused it appeared to me that the form of one of those very fays about whom i had been pondering made its way slowly into the darkness from out the light at the western end of the island she stood erect in a singularly fragile canoe and urged it with the mere phantom of an oar while within the influence of the lingering sunbeams her attitude seemed indicative of joy but sorrow deformed it as she passed within the shade slowly she glided along and at length rounded the islet and reentered the region of light the revolution which has just been made by the fay continued i musingly is the cycle of the brief year of her life she has floated through her winter and through her summer she is a year nearer unto death for i did not fail to see that as she came into the shade her shadow fell from her and was swallowed up in the dark water making its blackness more black and again the boat appeared and the fay but about the attitude of the latter there was more of care and uncertainty and less of elastic joy she floated again from out the light and into the gloom which deepened momently and again her shadow fell from her into the ebony water and became absorbed into its blackness and again and again she made the circuit of the island while the sun rushed down to his slumbers and at each issuing into the light there was more sorrow about her person while it grew feebler and far fainter and more indistinct and at each passage into the gloom there fell from her a darker shade which became whelmed in a shadow more black but at length when the sun had utterly departed the fay now the mere ghost of her former self went disconsolately with her boat into the region of the ebony flood and that she issued thence at all i cannot say for darkness fell over all things and i beheld her magical figure no more
==========
==========
For search text: as mere mathematician he could not have reasoned at all and thus would have been at the mercy of the prefect
Found poem: 
a sequel to the murders in the rue morgue es giebt eine reihe idealischer begebenheiten die der wirklichkeit parallel lauft selten fallen sie zusammen menschen und zufalle modifieiren gewohulich die idealische begebenheit so dass sie unvollkommen erscheint und ihre folgen gleichfalls unvollkommen sind so bei der reformation statt des protestantismus kam das lutherthum hervor there are ideal series of events which run parallel with the real ones they rarely coincide men and circumstances generally modify the ideal train of events so that it seems imperfect and its consequences are equally imperfect thus with the reformation instead of protestantism came lutheranism novalis moral ansichten there are few persons even among the calmest thinkers who have not occasionally been startled into a vague yet thrilling halfcredence in the supernatural by coincidences of so seemingly marvellous a character that as mere coincidences the intellect has been unable to receive them such sentiments for the halfcredences of which i speak have never the full force of thought such sentiments are seldom thoroughly stifled unless by reference to the doctrine of chance or as it is technically termed the calculus of probabilities now this calculus is in its essence purely mathematical and thus we have the anomaly of the most rigidly exact in science applied to the shadow and spirituality of the most intangible in speculation the extraordinary details which i am now called upon to make public will be found to form as regards sequence of time the primary branch of a series of scarcely intelligible coincidences whose secondary or concluding branch will be recognized by all readers in the late murder of mary cecila rogers at new york when in an article entitled the murders in the rue morgue i endeavored about a year ago to depict some very remarkable features in the mental character of my friend the chevalier c auguste dupin it did not occur to me that i should ever resume the subject this depicting of character constituted my design and this design was thoroughly fulfilled in the wild train of circumstances brought to instance dupin s idiosyncrasy i might have adduced other examples but i should have proven no more late events however in their surprising development have startled me into some farther details which will carry with them the air of extorted confession hearing what i have lately heard it would be indeed strange should i remain silent in regard to what i both heard and saw so long ago upon the winding up of the tragedy involved in the deaths of madame l espanaye and her daughter the chevalier dismissed the affair at once from his attention and relapsed into his old habits of moody reverie prone at all times to abstraction i readily fell in with his humor and continuing to occupy our chambers in the faubourg saint germain we gave the future to the winds and slumbered tranquilly in the present weaving the dull world around us into dreams but these dreams were not altogether uninterrupted it may readily be supposed that the part played by my friend in the drama at the rue morgue had not failed of its impression upon the fancies of the parisian police with its emissaries the name of dupin had grown into a household word the simple character of those inductions by which he had disentangled the mystery never having been explained even to the prefect or to any other individual than myself of course it is not surprising that the affair was regarded as little less than miraculous or that the chevalier s analytical abilities acquired for him the credit of intuition his frankness would have led him to disabuse every inquirer of such prejudice but his indolent humor forbade all farther agitation of a topic whose interest to himself had long ceased it thus happened that he found himself the cynosure of the political eyes and the cases were not few in which attempt was made to engage his services at the prefecture one of the most remarkable instances was that of the murder of a young girl named marie rogt this event occurred about two years after the atrocity in the rue morgue marie whose christian and family name will at once arrest attention from their resemblance to those of the unfortunate cigargirl was the only daughter of the widow estelle rogt the father had died during the child s infancy and from the period of his death until within eighteen months before the assassination which forms the subject of our narrative the mother and daughter had dwelt together in the rue pave saint andre madame there keeping a pension assisted by marie affairs went on thus until the latter had attained her twentysecond year when her great beauty attracted the notice of a perfumer who occupied one of the shops in the basement of the palais royal and whose custom lay chiefly among the desperate adventurers infesting that neighborhood monsieur le blanc was not unaware of the advantages to be derived from the attendance of the fair marie in his perfumery and his liberal proposals were accepted eagerly by the girl although with somewhat more of hesitation by madame the anticipations of the shopkeeper were realized and his rooms soon became notorious through the charms of the sprightly grisette she had been in his employ about a year when her admirers were thrown info confusion by her sudden disappearance from the shop monsieur le blanc was unable to account for her absence and madame rogt was distracted with anxiety and terror the public papers immediately took up the theme and the police were upon the point of making serious investigations when one fine morning after the lapse of a week marie in good health but with a somewhat saddened air made her reappearance at her usual counter in the perfumery all inquiry except that of a private character was of course immediately hushed monsieur le blanc professed total ignorance as before marie with madame replied to all questions that the last week had been spent at the house of a relation in the country thus the affair died away and was generally forgotten for the girl ostensibly to relieve herself from the impertinence of curiosity soon bade a final adieu to the perfumer and sought the shelter of her mother s residence in the rue pave saint andre it was about five months after this return home that her friends were alarmed by her sudden disappearance for the second time three days elapsed and nothing was heard of her on the fourth her corpse was found floating in the seine near the shore which is opposite the quartier of the rue saint andree and at a point not very far distant from the secluded neighborhood of the barrire du roule the atrocity of this murder for it was at once evident that murder had been committed the youth and beauty of the victim and above all her previous notoriety conspired to produce intense excitement in the minds of the sensitive parisians i can call to mind no similar occurrence producing so general and so intense an effect for several weeks in the discussion of this one absorbing theme even the momentous political topics of the day were forgotten the prefect made unusual exertions and the powers of the whole parisian police were of course tasked to the utmost extent upon the first discovery of the corpse it was not supposed that the murderer would be able to elude for more than a very brief period the inquisition which was immediately set on foot it was not until the expiration of a week that it was deemed necessary to offer a reward and even then this reward was limited to a thousand francs in the mean time the investigation proceeded with vigor if not always with judgment and numerous individuals were examined to no purpose while owing to the continual absence of all clue to the mystery the popular excitement greatly increased at the end of the tenth day it was thought advisable to double the sum originally proposed and at length the second week having elapsed without leading to any discoveries and the prejudice which always exists in paris against the police having given vent to itself in several serious meutes the prefect took it upon himself to offer the sum of twenty thousand francs for the conviction of the assassin or if more than one should prove to have been implicated for the conviction of any one of the assassins in the proclamation setting forth this reward a full pardon was promised to any accomplice who should come forward in evidence against his fellow and to the whole was appended wherever it appeared the private placard of a committee of citizens offering ten thousand francs in addition to the amount proposed by the prefecture the entire reward thus stood at no less than thirty thousand francs which will be regarded as an extraordinary sum when we consider the humble condition of the girl and the great frequency in large cities of such atrocities as the one described no one doubted now that the mystery of this murder would be immediately brought to light but although in one or two instances arrests were made which promised elucidation yet nothing was elicited which could implicate the parties suspected and they were discharged forthwith strange as it may appear the third week from the discovery of the body had passed and passed without any light being thrown upon the subject before even a rumor of the events which had so agitated the public mind reached the ears of dupin and myself engaged in researches which absorbed our whole attention it had been nearly a month since either of us had gone abroad or received a visitor or more than glanced at the leading political articles in one of the daily papers the first intelligence of the murder was brought us by g in person he called upon us early in the afternoon of the thirteenth of july and remained with us until late in the night he had been piqued by the failure of all his endeavors to ferret out the assassins his reputation so he said with a peculiarly parisian air was at stake even his honor was concerned the eyes of the public were upon him and there was really no sacrifice which he would not be willing to make for the development of the mystery he concluded a somewhat droll speech with a compliment upon what he was pleased to term the tact of dupin and made him a direct and certainly a liberal proposition the precise nature of which i do not feel myself at liberty to disclose but which has no bearing upon the proper subject of my narrative the compliment my friend rebutted as best he could but the proposition he accepted at once although its advantages were altogether provisional this point being settled the prefect broke forth at once into explanations of his own views interspersing them with long comments upon the evidence of which latter we were not yet in possession he discoursed much and beyond doubt learnedly while i hazarded an occasional suggestion as the night wore drowsily away dupin sitting steadily in his accustomed armchair was the embodiment of respectful attention he wore spectacles during the whole interview and an occasional signal glance beneath their green glasses sufficed to convince me that he slept not the less soundly because silently throughout the seven or eight leadenfooted hours which immediately preceded the departure of the prefect in the morning i procured at the prefecture a full report of all the evidence elicited and at the various newspaper offices a copy of every paper in which from first to last had been published any decisive information in regard to this sad affair freed from all that was positively disproved this mass of information stood thus marie rogt left the residence of her mother in the rue pave st andre about nine o clock in the morning of sunday june the twentysecond in going out she gave notice to a monsieur jacques st eustache and to him only of her intent intention to spend the day with an aunt who resided in the rue des drmes the rue des drmes is a short and narrow but populous thoroughfare not far from the banks of the river and at a distance of some two miles in the most direct course possible from the pension of madame rogt st eustache was the accepted suitor of marie and lodged as well as took his meals at the pension he was to have gone for his betrothed at dusk and to have escorted her home in the afternoon however it came on to rain heavily and supposing that she would remain all night at her aunt s as she had done under similar circumstances before he did not think it necessary to keep his promise as night drew on madame rogt who was an infirm old lady seventy years of age was heard to express a fear that she should never see marie again but this observation attracted little attention at the time on monday it was ascertained that the girl had not been to the rue des drmes and when the day elapsed without tidings of her a tardy search was instituted at several points in the city and its environs it was not however until the fourth day from the period of disappearance that any thing satisfactory was ascertained respecting her on this day wednesday the twentyfifth of june a monsieur beauvais who with a friend had been making inquiries for marie near the barrire du roule on the shore of the seine which is opposite the rue pave st andre was informed that a corpse had just been towed ashore by some fishermen who had found it floating in the river upon seeing the body beauvais after some hesitation identified it as that of the perfumerygirl his friend recognized it more promptly the face was suffused with dark blood some of which issued from the mouth no foam was seen as in the case of the merely drowned there was no discoloration in the cellular tissue about the throat were bruises and impressions of fingers the arms were bent over on the chest and were rigid the right hand was clenched the left partially open on the left wrist were two circular excoriations apparently the effect of ropes or of a rope in more than one volution a part of the right wrist also was much chafed as well as the back throughout its extent but more especially at the shoulderblades in bringing the body to the shore the fishermen had attached to it a rope but none of the excoriations had been effected by this the flesh of the neck was much swollen there were no cuts apparent or bruises which appeared the effect of blows a piece of lace was found tied so tightly around the neck as to be hidden from sight it was completely buried in the flesh and was fasted by a knot which lay just under the left ear this alone would have sufficed to produce death the medical testimony spoke confidently of the virtuous character of the deceased she had been subjected it said to brutal violence the corpse was in such condition when found that there could have been no difficulty in its recognition by friends the dress was much torn and otherwise disordered in the outer garment a slip about a foot wide had been torn upward from the bottom hem to the waist but not torn off it was wound three times around the waist and secured by a sort of hitch in the back the dress immediately beneath the frock was of fine muslin and from this a slip eighteen inches wide had been torn entirely out torn very evenly and with great care it was found around her neck fitting loosely and secured with a hard knot over this muslin slip and the slip of lace the strings of a bonnet were attached the bonnet being appended the knot by which the strings of the bonnet were fastened was not a lady s but a slip or sailor s knot after the recognition of the corpse it was not as usual taken to the morgue this formality being superfluous but hastily interred not far from the spot at which it was brought ashore through the exertions of beauvais the matter was industriously hushed up as far as possible and several days had elapsed before any public emotion resulted a weekly paper however at length took up the theme the corpse was disinterred and a reexamination instituted but nothing was elicited beyond what has been already noted the clothes however were now submitted to the mother and friends of the deceased and fully identified as those worn by the girl upon leaving home meantime the excitement increased hourly several individuals were arrested and discharged st eustache fell especially under suspicion and he failed at first to give an intelligible account of his whereabouts during the sunday on which marie left home subsequently however he submitted to monsieur g affidavits accounting satisfactorily for every hour of the day in question as time passed and no discovery ensued a thousand contradictory rumors were circulated and journalists busied themselves in suggestions among these the one which attracted the most notice was the idea that marie rogt still lived that the corpse found in the seine was that of some other unfortunate it will be proper that i submit to the reader some passages which embody the suggestion alluded to these passages are literal translations from l etoile a paper conducted in general with much ability mademoiselle rogt left her mother s house on sunday morning june the twentysecond with the ostensible purpose of going to see her aunt or some other connexion in the rue des drmes from that hour nobody is proved to have seen her there is no trace or tidings of her at all there has no person whatever come forward so far who saw her at all on that day after she left her mother s door now though we have no evidence that marie rogt was in the land of the living after nine o clock on sunday june the twentysecond we have proof that up to that hour she was alive on wednesday noon at twelve a female body was discovered afloat on the shore of the barrire de roule this was even if we presume that marie rogt was thrown into the river within three hours after she left her mother s house only three days from the time she left her home three days to an hour but it is folly to suppose that the murder if murder was committed on her body could have been consummated soon enough to have enabled her murderers to throw the body into the river before midnight those who are guilty of such horrid crimes choose darkness rather the light thus we see that if the body found in the river was that of marie rogt it could only have been in the water two and a half days or three at the outside all experience has shown that drowned bodies or bodies thrown into the water immediately after death by violence require from six to ten days for decomposition to take place to bring them to the top of the water even where a cannon is fired over a corpse and it rises before at least five or six days immersion it sinks again if let alone now we ask what was there in this case to cause a departure from the ordinary course of nature if the body had been kept in its mangled state on shore until tuesday night some trace would be found on shore of the murderers it is a doubtful point also whether the body would be so soon afloat even were it thrown in after having been dead two days and furthermore it is exceedingly improbable that any villains who had committed such a murder as is here supposed would have thrown the body in without weight to sink it when such a precaution could have so easily been taken the editor here proceeds to argue that the body must have been in the water not three days merely but at least five times three days because it was so far decomposed that beauvais had great difficulty in recognizing it this latter point however was fully disproved i continue the translation what then are the facts on which m beauvais says that he has no doubt the body was that of marie rogt he ripped up the gown sleeve and says he found marks which satisfied him of the identity the public generally supposed those marks to have consisted of some description of scars he rubbed the arm and found hair upon it something as indefinite we think as can readily be imagined as little conclusive as finding an arm in the sleeve m beauvais did not return that night but sent word to madame rogt at seven o clock on wednesday evening that an investigation was still in progress respecting her daughter if we allow that madame rogt from her age and grief could not go over which is allowing a great deal there certainly must have been some one who would have thought it worth while to go over and attend the investigation if they thought the body was that of marie nobody went over there was nothing said or heard about the matter in the rue pave st andre that reached even the occupants of the same building m st eustache the lover and intended husband of marie who boarded in her mother s house deposes that he did not hear of the discovery of the body of his intended until the next morning when m beauvais came into his chamber and told him of it for an item of news like this it strikes us it was very coolly received in this way the journal endeavored to create the impression of an apathy on the part of the relatives of marie inconsistent with the supposition that these relatives believed the corpse to be hers its insinuations amount to this that marie with the connivance of her friends had absented herself from the city for reasons involving a charge against her chastity and that these friends upon the discovery of a corpse in the seine somewhat resembling that of the girl had availed themselves of the opportunity to impress the public with the belief of her death but l etoile was again overhasty it was distinctly proved that no apathy such as was imagined existed that the old lady was exceedingly feeble and so agitated as to be unable to attend to any duty that st eustache so far from receiving the news coolly was distracted with grief and bore himself so frantically that m beauvais prevailed upon a friend and relative to take charge of him and prevent his attending the examination at the disinterment moreover although it was stated by l etoile that the corpse was reinterred at the public expense that an advantageous offer of private sculpture was absolutely declined by the family and that no member of the family attended the ceremonial although i say all this was asserted by l etoile in furtherance of the impression it designed to convey yet all this was satisfactorily disproved in a subsequent number of the paper an attempt was made to throw suspicion upon beauvais himself the editor says now then a change comes over the matter we are told that on one occasion while a madame b was at madame rogt s house m beauvais who was going out told her that a gendarme was expected