Chapter One<br > The<br > Rotting Apple<br >PRINCE PROSPERO was an indefatigable, some might say an imper-<br >vious man. The plague of the "Red Death" had entered the homes<br >of half his minions, causing rapid bleeding and sudden death. But<br >Prince Prospero remained undaunted. As told by Edgar Allan Poe<br >in The Masque of the Red Death, the Prince blithely summoned a<br >thousand of his heartiest knights and dames and retreated to a<br >magnificent castle, where they would defy the contagion.<br > A lofty wall stood between them and the populace, its gates<br >made of iron and, as an extra precaution, sealed with sturdy bolts.<br >There was no need to step outside the palace:<br >it was folly to grieve, or to think. The prince had provided all the ap-<br >pliances of pleasure. There were buffoons, there were improvisatori,<br >there were ballet-dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty,<br >there was wine. All these and security were within. Without was the<br >"Red Death."<br > Gaiety prevailed. For six months, they partied and danced to the<br >music of a full orchestra, waltzed freely through the seven brightly<br >colored chambers, paused to listen to the chimes from the giant<br >ebony clock, ignored the bright sun which was tamed by thick,<br >beautiful stained-glass Gothic windows. Prince Prospero was con-<br >tent. Yet he wished to do something new, something different, some-<br >
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