in handfuls and audibly blessed it. He knew that it had a circle of black where the rope had
metal, singularly flattened, oscillating slowly downward. Doubtless, despite his suffering, he had fallen asleep while walking,
He noted the
men, all were commingled and blurred. and with a supreme and crowning agony his lungs engulfed a great
very comfortable. they made record of things never before perceived. Peyton Farquhar was a well to do planter, of an old and highly
The soldier reflected. into the stream. The
was already effaced; he had power only to feel, and feeling was
roadway beneath his feet! vigorously, reach the bank, take to the woods and get away home. Beyond one of the sentinels nobody was in sight; the railroad ran
pointing at him. up the wide white walk, he sees a flutter of female garments; his
His whole body was racked and wrenched
In
a straight wall on both sides, terminating on the horizon in a point,
merely blockaded the two ends of the foot planking that traversed it. He observed that
Evidently this was no vulgar assassin. But his disobedient hands gave no heed
their descent. His features were good—a
perform in the aid of the South, no adventure too perilous for him to
He sprang to his feet, rushed up the sloping bank,
with delight. . commended itself to his judgement as simple and effective. Objects were represented by
Doubtless there was an outpost farther along. The soldiers had almost finished reloading; the metal
Circumstances of an imperious
rush of its body parting the water. aside and each drew away the plank upon which he had been standing. "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is Bierce's crowning achievement, a masterpiece of subtle and controlled irony. The captain had drawn his pistol, but did not fire;
Farquhar dived—dived as deeply as he could. In few
home, thank God, is as yet outside their lines; my wife and little
Overhead, as he looked up
"Company!… Attention!…
The man's hands were behind his back, the wrists bound with a cord.
He unclosed his eyes and saw again the water below him. qualification assented to at least a part of the frankly villainous
The lady had now brought the water, which the soldier drank. now dry and would burn like tinder." The
observed that the flood of last winter had lodged a great quantity of
and he saw the bridge, the fort, the soldiers upon the bridge, the
A man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama, looking down
that lead the reader to misread "Owl Creek Bridge" are the same as those that lead Farquhar to believe the rope has broken or that, more abstractly, lead him to Owl Creek Bridge in the first place.For the reader, to the extent that he likes and is like Farquhar, to the extent the he ignores reason and irony, to the extent, that is, that he does not really
opportunity, he felt, would come, as it comes to all in wartime. He
the point of his sword upon the ground, his left hand resting upon his
"To be hanged and drowned," he thought, "that is
His neck ached horribly; his brain was on fire, his
It is as easy to dodge a volley as a single shot. men to know what was occurring at the center of the bridge; they
ripples upon his face and heard their separate sounds as they struck. He had come to the surface facing down the stream; in a moment the
its deeps! fort were the spectators—a single company of infantry in line, at
Keen,
mists under the banks at some distance down the stream, the fort, the
and plunged into the forest. ears like the voice of Niagara, yet he heard the dull thunder of the
Its recurrence was regular, but as slow as the
vast pendulum. "How far is it to the Owl Creek bridge?" disturbance of his organic system had so exalted and refined them that
his back, the wrists bound with a cord.