there and she madame b must not say anything to the gendarme until he returned but let the matter be for him in the present posture of affairs m beauvais appears to have the whole matter locked up in his head a single step cannot be taken without m beauvais for go which way you will you run against him for some reason he determined that nobody shall have any thing to do with the proceedings but himself and he has elbowed the male relatives out of the way according to their representations in a very singular manner he seems to have been very much averse to permitting the relatives to see the body by the following fact some color was given to the suspicion thus thrown upon beauvais a visitor at his office a few days prior to the girl s disappearance and during the absence of its occupant had observed a rose in the keyhole of the door and the name marie inscribed upon a slate which hung near at hand the general impression so far as we were enabled to glean it from the newspapers seemed to be that marie had been the victim of a gang of desperadoes that by these she had been borne across the river maltreated and murdered le commerciel however a print of extensive influence was earnest in combating this popular idea i quote a passage or two from its columns we are persuaded that pursuit has hitherto been on a false scent so far as it has been directed to the barrire du roule it is impossible that a person so well known to thousands as this young woman was should have passed three blocks without some one having seen her and any one who saw her would have remembered it for she interested all who knew her it was when the streets were full of people when she went out it is impossible that she could have gone to the barrire du roule or to the rue des drmes without being recognized by a dozen persons yet no one has come forward who saw her outside of her mother s door and there is no evidence except the testimony concerning her expressed intentions that she did go out at all her gown was torn bound round her and tied and by that the body was carried as a bundle if the murder had been committed at the barrire du roule there would have been no necessity for any such arrangement the fact that the body was found floating near the barrire is no proof as to where it was thrown into the water a piece of one of the unfortunate girl s petticoats two feet long and one foot wide was torn out and tied under her chin around the back of her head probably to prevent screams this was done by fellows who had no pockethandkerchief a day or two before the prefect called upon us however some important information reached the police which seemed to overthrow at least the chief portion of le commerciel s argument two small boys sons of a madame deluc while roaming among the woods near the barrire du roule chanced to penetrate a close thicket within which were three or four large stones forming a kind of seat with a back and footstool on the upper stone lay a white petticoat on the second a silk scarf a parasol gloves and a pockethandkerchief were also here found the handkerchief bore the name marie rogt fragments of dress were discovered on the brambles around the earth was trampled the bushes were broken and there was every evidence of a struggle between the thicket and the river the fences were found taken down and the ground bore evidence of some heavy burthen having been dragged along it a weekly paper le soleil had the following comments upon this discovery comments which merely echoed the sentiment of the whole parisian press the things had all evidently been there at least three or four weeks they were all mildewed down hard with the action of the rain and stuck together from mildew the grass had grown around and over some of them the silk on the parasol was strong but the threads of it were run together within the upper part where it had been doubled and folded was all mildewed and rotten and tore on its being opened the pieces of her frock torn out by the bushes were about three inches wide and six inches long one part was the hem of the frock and it had been mended the other piece was part of the skirt not the hem they looked like strips torn off and were on the thorn bush about a foot from the ground there can be no doubt therefore that the spot of this appalling outrage has been discovered consequent upon this discovery new evidence appeared madame deluc testified that she keeps a roadside inn not far from the bank of the river opposite the barrire du roule the neighborhood is secluded particularly so it is the usual sunday resort of blackguards from the city who cross the river in boats about three o clock in the afternoon of the sunday in question a young girl arrived at the inn accompanied by a young man of dark complexion the two remained here for some time on their departure they took the road to some thick woods in the vicinity madame deluc s attention was called to the dress worn by the girl on account of its resemblance to one worn by a deceased relative a scarf was particularly noticed soon after the departure of the couple a gang of miscreants made their appearance behaved boisterously ate and drank without making payment followed in the route of the young man and girl returned to the inn about dusk and recrossed the river as if in great haste it was soon after dark upon this same evening that madame deluc as well as her eldest son heard the screams of a female in the vicinity of the inn the screams were violent but brief madame d recognized not only the scarf which was found in the thicket but the dress which was discovered upon the corpse an omnibus driver valence now also testified that he saw marie rogt cross a ferry on the seine on the sunday in question in company with a young man of dark complexion he valence knew marie and could not be mistaken in her identity the articles found in the thicket were fully identified by the relatives of marie the items of evidence and information thus collected by myself from the newspapers at the suggestion of dupin embraced only one more point but this was a point of seemingly vast consequence it appears that immediately after the discovery of the clothes as above described the lifeless or nearly lifeless body of st eustache marie s betrothed was found in the vicinity of what all now supposed the scene of the outrage a phial labelled laudanum and emptied was found near him his breath gave evidence of the poison he died without speaking upon his person was found a letter briefly stating his love for marie with his design of selfdestruction i need scarcely tell you said dupin as he finished the perusal of my notes that this is a far more intricate case than that of the rue morgue from which it differs in one important respect this is an ordinary although an atrocious instance of crime there is nothing peculiarly outr about it you will observe that for this reason the mystery has been considered easy when for this reason it should have been considered difficult of solution thus at first it was thought unnecessary to offer a reward the myrmidons of g were able at once to comprehend how and why such an atrocity might have been committed they could picture to their imaginations a mode many modes and a motive many motives and because it was not impossible that either of these numerous modes and motives could have been the actual one they have taken it for granted that one of them must but the case with which these variable fancies were entertained and the very plausibility which each assumed should have been understood as indicative rather of the difficulties than of the facilities which must attend elucidation i have before observed that it is by prominences above the plane of the ordinary that reason feels her way if at all in her search for the true and that the proper question in cases such as this is not so much what has occurred as what has occurred that has never occurred before in the investigations at the house of madame l espanaye the agents of g were discouraged and confounded by that very unusualness which to a properly regulated intellect would have afforded the surest omen of success while this same intellect might have been plunged in despair at the ordinary character of all that met the eye in the case of the perfumerygirl and yet told of nothing but easy triumph to the functionaries of the prefecture in the case of madame l espanaye and her daughter there was even at the beginning of our investigation no doubt that murder had been committed the idea of suicide was excluded at once here too we are freed at the commencement from all supposition of selfmurder the body found at the barrire du roule was found under such circumstances as to leave us no room for embarrassment upon this important point but it has been suggested that the corpse discovered is not that of the marie rogt for the conviction of whose assassin or assassins the reward is offered and respecting whom solely our agreement has been arranged with the prefect we both know this gentleman well it will not do to trust him too far if dating our inquiries from the body found and thence tracing a murderer we yet discover this body to be that of some other individual than marie or if starting from the living marie we find her yet find her unassassinated in either case we lose our labor since it is monsieur g with whom we have to deal for our own purpose therefore if not for the purpose of justice it is indispensable that our first step should be the determination of the identity of the corpse with the marie rogt who is missing with the public the arguments of l etoile have had weight and that the journal itself is convinced of their importance would appear from the manner in which it commences one of its essays upon the subject several of the morning papers of the day it says speak of the conclusive article in monday s etoile to me this article appears conclusive of little beyond the zeal of its inditer we should bear in mind that in general it is the object of our newspapers rather to create a sensation to make a point than to further the cause of truth the latter end is only pursued when it seems coincident with the former the print which merely falls in with ordinary opinion however well founded this opinion may be earns for itself no credit with the mob the mass of the people regard as profound only him who suggests pungent contradictions of the general idea in ratiocination not less than in literature it is the epigram which is the most immediately and the most universally appreciated in both it is of the lowest order of merit what i mean to say is that it is the mingled epigram and melodrame of the idea that marie rogt still lives rather than any true plausibility in this idea which have suggested it to l etoile and secured it a favorable reception with the public let us examine the heads of this journal s argument endeavoring to avoid the incoherence with which it is originally set forth the first aim of the writer is to show from the brevity of the interval between marie s disappearance and the finding of the floating corpse that this corpse cannot be that of marie the reduction of this interval to its smallest possible dimension becomes thus at once an object with the reasoner in the rash pursuit of this object he rushes into mere assumption at the outset it is folly to suppose he says that the murder if murder was committed on her body could have been consummated soon enough to have enabled her murderers to throw the body into the river before midnight we demand at once and very naturally why why is it folly to suppose that the murder was committed within five minutes after the girl s quitting her mother s house why is it folly to suppose that the murder was committed at any given period of the day there have been assassinations at all hours but had the murder taken place at any moment between nine o clock in the morning of sunday and a quarter before midnight there would still have been time enough to throw the body into the river before midnight this assumption then amounts precisely to this that the murder was not committed on sunday at all and if we allow l etoile to assume this we may permit it any liberties whatever the paragraph beginning it is folly to suppose that the murder etc however it appears as printed in l etoile may be imagined to have existed actually thus in the brain of its inditer it is folly to suppose that the murder if murder was committed on the body could have been committed soon enough to have enabled her murderers to throw the body into the river before midnight it is folly we say to suppose all this and to suppose at the same time as we are resolved to suppose that the body was not thrown in until after midnight a sentence sufficiently inconsequential in itself but not so utterly preposterous as the one printed were it my purpose continued dupin merely to make out a case against this passage of l etoile s argument i might safely leave it where it is it is not however with l etoile that we have to do but with the truth the sentence in question has but one meaning as it stands and this meaning i have fairly stated but it is material that we go behind the mere words for an idea which these words have obviously intended and failed to convey it was the design of the journalist to say that at whatever period of the day or night of sunday this murder was committed it was improbable that the assassins would have ventured to bear the corpse to the river before midnight and herein lies really the assumption of which i complain it is assumed that the murder was committed at such a position and under such circumstances that the bearing it to the river became necessary now the assassination might have taken place upon the river s brink or on the river itself and thus the throwing the corpse in the water might have been resorted to at any period of the day or night as the most obvious and most immediate mode of disposal you will understand that i suggest nothing here as probable or as cincident with my own opinion my design so far has no reference to the facts of the case i wish merely to caution you against the whole tone of l etoile s suggestion by calling your attention to its ex parte character at the outset having prescribed thus a limit to suit its own preconceived notions having assumed that if this were the body of marie it could have been in the water but a very brief time the journal goes on to say all experience has shown that drowned bodies or bodies thrown into the water immediately after death by violence require from six to ten days for sufficient decomposition to take place to bring them to the top of the water even when a cannon is fired over a corpse and it rises before at least five or six days immersion it sinks again if let alone these assertions have been tacitly received by every paper in paris with the exception of le moniteur this latter print endeavors to combat that portion of the paragraph which has reference to drowned bodies only by citing some five or six instances in which the bodies of individuals known to be drowned were found floating after the lapse of less time than is insisted upon by l etoile but there is something excessively unphilosophical in the attempt on the part of le moniteur to rebut the general assertion of l etoile by a citation of particular instances militating against that assertion had it been possible to adduce fifty instead of five examples of bodies found floating at the end of two or three days these fifty examples could still have been properly regarded only as exceptions to l etoile s rule until such time as the rule itself should be confuted admitting the rule and this le moniteur does not deny insisting merely upon its exceptions the argument of l etoile is suffered to remain in full force for this argument does not pretend to involve more than a question of the probability of the body having risen to the surface in less than three days and this probability will be in favor of l etoile s position until the instances so childishly adduced shall be sufficient in number to establish an antagonistical rule you will see at once that all argument upon this head should be urged if at all against the rule itself and for this end we must examine the rationale of the rule now the human body in general is neither much lighter nor much heavier than the water of the seine that is to say the specific gravity of the human body in its natural condition is about equal to the bulk of fresh water which it displaces the bodies of fat and fleshy persons with small bones and of women generally are lighter than those of the lean and largeboned and of men and the specific gravity of the water of a river is somewhat influenced by the presence of the tide from sea but leaving this tide out of question it may be said that very few human bodies will sink at all even in fresh water of their own accord almost any one falling into a river will be enabled to float if he suffer the specific gravity of the water fairly to be adduced in comparison with his own that is to say if he suffer his whole person to be immersed with as little exception as possible the proper position for one who cannot swim is the upright position of the walker on land with the head thrown fully back and immersed the mouth and nostrils alone remaining above the surface thus circumstanced we shall find that we float without difficulty and without exertion it is evident however that the gravities of the body and of the bulk of water displaced are very nicely balanced and that a trifle will cause either to preponderate an arm for instance uplifted from the water and thus deprived of its support is an additional weight sufficient to immerse the whole head while the accidental aid of the smallest piece of timber will enable us to elevate the head so as to look about now in the struggles of one unused to swimming the arms are invariably thrown upwards while an attempt is made to keep the head in its usual perpendicular position the result is the immersion of the mouth and nostrils and the inception during efforts to breathe while beneath the surface of water into the lungs much is also received into the stomach and the whole body becomes heavier by the difference between the weight of the air originally distending these cavities and that of the fluid which now fills them this difference is sufficient to cause the body to sink as a general rule but is insufficient in the cases of individuals with small bones and an abnormal quantity of flaccid or fatty matter such individuals float even after drowning the corpse being supposed at the bottom of the river will there remain until by some means its specific gravity again becomes less than that of the bulk of water which it displaces this effect is brought about by decomposition or otherwise the result of decomposition is the generation of gas distending the cellular tissues and all the cavities and giving the puffed appearance which is so horrible when this distension has so far progressed that the bulk of the corpse is materially increased without a corresponding increase of mass or weight its specific gravity becomes less than that of the water displaced and it forthwith makes its appearance at the surface but decomposition is modified by innumerable circumstances is hastened or retarded by innumerable agencies for example by the heat or cold of the season by the mineral impregnation or purity of the water by its depth or shallowness by its currency or stagnation by the temperament of the body by its infection or freedom from disease before death thus it is evident that we can assign no period with any thing like accuracy at which the corpse shall rise through decomposition under certain conditions this result would be brought about within an hour under others it might not take place at all there are chemical infusions by which the animal frame can be preserved forever from corruption the bichloride of mercury is one but apart from decomposition there may be and very usually is a generation of gas within the stomach from the acetous fermentation of vegetable matter or within other cavities from other causes sufficient to induce a distension which will bring the body to the surface the effect produced by the firing of a cannon is that of simple vibration this may either loosen the corpse from the soft mud or ooze in which it is imbedded thus permitting it to rise when other agencies have already prepared it for so doing or it may overcome the tenacity of some putrescent portions of the cellular tissue allowing the cavities to distend under the influence of the gas having thus before us the whole philosophy of this subject we can easily test by it the assertions of l etoile all experience shows says this paper that drowned bodies or bodies thrown into the water immediately after death by violence require from six to ten days for sufficient decomposition to take place to bring them to the top of the water even when a cannon is fired over a corpse and it rises before at least five or six days immersion it sinks again if let alone the whole of this paragraph must now appear a tissue of inconsequence and incoherence all experience does not show that drowned bodies require from six to ten days for sufficient decomposition to take place to bring them to the surface both science and experience show that the period of their rising is and necessarily must be indeterminate if moreover a body has risen to the surface through firing of cannon it will not sink again if let alone until decomposition has so far progressed as to permit the escape of the generated gas but i wish to call your attention to the distinction which is made between drowned bodies and bodies thrown into the water immediately after death by violence although the writer admits the distinction he yet includes them all in the same category i have shown how it is that the body of a drowning man becomes specifically heavier than its bulk of water and that he would not sink at all except for the struggles by which he elevates his arms above the surface and his gasps for breath while beneath the surface gasps which supply by water the place of the original air in the lungs but these struggles and these gasps would not occur in the body thrown into the water immediately after death by violence thus in the latter instance the body as a general rule would not sink at all a fact of which l etoile is evidently ignorant when decomposition had proceeded to a very great extent when the flesh had in a great measure left the bones then indeed but not till then should we lose sight of the corpse and now what are we to make of the argument that the body found could not be that of marie rogt because three days only having elapsed this body was found floating if drowned being a woman she might never have sunk or having sunk might have reappeared in twentyfour hours or less but no one supposes her to have been drowned and dying before being thrown into the river she might have been found floating at any period afterwards whatever but says l etoile if the body had been kept in its mangled state on shore until tuesday night some trace would be found on shore of the murderers here it is at first difficult to perceive the intention of the reasoner he means to anticipate what he imagines would be an objection to his theory viz that the body was kept on shore two days suffering rapid decomposition more rapid than if immersed in water he supposes that had this been the case it might have appeared at the surface on the wednesday and thinks that only under such circumstances it could so have appeared he is accordingly in haste to show that it was not kept on shore for if so some trace would be found on shore of the murderers i presume you smile at the sequitur you cannot be made to see how the mere duration of the corpse on the shore could operate to multiply traces of the assassins nor can i and furthermore it is exceedingly improbable continues our journal that any villains who had committed such a murder as is here supposed would have thrown the body in without weight to sink it when such a precaution could have so easily been taken observe here the laughable confusion of thought no one not even l etoile disputes the murder committed on the body found the marks of violence are too obvious it is our reasoner s object