Identify and discuss quotation: Edgar Allan Poe , The Pit and the...

Identify and discuss quotation: Edgar Allan Poe , The Pit and the Pendulum " : I had advanced some ten or twelve paces in this manner , when the remnant of the hem of my robe became entangled between my legs . I stepped on it and fell violently on my face . In the confusion attending my fall I did not immediately apprehend a somewhat startling circumstance , which yet in a few seconds afterward , and while I still lay prostrate , arrested my attention . It was this -- my chin rested upon the floor of the prison , but my lips and the upper portion of my head , although seemingly at a less elevation than the chin touched nothing . At the same time my forehead seemed bathed in a clammy vapor , and the peculiar smell of decayed fungus arose to my nostrils . I put forward my arm , and shuddered to find that I had fallen at the very brink of a circular pit whose extent , of course , I had no means of ascertaining at the moment . Groping about the masonry just below the margin I succeeded in dislodging a small fragment , and let it fall into the abyss . For many seconds I hearkened to its reverberations as it dashed against the sides of the chasm in its descent ; at length there was a sullen plunge into water , succeeded by loud echoes . At the same moment there came a sound resembling the quick opening and as rapid closing of a door overhead while a faint gleam of light flashed suddenly through the gloom , and as suddenly faded away .