merely to show that this body is not marie s he wishes to prove that marie is not assassinated not that the corpse was not yet his observation proves only the latter point here is a corpse without weight attached murderers casting it in would not have failed to attach a weight therefore it was not thrown in by murderers this is all which is proved if any thing is the question of identity is not even approached and l etoile has been at great pains merely to gainsay now what it has admitted only a moment before we are perfectly convinced it says that the body found was that of a murdered female nor is this the sole instance even in this division of his subject where our reasoner unwittingly reasons against himself his evident object i have already said is to reduce as much as possible the interval between marie s disappearance and the finding of the corpse yet we find him urging the point that no person saw the girl from the moment of her leaving her mother s house we have no evidence he says that marie rogt was in the land of the living after nine o clock on sunday june the twentysecond as his argument is obviously an ex parte one he should at least have left this matter out of sight for had any one been known to see marie say on monday or on tuesday the interval in question would have been much reduced and by his own ratiocination the probability much diminished of the corpse being that of the grisette it is nevertheless amusing to observe that l etoile insists upon its point in the full belief of its furthering its general argument reperuse now that portion of this argument which has reference to the identification of the corpse by beauvais in regard to the hair upon the arm l etoile has been obviously disingenuous m beauvais not being an idiot could never have urged in identification of the corpse simply hair upon its arm no arm is without hair the generality of the expression of l etoile is a mere perversion of the witness phraseology he must have spoken of some peculiarity in this hair it must have been a peculiarity of color of quantity of length or of situation her foot says the journal was small so are thousands of feet her garter is no proof whatever nor is her shoe for shoes and garters are sold in packages the same may be said of the flowers in her hat one thing upon which m beauvais strongly insists is that the clasp on the garter found had been set back to take it in this amounts to nothing for most women find it proper to take a pair of garters home and fit them to the size of the limbs they are to encircle rather than to try them in the store where they purchase here it is difficult to suppose the reasoner in earnest had m beauvais in his search for the body of marie discovered a corpse corresponding in general size and appearance to the missing girl he would have been warranted without reference to the question of habiliment at all in forming an opinion that his search had been successful if in addition to the point of general size and contour he had found upon the arm a peculiar hairy appearance which he had observed upon the living marie his opinion might have been justly strengthened and the increase of positiveness might well have been in the ratio of the peculiarity or unusualness of the hairy mark if the feet of marie being small those of the corpse were also small the increase of probability that the body was that of marie would not be an increase in a ratio merely arithmetical but in one highly geometrical or accumulative add to all this shoes such as she had been known to wear upon the day of her disappearance and although these shoes may be sold in packages you so far augment the probability as to verge upon the certain what of itself would be no evidence of identity becomes through its corroborative position proof most sure give us then flowers in the hat corresponding to those worn by the missing girl and we seek for nothing farther if only one flower we seek for nothing farther what then if two or three or more each successive one is multiple evidence proof not added to proof but multiplied by hundreds or thousands let us now discover upon the deceased garters such as the living used and it is almost folly to proceed but these garters are found to be tightened by the setting back of a clasp in just such a manner as her own had been tightened by marie shortly previous to her leaving home it is now madness or hypocrisy to doubt what l etoile says in respect to this abbreviation of the garter s being an usual occurrence shows nothing beyond its own pertinacity in error the elastic nature of the claspgarter is selfdemonstration of the unusualness of the abbreviation what is made to adjust itself must of necessity require foreign adjustment but rarely it must have been by an accident in its strictest sense that these garters of marie needed the tightening described they alone would have amply established her identity but it is not that the corpse was found to have the garters of the missing girl or found to have her shoes or her bonnet or the flowers of her bonnet or her feet or a peculiar mark upon the arm or her general size and appearance it is that the corpse had each and all collectively could it be proved that the editor of l etoile really entertained a doubt under the circumstances there would be no need in his case of a commission de lunatico inquirendo he has thought it sagacious to echo the small talk of the lawyers who for the most part content themselves with echoing the rectangular precepts of the courts i would here observe that very much of what is rejected as evidence by a court is the best of evidence to the intellect for the court guiding itself by the general principles of evidence the recognized and booked principles is averse from swerving at particular instances and this steadfast adherence to principle with rigorous disregard of the conflicting exception is a sure mode of attaining the maximum of attainable truth in any long sequence of time the practice in mass is therefore philosophical but it is not the less certain that it engenders vast individual error in respect to the insinuations levelled at beauvais you will be willing to dismiss them in a breath you have already fathomed the true character of this good gentleman he is a busybody with much of romance and little of wit any one so constituted will readily so conduct himself upon occasion of real excitement as to render himself liable to suspicion on the part of the over acute or the illdisposed m beauvais as it appears from your notes had some personal interviews with the editor of l etoile and offended him by venturing an opinion that the corpse notwithstanding the theory of the editor was in sober fact that of marie he persists says the paper in asserting the corpse to be that of marie but cannot give a circumstance in addition to those which we have commented upon to make others believe now without readverting to the fact that stronger evidence to make others believe could never have been adduced it may be remarked that a man may very well be understood to believe in a case of this kind without the ability to advance a single reason for the belief of a second party nothing is more vague than impressions of individual identity each man recognizes his neighbor yet there are few instances in which any one is prepared to give a reason for his recognition the editor of l etoile had no right to be offended at m beauvais unreasoning belief the suspicious circumstances which invest him will be found to tally much better with my hypothesis of romantic busybodyism than with the reasoner s suggestion of guilt once adopting the more charitable interpretation we shall find no difficulty in comprehending the rose in the keyhole the marie upon the slate the elbowing the male relatives out of the way the aversion to permitting them to see the body the caution given to madame b that she must hold no conversation with the gendarme until his return beauvais and lastly his apparent determination that nobody should have anything to do with the proceedings except himself it seems to me unquestionable that beauvais was a suitor of marie s that she coquetted with him and that he was ambitious of being thought to enjoy her fullest intimacy and confidence i shall say nothing more upon this point and as the evidence fully rebuts the assertion of l etoile touching the matter of apathy on the part of the mother and other relatives an apathy inconsistent with the supposition of their believing the corpse to be that of the perfumerygirl we shall now proceed as if the question of identity were settled to our perfect satisfaction and what i here demanded do you think of the opinions of le commerciel that in spirit they are far more worthy of attention than any which have been promulgated upon the subject the deductions from the premises are philosophical and acute but the premises in two instances at least are founded in imperfect observation le commerciel wishes to intimate that marie was seized by some gang of low ruffians not far from her mother s door it is impossible it urges that a person so well known to thousands as this young woman was should have passed three blocks without some one having seen her this is the idea of a man long resident in paris a public man and one whose walks to and fro in the city have been mostly limited to the vicinity of the public offices he is aware that he seldom passes so far as a dozen blocks from his own bureau without being recognized and accosted and knowing the extent of his personal acquaintance with others and of others with him he compares his notoriety with that of the perfumerygirl finds no great difference between them and reaches at once the conclusion that she in her walks would be equally liable to recognition with himself in his this could only be the case were her walks of the same unvarying methodical character and within the same species of limited region as are his own he passes to and fro at regular intervals within a confined periphery abounding in individuals who are led to observation of his person through interest in the kindred nature of his occupation with their own but the walks of marie may in general be supposed discursive in this particular instance it will be understood as most probable that she proceeded upon a route of more than average diversity from her accustomed ones the parallel which we imagine to have existed in the mind of le commerciel would only be sustained in the event of the two individuals traversing the whole city in this case granting the personal acquaintances to be equal the chances would be also equal that an equal number of personal rencounters would be made for my own part i should hold it not only as possible but as very far more than probable that marie might have proceeded at any given period by any one of the many routes between her own residence and that of her aunt without meeting a single individual whom she knew or by whom she was known in viewing this question in its full and proper light we must hold steadily in mind the great disproportion between the personal acquaintances of even the most noted individual in paris and the entire population of paris itself but whatever force there may still appear to be in the suggestion of le commerciel will be much diminished when we take into consideration the hour at which the girl went abroad it was when the streets were full of people says le commerciel that she went out but not so it was at nine o clock in the morning now at nine o clock of every morning in the week with the exception of sunday the streets of the city are it is true thronged with people at nine on sunday the populace are chiefly within doors preparing for church no observing person can have failed to notice the peculiarly deserted air of the town from about eight until ten on the morning of every sabbath between ten and eleven the streets are thronged but not at so early a period as that designated there is another point at which there seems a deficiency of observation on the part of le commerciel a piece it says of one of the unfortunate girl s petticoats two feet long and one foot wide was torn out and tied under her chin and around the back of her head probably to prevent screams this was done by fellows who had no pockethandkerchiefs whether this idea is or is not well founded we will endeavor to see hereafter but by fellows who have no pockethandkerchiefs the editor intends the lowest class of ruffians these however are the very description of people who will always be found to have handkerchiefs even when destitute of shirts you must have had occasion to observe how absolutely indispensable of late years to the thorough blackguard has become the pockethandkerchief and what are we to think i asked of the article in le soleil that it is a vast pity its inditer was not born a parrot in which case he would have been the most illustrious parrot of his race he has merely repeated the individual items of the already published opinion collecting them with a laudable industry from this paper and from that the things had all evidently been there he says at least three or four weeks and there can be no doubt that the spot of this appalling outrage has been discovered the facts here restated by le soleil are very far indeed from removing my own doubts upon this subject and we will examine them more particularly hereafter in connexion with another division of the theme at present we must occupy ourselves with other investigations you cannot fail to have remarked the extreme laxity of the examination of the corpse to be sure the question of identity was readily determined or should have been but there were other points to be ascertained had the body been in any respect despoiled had the deceased any articles of jewelry about her person upon leaving home if so had she any when found these are important questions utterly untouched by the evidence and there are others of equal moment which have met with no attention we must endeavor to satisfy ourselves by personal inquiry the case of st eustache must be reexamined i have no suspicion of this person but let us proceed methodically we will ascertain beyond a doubt the validity of the affidavits in regard to his whereabouts on the sunday affidavits of this character are readily made matter of mystification should there be nothing wrong here however we will dismiss st eustache from our investigations his suicide however corroborative of suspicion were there found to be deceit in the affidavits is without such deceit in no respect an unaccountable circumstance or one which need cause us to deflect from the line of ordinary analysis in that which i now propose we will discard the interior points of this tragedy and concentrate our attention upon its outskirts not the least usual error in investigations such as this is the limiting of inquiry to the immediate with total disregard of the collateral or circumstantial events it is the malpractice of the courts to confine evidence and discussion to the bounds of apparent relevancy yet experience has shown and a true philosophy will always show that a vast perhaps the larger portion of truth arises from the seemingly irrelevant it is through the spirit of this principle if not precisely through its letter that modern science has resolved to calculate upon the unforeseen but perhaps you do not comprehend me the history of human knowledge has so uninterruptedly shown that to collateral or incidental or accidental events we are indebted for the most numerous and most valuable discoveries that it has at length become necessary in any prospective view of improvement to make not only large but the largest allowances for inventions that shall arise by chance and quite out of the range of ordinary expectation it is no longer philosophical to base upon what has been a vision of what is to be accident is admitted as a portion of the substructure we make chance a matter of absolute calculation we subject the unlooked for and unimagined to the mathematical formulae of the schools i repeat that it is no more than fact that the larger portion of all truth has sprung from the collateral and it is but in accordance with the spirit of the principle involved in this fact that i would divert inquiry in the present case from the trodden and hitherto unfruitful ground of the event itself to the contemporary circumstances which surround it while you ascertain the validity of the affidavits i will examine the newspapers more generally than you have as yet done so far we have only reconnoitred the field of investigation but it will be strange indeed if a comprehensive survey such as i propose of the public prints will not afford us some minute points which shall establish a direction for inquiry in pursuance of dupin s suggestion i made scrupulous examination of the affair of the affidavits the result was a firm conviction of their validity and of the consequent innocence of st eustache in the mean time my friend occupied himself with what seemed to me a minuteness altogether objectless in a scrutiny of the various newspaper files at the end of a week he placed before me the following extracts about three years and a half ago a disturbance very similar to the present was caused by the disappearance of this same marie rogt from the parfumerie of monsieur le blanc in the palais royal at the end of a week however she reappeared at her customary comptoir as well as ever with the exception of a slight paleness not altogether usual it was given out by monsieur le blanc and her mother that she had merely been on a visit to some friend in the country and the affair was speedily hushed up we presume that the present absence is a freak of the same nature and that at the expiration of a week or perhaps of a month we shall have her among us again evening paper monday june an evening journal of yesterday refers to a former mysterious disappearance of mademoiselle rogt it is well known that during the week of her absence from le blanc s parfumerie she was in the company of a young naval officer much noted for his debaucheries a quarrel it is supposed providentially led to her return home we have the name of the lothario in question who is at present stationed in paris but for obvious reasons forbear to make it public le mercurie tuesday morning june an outrage of the most atrocious character was perpetrated near this city the day before yesterday a gentleman with his wife and daughter engaged about dusk the services of six young men who were idly rowing a boat to and fro near the banks of the seine to convey him across the river upon reaching the opposite shore the three passengers stepped out and had proceeded so far as to be beyond the view of the boat when the daughter discovered that she had left in it her parasol she returned for it was seized by the gang carried out into the stream gagged brutally treated and finally taken to the shore at a point not far from that at which she had originally entered the boat with her parents the villains have escaped for the time but the police are upon their trail and some of them will soon be taken morning paper june we have received one or two communications the object of which is to fasten the crime of the late atrocity upon mennais but as this gentleman has been fully exonerated by a loyal inquiry and as the arguments of our several correspondents appear to be more zealous than profound we do not think it advisable to make them public morning paper june we have received several forcibly written communications apparently from various sources and which go far to render it a matter of certainty that the unfortunate marie rogt has become a victim of one of the numerous bands of blackguards which infest the vicinity of the city upon sunday our own opinion is decidedly in favor of this supposition we shall endeavor to make room for some of these arguments hereafter evening paper tuesday june on monday one of the bargemen connected with the revenue service saw a empty boat floating down the seine sails were lying in the bottom of the boat the bargeman towed it under the barge office the next morning it was taken from thence without the knowledge of any of the officers the rudder is now at the barge office le diligence thursday june upon reading these various extracts they not only seemed to me irrelevant but i could perceive no mode in which any one of them could be brought to bear upon the matter in hand i waited for some explanation from dupin it is not my present design he said to dwell upon the first and second of those extracts i have copied them chiefly to show you the extreme remissness of the police who as far as i can understand from the prefect have not troubled themselves in any respect with an examination of the naval officer alluded to yet it is mere folly to say that between the first and second disappearance of marie there is no supposable connection let us admit the first elopement to have resulted in a quarrel between the lovers and the return home of the betrayed we are now prepared to view a second elopement if we know that an elopement has again taken place as indicating a renewal of the betrayer s advances rather than as the result of new proposals by a second individual we are prepared to regard it as a making up of the old amour rather than as the commencement of a new one the chances are ten to one that he who had once eloped with marie would again propose an elopement rather than that she to whom proposals of elopement had been made by one individual should have them made to her by another and here let me call your attention to the fact that the time elapsing between the first ascertained and the second supposed elopement is a few months more than the general period of the cruises of our menofwar had the lover been interrupted in his first villany by the necessity of departure to sea and had he seized the first moment of his return to renew the base designs not yet altogether accomplished or not yet altogether accomplished by him of all these things we know nothing you will say however that in the second instance there was no elopement as imagined certainly not but are we prepared to say that there was not the frustrated design beyond st eustache and perhaps beauvais we find no recognized no open no honorable suitors of marie of none other is there any thing said who then is the secret lover of whom the relatives at least most of them know nothing but whom marie meets upon the morning of sunday and who is so deeply in her confidence that she hesitates not to remain with him until the shades of the evening descend amid the solitary groves of the barrire du roule who is that secret lover i ask of whom at least most of the relatives know nothing and what means the singular prophecy of madame rogt on the morning of marie s departure i fear that i shall never see marie again but if we cannot imagine madame rogt privy to the design of elopement may we not at least suppose this design entertained by the girl upon quitting home she gave it to be understood that she was about to visit her aunt in the rue des drmes and st eustache was requested to call for her at dark now at first glance this fact strongly militates against my suggestion but let us reflect that she did meet some companion and proceed with him across the river reaching the barrire du roule at so late an hour as three o clock in the afternoon is known but in consenting so to accompany this individual for whatever purpose to her mother known or unknown she must have thought of her expressed intention when leaving home and of the surprise and suspicion aroused in the bosom of her affianced suitor st eustache when calling for her at the hour appointed in the rue des drmes he should find that she had not been there and when moreover upon returning to the pension with this alarming intelligence he should become aware of her continued absence from home she must have thought of these things i say she must have foreseen the chagrin of st eustache the suspicion of all she could not have thought of returning to brave this suspicion but the suspicion becomes a point of trivial importance to her if we suppose her not intending to return we may imagine her thinking thus i am to meet a certain person for the purpose of elopement or for certain other purposes known only to myself it is necessary that there be no chance of interruption there must be sufficient time given us to elude pursuit i will give it to be understood that i shall visit and spend the day with my aunt at the rue des drmes i well tell st eustache not to call for me until dark in this way my absence from home for the longest possible period without causing suspicion or anxiety will be accounted for and i shall gain more time than in any other manner if i bid st eustache call for me at dark he will be sure not to call before but if i wholly neglect to bid him call my time for escape will be diminished since it will be expected that i return the earlier and my absence will the sooner excite anxiety now if it were my design to return at all if i had in contemplation merely a stroll with the individual in question it would not be my policy to bid st eustache call for calling he will be sure to ascertain that i have played him false a fact of which i might keep him for ever in ignorance by leaving home without notifying him of my intention by returning before dark and by then stating that i had been to visit my aunt in the rue des drmes but as it is my design never to return or not for some weeks or not until certain concealments are effected the gaining of time is the only point about which i need give myself any concern you have observed in your notes that the most general opinion in relation to this sad affair is and was from the first that the girl had been the victim of a gang of blackguards now the popular opinion under certain conditions is not to be disregarded when arising of itself when manifesting itself in a strictly spontaneous manner we should look upon it as analogous with that intuition which is the idiosyncrasy of the individual man of genius in ninetynine cases from the hundred i would abide by its decision but it is important that we find no palpable traces of suggestion the opinion must be rigorously the public s own and the distinction is often exceedingly difficult to perceive and to maintain in the present instance it appears to me that this public opinion in respect to a gang has been superinduced by the collateral event which is detailed in the third of my extracts all paris is excited by the discovered corpse of marie a girl young beautiful and notorious this corpse is found bearing marks of violence and floating in the river but it is now made known that at the very period or about the very period in which it is supposed that the girl was assassinated an outrage similar in nature to that endured by the deceased although less in extent was perpetuated by a gang of young ruffians upon the person of a second young female is it wonderful that the one known atrocity should influence the popular judgment in regard to the other unknown this judgment awaited direction and the known outrage seemed so opportunely to afford it marie too was found in the river and upon this very river was this known outrage committed the connexion of the two events had about it so much of the palpable that the true wonder would have been a failure of the populace to appreciate and to seize it but in fact the one atrocity known to be so committed is if any thing evidence that the other committed at a time nearly coincident was not so committed it would have been a miracle indeed if while a gang of ruffians were perpetrating at a given locality a most unheardof wrong there should have been another similar gang in a similar locality in the same city under the same circumstances with the same means and appliances engaged in a wrong of precisely the same aspect at precisely the same period of time yet in what if not in this marvellous train of coincidence does the accidentally suggested opinion of the populace call upon us to believe before proceeding farther let us consider the supposed scene of the assassination in the thicket at the barrire du roule this thicket although dense was in the close vicinity of a public road within were three or four large stones forming a kind of seat with a back and footstool on the upper stone was discovered a white petticoat on the second a silk scarf a parasol gloves and a pockethandkerchief were also here found the handkerchief bore the name marie rogt fragments of dress were seen on the branches around the earth was trampled the bushes were broken and there was every evidence of a violent struggle notwithstanding the acclamation with which the discovery of this thicket was received by the press and the unanimity with which it was supposed to indicate the precise scene of the outrage it must be admitted that there was some very good reason for doubt that it was the scene i may or i may not believe but there was excellent reason for doubt had the true scene been as le commerciel suggested in the neighborhood of the rue pave st andre the perpetrators of the crime supposing them still resident in paris would naturally have been stricken with terror at the public attention thus acutely directed into the proper channel and in certain classes of minds there would have arisen at once a sense of the necessity of some exertion to redivert this attention and thus the thicket of the barrire du roule having been already suspected the idea of placing the articles where they were found might have been naturally entertained there is no real evidence although le soleil so supposes that the articles discovered had been more than a very few days in the thicket while there is much circumstantial proof that they could not have remained there without attracting attention during the twenty days elapsing between the fatal sunday and the afternoon upon which they were found by the boys they were all mildewed down hard says le soleil adopting the opinions of its predecessors with the action of the rain and stuck together from mildew the grass had grown around and over some of them the silk of the parasol was strong but the threads of it were run together within the upper part where it had been doubled and folded was all mildewed and rotten and tore on being opened in respect to the grass having grown around and over some of them it is obvious that the fact could only have been ascertained from the words and thus from the recollections of two small boys for these boys removed the articles and took them home before they had been seen by a third party but grass will grow especially in warm and damp weather such as was that of the period of the murder as much as two or three inches in a single day a parasol lying upon a newly turfed ground might in a single week be entirely concealed from sight by the upspringing grass and touching that mildew upon which the editor of le soleil so pertinaciously insists that he employs the word no less than three times in the brief paragraph just quoted is he really unaware of the nature of this mildew is he to be told that it is one of the many classes of fungus of which the most ordinary feature is its upspringing and decadence within twentyfour hours thus we see at a glance that what has been most triumphantly adduced in support of the idea that the articles had been for at least three or four weeks in the thicket is most absurdly null as regards any evidence of that fact on the other hand it is exceedingly difficult to believe that these articles could have remained in the thicket specified for a longer period than a single week for a longer period than from one sunday to the next those who know any thing of the vicinity of paris know the extreme difficulty of finding seclusion unless at a great distance from its suburbs such a thing as an unexplored or even an unfrequently visited recess amid its woods or groves is not for a moment to be imagined let any one who being at heart a lover of nature is yet chained by duty to the dust and heat of this great metropolis let any such one attempt even during the weekdays to slake his thirst for solitude amid the scenes of natural loveliness which immediately surround us at every second step he will find the growing charm dispelled by the voice and personal intrusion of some ruffian or party of carousing blackguards he will seek privacy amid the densest foliage all in vain here are the very nooks where the unwashed most abound here are the temples most desecrate with sickness of the heart the wanderer will flee back to the polluted paris as to a less odious because less incongruous sink of pollution but if the vicinity of the city is so beset during the working days of the week how much more so on the sabbath it is now especially that released from the claims of labor or deprived of the customary opportunities of crime the town blackguard seeks the precincts of the town not through love of the rural which in his heart he despises but by way of escape from the restraints and conventionalities of society he desires less the fresh air and the green trees than the utter license of the country here at the roadside inn or beneath the foliage of the woods he indulges unchecked by any eye except those of his boon companions in all the mad excess of a counterfeit hilarity the joint offspring of liberty and of rum i say nothing more than what must be obvious to every dispassionate observer when i repeat that the circumstance of the articles in question having remained undiscovered for a longer period than from one sunday to another in any thicket in the immediate neighborhood of paris is to be looked upon as little less than miraculous but there are not wanting other grounds for the suspicion that the articles were placed in the thicket with the view of diverting attention from the real scene of the outrage and first let me direct your notice to the date of the discovery of the articles collate this with the date of the fifth extract made by myself from the newspapers you will find that the discovery followed almost immediately the urgent communications sent to the evening paper these communications although various and apparently from various sources tended all to the same point viz the directing of attention to a gang as the perpetrators of the outrage and to the neighborhood of the barrire du roule as its scene now here of course the suspicion is not that in consequence of these communications or of the public attention by them directed the articles were found by the boys but the suspicion might and may well have been that the articles were not before found by the boys for the reason that the articles had not before been in the thicket having been deposited there only at so late a period as at the date or shortly prior to the date of the communications by the guilty authors of these communications themselves this thicket was a singular an exceedingly singular one it was unusually dense within its naturally walled enclosure were three extraordinary stones forming a seat with a back and footstool and this thicket so full of a natural art was in the immediate vicinity within a few rods of the dwelling of madame deluc whose boys were in the habit of closely examining the shrubberies about them in search of the bark of the sassafras would it be a rash wager a wager of one thousand to one that a day never passed over the heads of these boys without finding at least one of them ensconced in the umbrageous hall and enthroned upon its natural throne those who would hesitate at such a wager have either never been boys themselves or have forgotten the boyish nature i repeat it is exceedingly hard to comprehend how the articles could have remained in this thicket undiscovered for a longer period than one or two days and that thus there is good ground for suspicion in spite of the dogmatic ignorance of le soleil that they were at a comparatively late date deposited where found but there are still other and stronger reasons for believing them so deposited than any which i have as yet urged and now let me beg your notice to the highly artificial arrangement of the articles on the upper stone lay a white petticoat on the second a silk scarf scattered around were a parasol gloves and a pockethandkerchief bearing the name marie rogt here is just such an arrangement as would naturally be made by a not overacute person wishing to dispose the articles naturally but it is by no means a really natural arrangement i should rather have looked to see the things all lying on the ground and trampled under foot in the narrow limits of that bower it would have been scarcely possible that the petticoat and scarf should have retained a position upon the stones when subjected to the brushing to and fro of many struggling persons there was evidence it is said of a struggle and the earth was trampled the bushes were broken but the petticoat and the scarf are found deposited as if upon shelves the pieces of the frock torn out by the bushes were about three inches wide and six inches long one part was the hem of the frock and it had been mended they looked like strips torn off here inadvertently le soleil has employed an exceedingly suspicious phrase the pieces as described do indeed look like strips torn off but purposely and by hand it is one of the rarest of accidents that a piece is torn off from any garment such as is now in question by the agency of a thorn from the very nature of such fabrics a thorn or nail becoming entangled in them tears them rectangularly divides them into two longitudinal rents at right angles with each other and meeting at an apex where the thorn enters but it is scarcely possible to conceive the piece torn off i never so knew it nor did you to tear a piece off from such fabric two distinct forces in different directions will be in almost every case required if there be two edges to the fabric if for example it be a pockethandkerchief and it is desired to tear from it a slip then and then only will the one force serve the purpose but in the present case the question is of a dress presenting but one edge to tear a piece from the interior where no edge is presented could only be effected by a miracle through the agency of thorns and no one thorn could accomplish it but even where an edge is presented two thorns will be necessary operating the one in two distinct directions and the other in one and this in the supposition that the edge is unhemmed if hemmed the matter is nearly out of the question we thus see the numerous and great obstacles in the way of pieces being torn off through the simple agency of thorns yet we are required to believe not only that one piece but that many have been so torn and one part too was the hem of the frock another piece was part of the skirt not the hem that is to say was torn completely out through the agency of thorns from the uncaged interior of the dress these i say are things which one may well be pardoned for disbelieving yet taken collectedly they form perhaps less of reasonable ground for suspicion than the one startling circumstance of the articles having been left in this thicket at all by any murderers who had enough precaution to think of removing the corpse you will not have apprehended me rightly however if you suppose it my design to deny this thicket as the scene of the outrage there might have been a wrong here or more possibly an accident at madame deluc s but in fact this is a point of minor importance we are not engaged in an attempt to discover the scene but to produce the perpetrators of the murder what i have adduced notwithstanding the minuteness with which i have adduced it has been with the view first to show the folly of the positive and headlong assertions of le soleil but secondly and chiefly to bring you by the most natural route to a further contemplation of the doubt whether this assassination has or has not been the work of a gang we will resume this question by mere allusion to the revolting details of the surgeon examined at the inquest it is only necessary to say that his published inferences in regard to the number of ruffians have been properly ridiculed as unjust and totally baseless by all the reputable anatomists of paris not that the matter might not have been as inferred but that there was no ground for the inference was there not much for another let us reflect now upon the traces of a struggle and let me ask what these traces have been supposed to demonstrate a gang but do they not rather demonstrate the absence of a gang what struggle could have taken place what struggle so violent and so enduring as to have left its traces in all directions between a weak and defenceless girl and the gang of ruffians imagined the silent grasp of a few rough arms and all would have been over the victim must have been absolutely passive at their will you will here bear in mind that the arguments urged against the thicket as the scene are applicable in chief part only against it as the scene of an outrage committed by more than a single individual if we imagine but one violator we can conceive and thus only conceive the struggle of so violent and so obstinate a nature as to have left the traces apparent and again i have already mentioned the suspicion to be excited by the fact that the articles in question were suffered to remain at all in the thicket where discovered it seems almost impossible that these evidences of guilt should have been accidentally left where found there was sufficient presence of mind it is supposed to remove the corpse and yet a more positive evidence than the corpse itself whose features might have been quickly obliterated by decay is allowed to lie conspicuously in the scene of the outrage i allude to the handkerchief with the name of the deceased if this was accident it was not the accident of a gang we can imagine it only the accident of an individual let us see an individual has committed the murder he is alone with the ghost of the departed he is appalled by what lies motionless before him the fury of his passion is over and there is abundant room in his heart for the natural awe of the deed his is none of that confidence which the presence of numbers inevitably inspires he is alone with the dead he trembles and is bewildered yet there is a necessity for disposing of the corpse he bears it to the river but leaves behind him the other evidences of guilt for it is difficult if not impossible to carry all the burthen at once and it will be easy to return for what is left but in his toilsome journey to the water his fears redouble within him the sounds of life encompass his path a dozen times he hears or fancies the step of an observer even the very lights from the city bewilder him yet in time and by long and frequent pauses of deep agony he reaches the river s brink and disposes of his ghastly charge perhaps through the medium of a boat but now what treasure does the world hold what threat of vengeance could it hold out which would have power to urge the return of that lonely murderer over that toilsome and perilous path to the thicket and its blood chilling recollections he returns not let the consequences be what they may he could not return if he would his sole thought is immediate escape he turns his back forever upon those dreadful shrubberies and flees as from the wrath to come but how with a gang their number would have inspired them with confidence if indeed confidence is ever wanting in the breast of the arrant blackguard and of arrant blackguards alone are the supposed gangs ever constituted their number i say would have prevented the bewildering and unreasoning terror which i have imagined to paralyze the single man could we suppose an oversight in one or two or three this oversight would have been remedied by a fourth they would have left nothing behind them for their number would have enabled them to carry all at once there would have been no need of return consider now the circumstance that in the outer garment of the corpse when found a slip about a foot wide had been torn upward from the bottom hem to the waist wound three times round the waist and secured by a sort of hitch in the back this was done with the obvious design of affording a handle by which to carry the body but would any number of men have dreamed of resorting to such an expedient to three or four the limbs of the corpse would have afforded not only a sufficient but the best possible hold the device is that of a single individual and this brings us to the fact that between the thicket and the river the rails of the fences were found taken down and the ground bore evident traces of some heavy burden having been dragged along it but would a number of men have put themselves to the superfluous trouble of taking down a fence for the purpose of dragging through it a corpse which they might have lifted over any fence in an instant would a number of men have so dragged a corpse at all as to have left evident traces of the dragging and here we must refer to an observation of le commerciel an observation upon which i have already in some measure commented a piece says this journal of one of the unfortunate girl s petticoats was torn out and tied under her chin and around the back of her head probably to prevent screams this was done by fellows who had no pockethandkerchiefs i have before suggested that a genuine blackguard is never without a pockethandkerchief but it is not to this fact that i now especially advert that it was not through want of a handkerchief for the purpose imagined by le commerciel that this bandage was employed is rendered apparent by the handkerchief left in the thicket and that the object was not to prevent screams appears also from the bandage having been employed in preference to what would so much better have answered the purpose but the language of the evidence speaks of the strip in question as found around the neck fitting loosely and secured with a hard knot these words are sufficiently vague but differ materially from those of le commerciel the slip was eighteen inches wide and therefore although of muslin would form a strong band when folded or rumpled longitudinally and thus rumpled it was discovered my inference is this the solitary murderer having borne the corpse for some distance whether from the thicket or elsewhere by means of the bandage hitched around its middle found the weight in this mode of procedure too much for his strength he resolved to drag the burthen the evidence goes to show that it was dragged with this object in view it became necessary to attach something like a rope to one of the extremities it could be best attached about the neck where the head would prevent its slipping off and now the murderer bethought him unquestionably of the bandage about the loins he would have used this but for its volution about the corpse the hitch which embarrassed it and the reflection that it had not been torn off from the garment it was easier to tear a new slip from the petticoat he tore it made it fast about the neck and so dragged his victim to the brink of the river that this bandage only attainable with trouble and delay and but imperfectly answering its purpose that this bandage was employed at all demonstrates that the necessity for its employment sprang from circumstances arising at a period when the handkerchief was no longer attainable that is to say arising as we have imagined after quitting the thicket if the thicket it was and on the road between the thicket and the river but the evidence you will say of madame deluc points especially to the presence of a gang in the vicinity of the thicket at or about the epoch of the murder this i grant i doubt if there were not a dozen gangs such as described by madame deluc in and about the vicinity of the barrire du roule at or about the period of this tragedy but the gang which has drawn upon itself the pointed animadversion although the somewhat tardy and very suspicious evidence of madame deluc is the only gang which is represented by that honest and scrupulous old lady as having eaten her cakes and swallowed her brandy without putting themselves to the trouble of making her payment et hinc ill ir but what is the precise evidence of madame deluc a gang of miscreants made their appearance behaved boisterously ate and drank without making payment followed in the route of the young man and girl returned to the inn about dusk and recrossed the river as if in great haste now this great haste very possibly seemed greater haste in the eyes of madame deluc since she dwelt lingeringly and lamentingly upon her violated cakes and ale cakes and ale for which she might still have entertained a faint hope of compensation why otherwise since it was about dusk should she make a point of the haste it is no cause for wonder surely that even a gang of blackguards should make haste to get home when a wide river is to be crossed in small boats when storm impends and when night approaches i say approaches for the night had not yet arrived it was only about dusk that the indecent haste of these miscreants offended the sober eyes of madame deluc but we are told that it was upon this very evening that madame deluc as well as her eldest son heard the screams of a female in the vicinity of the inn and in what words does madame deluc designate the period of the evening at which these screams were heard it was soon after dark she says but soon after dark is at least dark and about dusk is as certainly daylight thus it is abundantly clear that the gang quitted the barrire du roule prior to the screams overheard by madame deluc and although in all the many reports of the evidence the relative expressions in question are distinctly and invariably employed just as i have employed them in this conversation with yourself no notice whatever of the gross discrepancy has as yet been taken by any of the public journals or by any of the myrmidons of police i shall add but one to the arguments against a gang but this one has to my own understanding at least a weight altogether irresistible under the circumstances of large reward offered and full pardon to any king s evidence it is not to be imagined for a moment that some member of a gang of low ruffians or of any body of men would not long ago have betrayed his accomplices each one of a gang so placed is not so much greedy of reward or anxious for escape as fearful of betrayal he betrays eagerly and early that he may not himself be betrayed that the secret has not been divulged is the very best of proof that it is in fact a secret the horrors of this dark deed are known only to one or two living human beings and to god let us sum up now the meagre yet certain fruits of our long analysis we have attained the idea either of a fatal accident under the roof of madame deluc or of a murder perpetrated in the thicket at the barrire du roule by a lover or at least by an intimate and secret associate of the deceased this associate is of swarthy complexion this complexion the hitch in the bandage and the sailor s knot with which the bonnetribbon is tied point to a seaman his companionship with the deceased a gay but not an abject young girl designates him as above the grade of the common sailor here the well written and urgent communications to the journals are much in the way of corroboration the circumstance of the first elopement as mentioned by le mercurie tends to blend the idea of this seaman with that of the naval officer who is first known to have led the unfortunate into crime and here most fitly comes the consideration of the continued absence of him of the dark complexion let me pause to observe that the complexion of this man is dark and swarthy it was no common swarthiness which constituted the sole point of remembrance both as regards valence and madame deluc but why is this man absent was he murdered by the gang if so why are there only traces of the assassinated girl the scene of the two outrages will naturally be supposed identical and where is his corpse the assassins would most probably have disposed of both in the same way but it may be said that this man lives and is deterred from making himself known through dread of being charged with the murder this consideration might be supposed to operate upon him now at this late period since it has been given in evidence that he was seen with marie but it would have had no force at the period of the deed the first impulse of an innocent man would have been to announce the outrage and to aid in identifying the ruffians this policy would have suggested he had been seen with the girl he had crossed the river with her in an open ferryboat the denouncing of the assassins would have appeared even to an idiot the surest and sole means of relieving himself from suspicion we cannot suppose him on the night of the fatal sunday both innocent himself and incognizant of an outrage committed yet only under such circumstances is it possible to imagine that he would have failed if alive in the denouncement of the assassins and what means are ours of attaining the truth we shall find these means multiplying and gathering distinctness as we proceed let us sift to the bottom this affair of the first elopement let us know the full history of the officer with his present circumstances and his whereabouts at the precise period of the murder let us carefully compare with each other the various communications sent to the evening paper in which the object was to inculpate a gang this done let us compare these communications both as regards style and ms with those sent to the morning paper at a previous period and insisting so vehemently upon the guilt of mennais and all this done let us again compare these various communications with the known mss of the officer let us endeavor to ascertain by repeated questionings of madame deluc and her boys as well as of the omnibus driver valence something more of the personal appearance and bearing of the man of dark complexion queries skilfully directed will not fail to elicit from some of these parties information on this particular point or upon others information which the parties themselves may not even be aware of possessing and let us now trace the boat picked up by the bargeman on the morning of monday the twentythird of june and which was removed from the bargeoffice without the cognizance of the officer in attendance and without the rudder at some period prior to the discovery of the corpse with a proper caution and perseverance we shall infallibly trace this boat for not only can the bargeman who picked it up identify it but the rudder is at hand the rudder of a sailboat would not have been abandoned without inquiry by one altogether at ease in heart and here let me pause to insinuate a question there was no advertisement of the picking up of this boat it was silently taken to the bargeoffice and as silently removed but its owner or employer how happened he at so early a period as tuesday morning to be informed without the agency of advertisement of the locality of the boat taken up on monday unless we imagine some connexion with the navy some personal permanent connexion leading to cognizance of its minute in interests its petty local news in speaking of the lonely assassin dragging his burden to the shore i have already suggested the probability of his availing himself of a boat now we are to understand that marie rogt was precipitated from a boat this would naturally have been the case the corpse could not have been trusted to the shallow waters of the shore the peculiar marks on the back and shoulders of the victim tell of the bottom ribs of a boat that the body was found without weight is also corroborative of the idea if thrown from the shore a weight would have been attached we can only account for its absence by supposing the murderer to have neglected the precaution of supplying himself with it before pushing off in the act of consigning the corpse to the water he would unquestionably have noticed his oversight but then no remedy would have been at hand any risk would have been preferred to a return to that accursed shore having rid himself of his ghastly charge the murderer would have hastened to the city there at some obscure wharf he would have leaped on land but the boat would he have secured it he would have been in too great haste for such things as securing a boat moreover in fastening it to the wharf he would have felt as if securing evidence against himself his natural thought would have been to cast from him as far as possible all that had held connection with his crime he would not only have fled from the wharf but he would not have permitted the boat to remain assuredly he would have cast it adrift let us pursue our fancies in the morning the wretch is stricken with unutterable horror at finding that the boat has been picked up and detained at a locality which he is in the daily habit of frequenting at a locality perhaps which his duty compels him to frequent the next night without daring to ask for the rudder he removes it now where is that rudderless boat let it be one of our first purposes to discover with the first glimpse we obtain of it the dawn of our success shall begin this boat shall guide us with a rapidity which will surprise even ourselves to him who employed it in the midnight of the fatal sabbath corroboration will rise upon corroboration and the murderer will be traced for reasons which we shall not specify but which to many readers will appear obvious we have taken the liberty of here omitting from the mss placed in our hands such portion as details the following up of the apparently slight clew obtained by dupin we feel it advisable only to state in brief that the result desired was brought to pass and that the prefect fulfilled punctually although with reluctance the terms of his compact with the chevalier mr poe s article concludes with the following words eds it will be understood that i speak of coincidences and no more what i have said above upon this topic must suffice in my own heart there dwells no faith in prternature that nature and its god are two no man who thinks will deny that the latter creating the former can at will control or modify it is also unquestionable i say at will for the question is of will and not as the insanity of logic has assumed of power it is not that the deity cannot modify his laws but that we insult him in imagining a possible necessity for modification in their origin these laws were fashioned to embrace all contingencies which could lie in the future with god all is now i repeat then that i speak of these things only as of coincidences and farther in what i relate it will be seen that between the fate of the unhappy mary cecilia rogers so far as that fate is known and the fate of one marie rogt up to a certain epoch in her history there has existed a parallel in the contemplation of whose wonderful exactitude the reason becomes embarrassed i say all this will be seen but let it not for a moment be supposed that in proceeding with the sad narrative of marie from the epoch just mentioned and in tracing to its dnouement the mystery which enshrouded her it is my covert design to hint at an extension of the parallel or even to suggest that the measures adopted in paris for the discovery of the assassin of a grisette or measures founded in any similar ratiocination would produce any similar result for in respect to the latter branch of the supposition it should be considered that the most trifling variation in the facts of the two cases might give rise to the most important miscalculations by diverting thoroughly the two courses of events very much as in arithmetic an error which in its own individuality may be inappreciable produces at length by dint of multiplication at all points of the process a result enormously at variance with truth and in regard to the former branch we must not fail to hold in view that the very calculus of probabilities to which i have referred forbids all idea of the extension of the parallel forbids it with a positiveness strong and decided just in proportion as this parallel has already been longdrawn and exact this is one of those anomalous propositions which seemingly appealing to thought altogether apart from the mathematical is yet one which only the mathematician can fully entertain nothing for example is more difficult than to convince the merely general reader that the fact of sixes having been thrown twice in succession by a player at dice is sufficient cause for betting the largest odds that sixes will not be thrown in the third attempt a suggestion to this effect is usually rejected by the intellect at once it does not appear that the two throws which have been completed and which lie now absolutely in the past can have influence upon the throw which exists only in the future the chance for throwing sixes seems to be precisely as it was at any ordinary time that is to say subject only to the influence of the various other throws which may be made by the dice and this is a reflection which appears so exceedingly obvious that attempts to controvert it are received more frequently with a derisive smile than with anything like respectful attention the error here involved a gross error redolent of mischief i cannot pretend to expose within the limits assigned me at present and with the philosophical it needs no exposure it may be sufficient here to say that it forms one of an infinite series of mistakes which arise in the path of reason through her propensity for seeking truth in detail
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For search text: i had no desire to oppose what i regarded as at best but a harmless and by no means an unnatural precaution     at the request of usher i personally aided him in the arrangements for the temporary entombment the body having
Found poem: 
true nervous very very dreadfully nervous i had been and am but why will you say that i am mad the disease had sharpened my senses not destroyed not dulled them above all was the sense of hearing acute i heard all things in the heaven and in the earth i heard many things in hell how then am i mad hearken and observe how healthily how calmly i can tell you the whole story it is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain but once conceived it haunted me day and night object there was none passion there was none i loved the old man he had never wronged me he had never given me insult for his gold i had no desire i think it was his eye yes it was this he had the eye of a vulture a pale blue eye with a film over it whenever it fell upon me my blood ran cold and so by degrees very gradually i made up my mind to take the life of the old man and thus rid myself of the eye forever now this is the point you fancy me mad madmen know nothing but you should have seen me you should have seen how wisely i proceeded with what caution with what foresight with what dissimulation i went to work i was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before i killed him and every night about midnight i turned the latch of his door and opened it oh so gently and then when i had made an opening sufficient for my head i put in a dark lantern all closed closed that no light shone out and then i thrust in my head oh you would have laughed to see how cunningly i thrust it in i moved it slowly very very slowly so that i might not disturb the old man s sleep it took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that i could see him as he lay upon his bed ha would a madman have been so wise as this and then when my head was well in the room i undid the lantern cautiously oh so cautiously cautiously for the hinges creaked i undid it just so much that a single thin ray fell upon the vulture eye and this i did for seven long nights every night just at midnight but i found the eye always closed and so it was impossible to do the work for it was not the old man who vexed me but his evil eye and every morning when the day broke i went boldly into the chamber and spoke courageously to him calling him by name in a hearty tone and inquiring how he has passed the night so you see he would have been a very profound old man indeed to suspect that every night just at twelve i looked in upon him while he slept upon the eighth night i was more than usually cautious in opening the door a watch s minute hand moves more quickly than did mine never before that night had i felt the extent of my own powers of my sagacity i could scarcely contain my feelings of triumph to think that there i was opening the door little by little and he not even to dream of my secret deeds or thoughts i fairly chuckled at the idea and perhaps he heard me for he moved on the bed suddenly as if startled now you may think that i drew back but no his room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness for the shutters were close fastened through fear of robbers and so i knew that he could not see the opening of the door and i kept pushing it on steadily steadily i had my head in and was about to open the lantern when my thumb slipped upon the tin fastening and the old man sprang up in bed crying out who s there i kept quite still and said nothing for a whole hour i did not move a muscle and in the meantime i did not hear him lie down he was still sitting up in the bed listening just as i have done night after night hearkening to the death watches in the wall presently i heard a slight groan and i knew it was the groan of mortal terror it was not a groan of pain or of grief oh no it was the low stifled sound that arises from the bottom of the soul when overcharged with awe i knew the sound well many a night just at midnight when all the world slept it has welled up from my own bosom deepening with its dreadful echo the terrors that distracted me i say i knew it well i knew what the old man felt and pitied him although i chuckled at heart i knew that he had been lying awake ever since the first slight noise when he had turned in the bed his fears had been ever since growing upon him he had been trying to fancy them causeless but could not he had been saying to himself it is nothing but the wind in the chimney it is only a mouse crossing the floor or it is merely a cricket which has made a single chirp yes he had been trying to comfort himself with these suppositions but he had found all in vain all in vain because death in approaching him had stalked with his black shadow before him and enveloped the victim and it was the mournful influence of the unperceived shadow that caused him to feel although he neither saw nor heard to feel the presence of my head within the room when i had waited a long time very patiently without hearing him lie down i resolved to open a little a very very little crevice in the lantern so i opened it you cannot imagine how stealthily stealthily until at length a simple dim ray like the thread of the spider shot from out the crevice and fell full upon the vulture eye it was open wide wide open and i grew furious as i gazed upon it i saw it with perfect distinctness all a dull blue with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones but i could see nothing else of the old man s face or person for i had directed the ray as if by instinct precisely upon the damned spot and have i not told you that what you mistake for madness is but overacuteness of the sense now i say there came to my ears a low dull quick sound such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton i knew that sound well too it was the beating of the old man s heart it increased my fury as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage but even yet i refrained and kept still i scarcely breathed i held the lantern motionless i tried how steadily i could maintain the ray upon the eve meantime the hellish tattoo of the heart increased it grew quicker and quicker and louder and louder every instant the old man s terror must have been extreme it grew louder i say louder every moment do you mark me well i have told you that i am nervous so i am and now at the dead hour of the night amid the dreadful silence of that old house so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror yet for some minutes longer i refrained and stood still but the beating grew louder louder i thought the heart must burst and now a new anxiety seized me the sound would be heard by a neighbour the old man s hour had come with a loud yell i threw open the lantern and leaped into the room he shrieked once once only in an instant i dragged him to the floor and pulled the heavy bed over him i then smiled gaily to find the deed so far done but for many minutes the heart beat on with a muffled sound this however did not vex me it would not be heard through the wall at length it ceased the old man was dead i removed the bed and examined the corpse yes he was stone stone dead i placed my hand upon the heart and held it there many minutes there was no pulsation he was stone dead his eye would trouble me no more if still you think me mad you will think so no longer when i describe the wise precautions i took for the concealment of the body the night waned and i worked hastily but in silence first of all i dismembered the corpse i cut off the head and the arms and the legs i then took up three planks from the flooring of the chamber and deposited all between the scantlings i then replaced the boards so cleverly so cunningly that no human eye not even his could have detected any thing wrong there was nothing to wash out no stain of any kind no bloodspot whatever i had been too wary for that a tub had caught all ha ha when i had made an end of these labors it was four o clock still dark as midnight as the bell sounded the hour there came a knocking at the street door i went down to open it with a light heart for what had i now to fear there entered three men who introduced themselves with perfect suavity as officers of the police a shriek had been heard by a neighbour during the night suspicion of foul play had been aroused information had been lodged at the police office and they the officers had been deputed to search the premises i smiled for what had i to fear i bade the gentlemen welcome the shriek i said was my own in a dream the old man i mentioned was absent in the country i took my visitors all over the house i bade them search search well i led them at length to his chamber i showed them his treasures secure undisturbed in the enthusiasm of my confidence i brought chairs into the room and desired them here to rest from their fatigues while i myself in the wild audacity of my perfect triumph placed my own seat upon the very spot beneath which reposed the corpse of the victim the officers were satisfied my manner had convinced them i was singularly at ease they sat and while i answered cheerily they chatted of familiar things but ere long i felt myself getting pale and wished them gone my head ached and i fancied a ringing in my ears but still they sat and still chatted the ringing became more distinct it continued and became more distinct i talked more freely to get rid of the feeling but it continued and gained definiteness until at length i found that the noise was not within my ears no doubt i now grew very pale but i talked more fluently and with a heightened voice yet the sound increased and what could i do it was a low dull quick sound much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton i gasped for breath and yet the officers heard it not i talked more quickly more vehemently but the noise steadily increased i arose and argued about trifles in a high key and with violent gesticulations but the noise steadily increased why would they not be gone i paced the floor to and fro with heavy strides as if excited to fury by the observations of the men but the noise steadily increased oh god what could i do i foamed i raved i swore i swung the chair upon which i had been sitting and grated it upon the boards but the noise arose over all and continually increased it grew louder louder louder and still the men chatted pleasantly and smiled was it possible they heard not almighty god no no they heard they suspected they knew they were making a mockery of my horrorthis i thought and this i think but anything was better than this agony anything was more tolerable than this derision i could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer i felt that i must scream or die and now again hark louder louder louder louder villains i shrieked dissemble no more i admit the deed tear up the planks here here it is the beating of his hideous heart
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def cosine_similarity_manual(vec1, vec2):
    dot_product = sum(vec1[word] * vec2.get(word, 0) for word in vec1)
    norm1 = sum(val ** 2 for val in vec1.values()) ** 0.5
    norm2 = sum(val ** 2 for val in vec2.values()) ** 0.5
    if norm1 == 0 or norm2 == 0:
        return 0
    return dot_product / (norm1 * norm2)

def filter_freq_dict(freq_dict, threshold=100):
    """
    Remove words that occur more than `threshold` times.
    """
    return {word: count for word, count in freq_dict.items() if count <= threshold}

def search_poem(poem_db, poem_text):
    cleaned_poem_text = clean_text(poem_text)
    query_freq_dict = {}
    for word in cleaned_poem_text.split():
        query_freq_dict[word] = query_freq_dict.get(word, 0) + 1

    # Remove words that occur more than 150 times in the query
    query_freq_dict = filter_freq_dict(query_freq_dict, threshold=150)

    best_match = None
    best_score = -1

    for poem_id, (freq_dict, _) in poem_db.items():
        # Remove words that occur more than 150 times in the poem
        filtered_freq_dict = filter_freq_dict(freq_dict, threshold=150)
        similarity = cosine_similarity_manual(query_freq_dict, filtered_freq_dict)
        if similarity > best_score:
            best_score = similarity
            best_match = poem_id

    return best_match

text_data = pd.read_csv('/content/drive/My Drive/ES670MM/dataset/A/preprocessed_data.csv', header=0)['text']
text_data = text_data.to_numpy()
print(f'Total poems: {text_data.shape}')

text_data = np.array([clean_text(text) for text in text_data])

Total poems: (70,)

poem_db = create_lookup_table(text_data)

for search_item in search_lst:
    matched_poem_idx = search_poem(poem_db, search_item)
    search_result = reconstruct_poem(poem_db, matched_poem_idx)
    print('='*10)
    print(f'For search text: {search_item}')
    print('Found poem: ')
    print(search_result)
    print('='*10)

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For search text: i am a business man i am a methodical man method is the thing after all but there are no people
Found poem: 
true nervous very very dreadfully nervous i had been and am but why will you say that i am mad the disease had sharpened my senses not destroyed not dulled them above all was the sense of hearing acute i heard all things in the heaven and in the earth i heard many things in hell how then am i mad hearken and observe how healthily how calmly i can tell you the whole story it is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain but once conceived it haunted me day and night object there was none passion there was none i loved the old man he had never wronged me he had never given me insult for his gold i had no desire i think it was his eye yes it was this he had the eye of a vulture a pale blue eye with a film over it whenever it fell upon me my blood ran cold and so by degrees very gradually i made up my mind to take the life of the old man and thus rid myself of the eye forever now this is the point you fancy me mad madmen know nothing but you should have seen me you should have seen how wisely i proceeded with what caution with what foresight with what dissimulation i went to work i was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before i killed him and every night about midnight i turned the latch of his door and opened it oh so gently and then when i had made an opening sufficient for my head i put in a dark lantern all closed closed that no light shone out and then i thrust in my head oh you would have laughed to see how cunningly i thrust it in i moved it slowly very very slowly so that i might not disturb the old man s sleep it took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that i could see him as he lay upon his bed ha would a madman have been so wise as this and then when my head was well in the room i undid the lantern cautiously oh so cautiously cautiously for the hinges creaked i undid it just so much that a single thin ray fell upon the vulture eye and this i did for seven long nights every night just at midnight but i found the eye always closed and so it was impossible to do the work for it was not the old man who vexed me but his evil eye and every morning when the day broke i went boldly into the chamber and spoke courageously to him calling him by name in a hearty tone and inquiring how he has passed the night so you see he would have been a very profound old man indeed to suspect that every night just at twelve i looked in upon him while he slept upon the eighth night i was more than usually cautious in opening the door a watch s minute hand moves more quickly than did mine never before that night had i felt the extent of my own powers of my sagacity i could scarcely contain my feelings of triumph to think that there i was opening the door little by little and he not even to dream of my secret deeds or thoughts i fairly chuckled at the idea and perhaps he heard me for he moved on the bed suddenly as if startled now you may think that i drew back but no his room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness for the shutters were close fastened through fear of robbers and so i knew that he could not see the opening of the door and i kept pushing it on steadily steadily i had my head in and was about to open the lantern when my thumb slipped upon the tin fastening and the old man sprang up in bed crying out who s there i kept quite still and said nothing for a whole hour i did not move a muscle and in the meantime i did not hear him lie down he was still sitting up in the bed listening just as i have done night after night hearkening to the death watches in the wall presently i heard a slight groan and i knew it was the groan of mortal terror it was not a groan of pain or of grief oh no it was the low stifled sound that arises from the bottom of the soul when overcharged with awe i knew the sound well many a night just at midnight when all the world slept it has welled up from my own bosom deepening with its dreadful echo the terrors that distracted me i say i knew it well i knew what the old man felt and pitied him although i chuckled at heart i knew that he had been lying awake ever since the first slight noise when he had turned in the bed his fears had been ever since growing upon him he had been trying to fancy them causeless but could not he had been saying to himself it is nothing but the wind in the chimney it is only a mouse crossing the floor or it is merely a cricket which has made a single chirp yes he had been trying to comfort himself with these suppositions but he had found all in vain all in vain because death in approaching him had stalked with his black shadow before him and enveloped the victim and it was the mournful influence of the unperceived shadow that caused him to feel although he neither saw nor heard to feel the presence of my head within the room when i had waited a long time very patiently without hearing him lie down i resolved to open a little a very very little crevice in the lantern so i opened it you cannot imagine how stealthily stealthily until at length a simple dim ray like the thread of the spider shot from out the crevice and fell full upon the vulture eye it was open wide wide open and i grew furious as i gazed upon it i saw it with perfect distinctness all a dull blue with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones but i could see nothing else of the old man s face or person for i had directed the ray as if by instinct precisely upon the damned spot and have i not told you that what you mistake for madness is but overacuteness of the sense now i say there came to my ears a low dull quick sound such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton i knew that sound well too it was the beating of the old man s heart it increased my fury as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage but even yet i refrained and kept still i scarcely breathed i held the lantern motionless i tried how steadily i could maintain the ray upon the eve meantime the hellish tattoo of the heart increased it grew quicker and quicker and louder and louder every instant the old man s terror must have been extreme it grew louder i say louder every moment do you mark me well i have told you that i am nervous so i am and now at the dead hour of the night amid the dreadful silence of that old house so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror yet for some minutes longer i refrained and stood still but the beating grew louder louder i thought the heart must burst and now a new anxiety seized me the sound would be heard by a neighbour the old man s hour had come with a loud yell i threw open the lantern and leaped into the room he shrieked once once only in an instant i dragged him to the floor and pulled the heavy bed over him i then smiled gaily to find the deed so far done but for many minutes the heart beat on with a muffled sound this however did not vex me it would not be heard through the wall at length it ceased the old man was dead i removed the bed and examined the corpse yes he was stone stone dead i placed my hand upon the heart and held it there many minutes there was no pulsation he was stone dead his eye would trouble me no more if still you think me mad you will think so no longer when i describe the wise precautions i took for the concealment of the body the night waned and i worked hastily but in silence first of all i dismembered the corpse i cut off the head and the arms and the legs i then took up three planks from the flooring of the chamber and deposited all between the scantlings i then replaced the boards so cleverly so cunningly that no human eye not even his could have detected any thing wrong there was nothing to wash out no stain of any kind no bloodspot whatever i had been too wary for that a tub had caught all ha ha when i had made an end of these labors it was four o clock still dark as midnight as the bell sounded the hour there came a knocking at the street door i went down to open it with a light heart for what had i now to fear there entered three men who introduced themselves with perfect suavity as officers of the police a shriek had been heard by a neighbour during the night suspicion of foul play had been aroused information had been lodged at the police office and they the officers had been deputed to search the premises i smiled for what had i to fear i bade the gentlemen welcome the shriek i said was my own in a dream the old man i mentioned was absent in the country i took my visitors all over the house i bade them search search well i led them at length to his chamber i showed them his treasures secure undisturbed in the enthusiasm of my confidence i brought chairs into the room and desired them here to rest from their fatigues while i myself in the wild audacity of my perfect triumph placed my own seat upon the very spot beneath which reposed the corpse of the victim the officers were satisfied my manner had convinced them i was singularly at ease they sat and while i answered cheerily they chatted of familiar things but ere long i felt myself getting pale and wished them gone my head ached and i fancied a ringing in my ears but still they sat and still chatted the ringing became more distinct it continued and became more distinct i talked more freely to get rid of the feeling but it continued and gained definiteness until at length i found that the noise was not within my ears no doubt i now grew very pale but i talked more fluently and with a heightened voice yet the sound increased and what could i do it was a low dull quick sound much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton i gasped for breath and yet the officers heard it not i talked more quickly more vehemently but the noise steadily increased i arose and argued about trifles in a high key and with violent gesticulations but the noise steadily increased why would they not be gone i paced the floor to and fro with heavy strides as if excited to fury by the observations of the men but the noise steadily increased oh god what could i do i foamed i raved i swore i swung the chair upon which i had been sitting and grated it upon the boards but the noise arose over all and continually increased it grew louder louder louder and still the men chatted pleasantly and smiled was it possible they heard not almighty god no no they heard they suspected they knew they were making a mockery of my horrorthis i thought and this i think but anything was better than this agony anything was more tolerable than this derision i could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer i felt that i must scream or die and now again hark louder louder louder louder villains i shrieked dissemble no more i admit the deed tear up the planks here here it is the beating of his hideous heart
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For search text: as it is well known that the  wise men  came  from the east  and as mr touchandgo bullethead came from the east it follows that mr bullethead
Found poem: 
as it is well known that the wise men came from the east and as mr touchandgo bullethead came from the east it follows that mr bullethead was a wise man and if collateral proof of the matter be needed here we have it mr b was an editor irascibility was his sole foible for in fact the obstinacy of which men accused him was anything but his foible since he justly considered it his forte it was his strong point his virtue and it would have required all the logic of a brownson to convince him that it was anything else i have shown that touchandgo bullethead was a wise man and the only occasion on which he did not prove infallible was when abandoning that legitimate home for all wise men the east he migrated to the city of alexanderthegreatonopolis or some place of a similar title out west i must do him the justice to say however that when he made up his mind finally to settle in that town it was under the impression that no newspaper and consequently no editor existed in that particular section of the country in establishing the teapot he expected to have the field all to himself i feel confident he never would have dreamed of taking up his residence in alexanderthegreatonopolis had he been aware that in alexanderthegreatonopolis there lived a gentleman named john smith if i rightly remember who for many years had there quietly grown fat in editing and publishing the alexanderthegreatonopolis gazette it was solely therefore on account of having been misinformed that mr bullethead found himself in alexsuppose we call it nopolis for short but as he did find himself there he determined to keep up his character for obst for firmness and remain so remain he did and he did more he unpacked his press type etc etc rented an office exactly opposite to that of the gazette and on the third morning after his arrival issued the first number of the alexan that is to say of the nopolis teapot as nearly as i can recollect this was the name of the new paper the leading article i must admit was brilliant not to say severe it was especially bitter about things in general and as for the editor of the gazette he was torn all to pieces in particular some of bullethead s remarks were really so fiery that i have always since that time been forced to look upon john smith who is still alive in the light of a salamander i cannot pretend to give all the teapot s paragraphs verbatim but one of them runs thus oh yes oh we perceive oh no doubt the editor over the way is a genius o my oh goodness gracious what is this world coming to oh tempora oh moses a philippic at once so caustic and so classical alighted like a bombshell among the hitherto peaceful citizens of nopolis groups of excited individuals gathered at the corners of the streets every one awaited with heartfelt anxiety the reply of the dignified smith next morning it appeared as follows we quote from the teapot of yesterday the subjoined paragraph oh yes oh we perceive oh no doubt oh my oh goodness oh tempora oh moses why the fellow is all o that accounts for his reasoning in a circle and explains why there is neither beginning nor end to him nor to anything he says we really do not believe the vagabond can write a word that hasn t an o in it wonder if this oing is a habit of his bytheby he came away from downeast in a great hurry wonder if he o s as much there as he does here o it is pitiful the indignation of mr bullethead at these scandalous insinuations i shall not attempt to describe on the eelskinning principle however he did not seem to be so much incensed at the attack upon his integrity as one might have imagined it was the sneer at his style that drove him to desperation what he touchandgo bullethead not able to write a word without an o in it he would soon let the jackanapes see that he was mistaken yes he would let him see how much he was mistaken the puppy he touchandgo bullethead of frogpondium would let mr john smith perceive that he bullethead could indite if it so pleased him a whole paragraph aye a whole article in which that contemptible vowel should not once not even once make its appearance but no that would be yielding a point to the said john smith he bullethead would make no alteration in his style to suit the caprices of any mr smith in christendom perish so vile a thought the o forever he would persist in the o he would be as owy as owy could be burning with the chivalry of this determination the great touchandgo in the next teapot came out merely with this simple but resolute paragraph in reference to this unhappy affair the editor of the teapot has the honor of advising the editor of the gazette that he the teapot will take an opportunity in tomorrow morning s paper of convincing him the gazette that he the teapot both can and will be his own master as regards style he the teapot intending to show him the gazette the supreme and indeed the withering contempt with which the criticism of him the gazette inspires the independent bosom of him the teapot by composing for the especial gratification of him the gazette a leading article of some extent in which the beautiful vowel the emblem of eternity yet so offensive to the hyperexquisite delicacy of him the gazette shall most certainly not be avoided by his the gazette s most obedient humble servant the teapot so much for buckingham in fulfilment of the awful threat thus darkly intimated rather than decidedly enunciated the great bullethead turning a deaf ear to all entreaties for copy and simply requesting his foreman to go to the d l when he the foreman assured him the teapot that it was high time to go to press turning a deaf ear to everything i say the great bullethead sat up until daybreak consuming the midnight oil and absorbed in the composition of the really unparalleled paragraph which follows so ho john how now told you so you know don t crow another time before you re out of the woods does your mother know you re out oh no no so go home at once now john to your odious old woods of concord go home to your woods old owl go you won t oh poh poh don t do so you ve got to go you know so go at once and don t go slow for nobody owns you here you know oh john john if you don t go you re no homo no you re only a fowl an owl a cow a sow a doll a poll a poor old goodfornothingtonobody log dog hog or frog come out of a concord bog cool now cool do be cool you fool none of your crowing old cock don t frown so don t don t hollo nor howl nor growl nor bowwowwow good lord john how you do look told you so you know but stop rolling your goose of an old poll about so and go and drown your sorrows in a bowl exhausted very naturally by so stupendous an effort the great touchandgo could attend to nothing farther that night firmly composedly yet with an air of conscious power he handed his ms to the devil in waiting and then walking leisurely home retired with ineffable dignity to bed meantime the devil to whom the copy was entrusted ran up stairs to his case in an unutterable hurry and forthwith made a commencement at setting the ms up in the first place of course as the opening word was so he made a plunge into the capital s hole and came out in triumph with a capital s elated by this success he immediately threw himself upon the littleo box with a blindfold impetuosity but who shall describe his horror when his fingers came up without the anticipated letter in their clutch who shall paint his astonishment and rage at perceiving as he rubbed his knuckles that he had been only thumping them to no purpose against the bottom of an empty box not a single littleo was in the littleo hole and glancing fearfully at the capitalo partition he found that to his extreme terror in a precisely similar predicament awe stricken his first impulse was to rush to the foreman sir said he gasping for breath i can t never set up nothing without no o s what do you mean by that growled the foreman who was in a very ill humor at being kept so late why sir there beant an o in the office neither a big un nor a little un what what the dl has become of all that were in the case i don t know sir said the boy but one of them ere g zette devils is bin prowling bout here all night and i spect he s gone and cabbaged em every one dod rot him i haven t a doubt of it replied the foreman getting purple with rage but i tell you what you do bob that s a good boy you go over the first chance you get and hook every one of their i s and d n them their izzards jist so replied bob with a wink and a frown i ll be into em i ll let em know a thing or two but in de meantime that ere paragrab mus go in tonight you know else there ll be the dl to pay and and not a bit of pitch hot interrupted the foreman with a deep sigh and an emphasis on the bit is it a long paragraph bob shouldn t call it a wery long paragrab said bob ah well then do the best you can with it we must get to press said the foreman who was over head and ears in work just stick in some other letter for o nobody s going to read the fellow s trash anyhow wery well replied bob here goes it and off he hurried to his case muttering as he went considdeble vell them ere expressions perticcler for a man as doesn t swar so i s to gouge out all their eyes eh and dn all their gizzards vell this here s the chap as is just able for to do it the fact is that although bob was but twelve years old and four feet high he was equal to any amount of fight in a small way the exigency here described is by no means of rare occurrence in printingoffices and i cannot tell how to account for it but the fact is indisputable that when the exigency does occur it almost always happens that x is adopted as a substitute for the letter deficient the true reason perhaps is that x is rather the most superabundant letter in the cases or at least was so in the old times long enough to render the substitution in question an habitual thing with printers as for bob he would have considered it heretical to employ any other character in a case of this kind than the x to which he had been accustomed i shell have to x this ere paragrab said he to himself as he read it over in astonishment but it s jest about the awfulest owy paragrab i ever did see so x it he did unflinchingly and to press it went xed next morning the population of nopolis were taken all aback by reading in the teapot the following extraordinary leader sx hx jxhn hxw nxw txld yxu sx yxu knxw dxn t crxw anxther time befxre yxu re xut xf the wxxds dxes yxur mxther knxw yxu re xut xh nx nx sx gx hxme at xnce nxw jxhn tx yxur xdixus xld wxxds xf cxncxrd gx hxme tx yxur wxxds xld xwl gx yxu wxn t xh pxh pxh jxhn dxn t dx sx yxu ve gxt tx gx yxu knxw sx gx at xnce and dxn t gx slxw fxr nxbxdy xwns yxu here yxu knxw xh jxhn jxhn jxhn if yxu dxn t gx yxu re nx hxmx nx yxu re xnly a fxwl an xwl a cxw a sxw a dxll a pxll a pxxr xld gxxdfxrnxthingtxnxbxdy lxg dxg hxg xr frxg cxme xut xf a cxncxrd bxg cxxl nxw cxxl dx be cxxl yxu fxxl nxne xf yxur crxwing xld cxck dxn t frxwn sx dxn t dxn t hxllx nxr hxwl nxr grxwl nxr bxwwxwwxw gxxd lxrd jxhn hxw yxu dx lxxk txld yxu sx yxu knxw but stxp rxlling yxur gxxse xf an xld pxll abxut sx and gx and drxwn yxur sxrrxws in a bxwl the uproar occasioned by this mystical and cabalistical article is not to be conceived the first definite idea entertained by the populace was that some diabolical treason lay concealed in the hieroglyphics and there was a general rush to bullethead s residence for the purpose of riding him on a rail but that gentleman was nowhere to be found he had vanished no one could tell how and not even the ghost of him has ever been seen since unable to discover its legitimate object the popular fury at length subsided leaving behind it by way of sediment quite a medley of opinion about this unhappy affair one gentleman thought the whole an xellent joke another said that indeed bullethead had shown much xuberance of fancy a third admitted him xentric but no more a fourth could only suppose it the yankee s design to xpress in a general way his xasperation say rather to set an xample to posterity suggested a fifth that bullethead had been driven to an extremity was clear to all and in fact since that editor could not be found there was some talk about lynching the other one the more common conclusion however was that the affair was simply xtraordinary and inxplicable even the town mathematician confessed that he could make nothing of so dark a problem x every body knew was an unknown quantity but in this case as he properly observed there was an unknown quantity of x the opinion of bob the devil who kept dark about his having xed the paragrab did not meet with so much attention as i think it deserved although it was very openly and very fearlessly expressed he said that for his part he had no doubt about the matter at all that it was a clear case that mr bullethead never could be persuaded fur to drink like other folks but vas continually asvigging o that ere blessed xxx ale and as a naiteral consekvence it just puffed him up savage and made him x cross in the xtreme
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For search text: as mere mathematician he could not have reasoned at all and thus would have been at the mercy of the prefect
Found poem: 
the chateau into which my valet had ventured to make forcible entrance rather than permit me in my desperately wounded condition to pass a night in the open air was one of those piles of commingled gloom and grandeur which have so long frowned among the appennines not less in fact than in the fancy of mrs radcliffe to all appearance it had been temporarily and very lately abandoned we established ourselves in one of the smallest and least sumptuously furnished apartments it lay in a remote turret of the building its decorations were rich yet tattered and antique its walls were hung with tapestry and bedecked with manifold and multiform armorial trophies together with an unusually great number of very spirited modern paintings in frames of rich golden arabesque in these paintings which depended from the walls not only in their main surfaces but in very many nooks which the bizarre architecture of the chateau rendered necessary in these paintings my incipient delirium perhaps had caused me to take deep interest so that i bade pedro to close the heavy shutters of the room since it was already night to light the tongues of a tall candelabrum which stood by the head of my bed and to throw open far and wide the fringed curtains of black velvet which enveloped the bed itself i wished all this done that i might resign myself if not to sleep at least alternately to the contemplation of these pictures and the perusal of a small volume which had been found upon the pillow and which purported to criticise and describe them long long i read and devoutly devotedly i gazed rapidly and gloriously the hours flew by and the deep midnight came the position of the candelabrum displeased me and outreaching my hand with difficulty rather than disturb my slumbering valet i placed it so as to throw its rays more fully upon the book but the action produced an effect altogether unanticipated the rays of the numerous candles for there were many now fell within a niche of the room which had hitherto been thrown into deep shade by one of the bedposts i thus saw in vivid light a picture all unnoticed before it was the portrait of a young girl just ripening into womanhood i glanced at the painting hurriedly and then closed my eyes why i did this was not at first apparent even to my own perception but while my lids remained thus shut i ran over in my mind my reason for so shutting them it was an impulsive movement to gain time for thought to make sure that my vision had not deceived me to calm and subdue my fancy for a more sober and more certain gaze in a very few moments i again looked fixedly at the painting that i now saw aright i could not and would not doubt for the first flashing of the candles upon that canvas had seemed to dissipate the dreamy stupor which was stealing over my senses and to startle me at once into waking life the portrait i have already said was that of a young girl it was a mere head and shoulders done in what is technically termed a vignette manner much in the style of the favorite heads of sully the arms the bosom and even the ends of the radiant hair melted imperceptibly into the vague yet deep shadow which formed the background of the whole the frame was oval richly gilded and filigreed in moresque as a thing of art nothing could be more admirable than the painting itself but it could have been neither the execution of the work nor the immortal beauty of the countenance which had so suddenly and so vehemently moved me least of all could it have been that my fancy shaken from its half slumber had mistaken the head for that of a living person i saw at once that the peculiarities of the design of the vignetting and of the frame must have instantly dispelled such idea must have prevented even its momentary entertainment thinking earnestly upon these points i remained for an hour perhaps half sitting half reclining with my vision riveted upon the portrait at length satisfied with the true secret of its effect i fell back within the bed i had found the spell of the picture in an absolute lifelikeliness of expression which at first startling finally confounded subdued and appalled me with deep and reverent awe i replaced the candelabrum in its former position the cause of my deep agitation being thus shut from view i sought eagerly the volume which discussed the paintings and their histories turning to the number which designated the oval portrait i there read the vague and quaint words which follow she was a maiden of rarest beauty and not more lovely than full of glee and evil was the hour when she saw and loved and wedded the painter he passionate studious austere and having already a bride in his art she a maiden of rarest beauty and not more lovely than full of glee all light and smiles and frolicsome as the young fawn loving and cherishing all things hating only the art which was her rival dreading only the pallet and brushes and other untoward instruments which deprived her of the countenance of her lover it was thus a terrible thing for this lady to hear the painter speak of his desire to portray even his young bride but she was humble and obedient and sat meekly for many weeks in the dark high turretchamber where the light dripped upon the pale canvas only from overhead but he the painter took glory in his work which went on from hour to hour and from day to day and he was a passionate and wild and moody man who became lost in reveries so that he would not see that the light which fell so ghastly in that lone turret withered the health and the spirits of his bride who pined visibly to all but him yet she smiled on and still on uncomplainingly because she saw that the painter who had high renown took a fervid and burning pleasure in his task and wrought day and night to depict her who so loved him yet who grew daily more dispirited and weak and in sooth some who beheld the portrait spoke of its resemblance in low words as of a mighty marvel and a proof not less of the power of the painter than of his deep love for her whom he depicted so surpassingly well but at length as the labor drew nearer to its conclusion there were admitted none into the turret for the painter had grown wild with the ardor of his work and turned his eyes from canvas merely even to regard the countenance of his wife and he would not see that the tints which he spread upon the canvas were drawn from the cheeks of her who sate beside him and when many weeks had passed and but little remained to do save one brush upon the mouth and one tint upon the eye the spirit of the lady again flickered up as the flame within the socket of the lamp and then the brush was given and then the tint was placed and for one moment the painter stood entranced before the work which he had wrought but in the next while he yet gazed he grew tremulous and very pallid and aghast and crying with a loud voice this is indeed life itself turned suddenly to regard his beloved she was dead
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For search text: i had no desire to oppose what i regarded as at best but a harmless and by no means an unnatural precaution     at the request of usher i personally aided him in the arrangements for the temporary entombment the body having
Found poem: 
true nervous very very dreadfully nervous i had been and am but why will you say that i am mad the disease had sharpened my senses not destroyed not dulled them above all was the sense of hearing acute i heard all things in the heaven and in the earth i heard many things in hell how then am i mad hearken and observe how healthily how calmly i can tell you the whole story it is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain but once conceived it haunted me day and night object there was none passion there was none i loved the old man he had never wronged me he had never given me insult for his gold i had no desire i think it was his eye yes it was this he had the eye of a vulture a pale blue eye with a film over it whenever it fell upon me my blood ran cold and so by degrees very gradually i made up my mind to take the life of the old man and thus rid myself of the eye forever now this is the point you fancy me mad madmen know nothing but you should have seen me you should have seen how wisely i proceeded with what caution with what foresight with what dissimulation i went to work i was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before i killed him and every night about midnight i turned the latch of his door and opened it oh so gently and then when i had made an opening sufficient for my head i put in a dark lantern all closed closed that no light shone out and then i thrust in my head oh you would have laughed to see how cunningly i thrust it in i moved it slowly very very slowly so that i might not disturb the old man s sleep it took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that i could see him as he lay upon his bed ha would a madman have been so wise as this and then when my head was well in the room i undid the lantern cautiously oh so cautiously cautiously for the hinges creaked i undid it just so much that a single thin ray fell upon the vulture eye and this i did for seven long nights every night just at midnight but i found the eye always closed and so it was impossible to do the work for it was not the old man who vexed me but his evil eye and every morning when the day broke i went boldly into the chamber and spoke courageously to him calling him by name in a hearty tone and inquiring how he has passed the night so you see he would have been a very profound old man indeed to suspect that every night just at twelve i looked in upon him while he slept upon the eighth night i was more than usually cautious in opening the door a watch s minute hand moves more quickly than did mine never before that night had i felt the extent of my own powers of my sagacity i could scarcely contain my feelings of triumph to think that there i was opening the door little by little and he not even to dream of my secret deeds or thoughts i fairly chuckled at the idea and perhaps he heard me for he moved on the bed suddenly as if startled now you may think that i drew back but no his room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness for the shutters were close fastened through fear of robbers and so i knew that he could not see the opening of the door and i kept pushing it on steadily steadily i had my head in and was about to open the lantern when my thumb slipped upon the tin fastening and the old man sprang up in bed crying out who s there i kept quite still and said nothing for a whole hour i did not move a muscle and in the meantime i did not hear him lie down he was still sitting up in the bed listening just as i have done night after night hearkening to the death watches in the wall presently i heard a slight groan and i knew it was the groan of mortal terror it was not a groan of pain or of grief oh no it was the low stifled sound that arises from the bottom of the soul when overcharged with awe i knew the sound well many a night just at midnight when all the world slept it has welled up from my own bosom deepening with its dreadful echo the terrors that distracted me i say i knew it well i knew what the old man felt and pitied him although i chuckled at heart i knew that he had been lying awake ever since the first slight noise when he had turned in the bed his fears had been ever since growing upon him he had been trying to fancy them causeless but could not he had been saying to himself it is nothing but the wind in the chimney it is only a mouse crossing the floor or it is merely a cricket which has made a single chirp yes he had been trying to comfort himself with these suppositions but he had found all in vain all in vain because death in approaching him had stalked with his black shadow before him and enveloped the victim and it was the mournful influence of the unperceived shadow that caused him to feel although he neither saw nor heard to feel the presence of my head within the room when i had waited a long time very patiently without hearing him lie down i resolved to open a little a very very little crevice in the lantern so i opened it you cannot imagine how stealthily stealthily until at length a simple dim ray like the thread of the spider shot from out the crevice and fell full upon the vulture eye it was open wide wide open and i grew furious as i gazed upon it i saw it with perfect distinctness all a dull blue with a hideous veil over it that chilled the very marrow in my bones but i could see nothing else of the old man s face or person for i had directed the ray as if by instinct precisely upon the damned spot and have i not told you that what you mistake for madness is but overacuteness of the sense now i say there came to my ears a low dull quick sound such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton i knew that sound well too it was the beating of the old man s heart it increased my fury as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage but even yet i refrained and kept still i scarcely breathed i held the lantern motionless i tried how steadily i could maintain the ray upon the eve meantime the hellish tattoo of the heart increased it grew quicker and quicker and louder and louder every instant the old man s terror must have been extreme it grew louder i say louder every moment do you mark me well i have told you that i am nervous so i am and now at the dead hour of the night amid the dreadful silence of that old house so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror yet for some minutes longer i refrained and stood still but the beating grew louder louder i thought the heart must burst and now a new anxiety seized me the sound would be heard by a neighbour the old man s hour had come with a loud yell i threw open the lantern and leaped into the room he shrieked once once only in an instant i dragged him to the floor and pulled the heavy bed over him i then smiled gaily to find the deed so far done but for many minutes the heart beat on with a muffled sound this however did not vex me it would not be heard through the wall at length it ceased the old man was dead i removed the bed and examined the corpse yes he was stone stone dead i placed my hand upon the heart and held it there many minutes there was no pulsation he was stone dead his eye would trouble me no more if still you think me mad you will think so no longer when i describe the wise precautions i took for the concealment of the body the night waned and i worked hastily but in silence first of all i dismembered the corpse i cut off the head and the arms and the legs i then took up three planks from the flooring of the chamber and deposited all between the scantlings i then replaced the boards so cleverly so cunningly that no human eye not even his could have detected any thing wrong there was nothing to wash out no stain of any kind no bloodspot whatever i had been too wary for that a tub had caught all ha ha when i had made an end of these labors it was four o clock still dark as midnight as the bell sounded the hour there came a knocking at the street door i went down to open it with a light heart for what had i now to fear there entered three men who introduced themselves with perfect suavity as officers of the police a shriek had been heard by a neighbour during the night suspicion of foul play had been aroused information had been lodged at the police office and they the officers had been deputed to search the premises i smiled for what had i to fear i bade the gentlemen welcome the shriek i said was my own in a dream the old man i mentioned was absent in the country i took my visitors all over the house i bade them search search well i led them at length to his chamber i showed them his treasures secure undisturbed in the enthusiasm of my confidence i brought chairs into the room and desired them here to rest from their fatigues while i myself in the wild audacity of my perfect triumph placed my own seat upon the very spot beneath which reposed the corpse of the victim the officers were satisfied my manner had convinced them i was singularly at ease they sat and while i answered cheerily they chatted of familiar things but ere long i felt myself getting pale and wished them gone my head ached and i fancied a ringing in my ears but still they sat and still chatted the ringing became more distinct it continued and became more distinct i talked more freely to get rid of the feeling but it continued and gained definiteness until at length i found that the noise was not within my ears no doubt i now grew very pale but i talked more fluently and with a heightened voice yet the sound increased and what could i do it was a low dull quick sound much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton i gasped for breath and yet the officers heard it not i talked more quickly more vehemently but the noise steadily increased i arose and argued about trifles in a high key and with violent gesticulations but the noise steadily increased why would they not be gone i paced the floor to and fro with heavy strides as if excited to fury by the observations of the men but the noise steadily increased oh god what could i do i foamed i raved i swore i swung the chair upon which i had been sitting and grated it upon the boards but the noise arose over all and continually increased it grew louder louder louder and still the men chatted pleasantly and smiled was it possible they heard not almighty god no no they heard they suspected they knew they were making a mockery of my horrorthis i thought and this i think but anything was better than this agony anything was more tolerable than this derision i could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer i felt that i must scream or die and now again hark louder louder louder louder villains i shrieked dissemble no more i admit the deed tear up the planks here here it is the beating of his hideous heart
==========

# Loading all the images in the drive
mean_images = []
mean_img_classes = []
search_images = []
search_img_classes = []

for files in tqdm(natsorted(glob('/content/drive/My Drive/ES670MM/dataset/A/images/mean_images/*'))):
    mean_images.append(cv2.imread(files, 1))
    mean_img_classes.append(os.path.splitext(os.path.basename(files))[0])

for files in tqdm(natsorted(glob('/content/drive/My Drive/ES670MM/dataset/A/images/search_images/*'))):
    search_images.append(cv2.imread(files, 1))
    search_img_classes.append(os.path.splitext(os.path.basename(files))[0].split('_')[0])

mean_images = np.array(mean_images) # Only possible because all images are of same size
search_images = np.array(search_images)

100%|██████████| 11/11 [00:02<00:00,  4.06it/s]
100%|██████████| 110/110 [00:01<00:00, 60.45it/s]

show_image_grid(mean_images, 3, 5, 'Mean Images', figsize=8)
show_image_grid(search_images, 10, 10, 'Search Images', figsize=8)

<Figure size 640x480 with 0 Axes>

<Figure size 640x480 with 0 Axes>

def image_lookup_fn(mean_images, query_image, mean_img_classes):
    # Write your code here
    # You have to search among mean_images which one is closest to the query image
    # return the class of mean image which has the highest matching score
    best = -1
    best_match_idx = -1

    query_image = query_image / 255.0

    for idx, img in enumerate(mean_images):
        img = img / 255.0

        # Compute norms
        norm_img = np.linalg.norm(img)
        norm_query = np.linalg.norm(query_image)

        if norm_img == 0 or norm_query == 0:
            continue

        cosine_similarity = np.dot(img.flatten(), query_image.flatten()) / (norm_img * norm_query)

        if cosine_similarity > best:
            best = cosine_similarity
            best_match_idx = idx

    return mean_img_classes[best_match_idx]

pred_classes = []
cluster_images = {}

for query_image in tqdm(search_images):
    pred_classes.append(image_lookup_fn(mean_images, query_image, mean_img_classes))
    if pred_classes[-1] in cluster_images:
        cluster_images[pred_classes[-1]].append(query_image)
    else:
        cluster_images[pred_classes[-1]] = [query_image]

for class_name, img_lst in cluster_images.items():
    img_lst = np.array(img_lst)
    M = img_lst.shape[0]//10 + 1
    N = img_lst.shape[0]%10 + 1
    show_image_grid(img_lst, M, N, f'Search Class: {class_name}', figsize=8)

100%|██████████| 110/110 [00:00<00:00, 720.87it/s]

<Figure size 640x480 with 0 Axes>

<Figure size 640x480 with 0 Axes>

<Figure size 640x480 with 0 Axes>

<Figure size 640x480 with 0 Axes>

<Figure size 640x480 with 0 Axes>

<Figure size 640x480 with 0 Axes>

<Figure size 640x480 with 0 Axes>

<Figure size 640x480 with 0 Axes>

<Figure size 640x480 with 0 Axes>

# Calculate the accruacy (pred_classes, search_img_classes)
accuracy = np.sum(np.array(pred_classes) == np.array(search_img_classes)) / len(pred_classes)
accuracy

0.2636363636363636

Importing Libraries¶

Q1: Searching Poems [5 Marks]¶

Base Code¶

Write Your Code¶

Poem Search with Frequency Filtering Using Cosine Similarity¶

Q2: Searching Photos [5 Marks]¶

Loading the mean and search images¶

References¶