“Yes, as you can see from the small contingency of police here, we had, what we thought, a break-in… but it’s been decided that apparently it was faulty wiring in the alarm system.”
“I assure you, it’s very safe to tour the downstairs winery in the catacombs.”
“At this very spot Montresor, a favored character of Poe, invited Fortunato for his last sip of ‘the wine of very fine vintage’.”
“This back wall was the tomb of the imprisoned.”
One of the teens in the group interrupted. “Did you know the masonry between these bricks is moist to the touch?”
FYI: There was a legend in the time of Poe (while he was stationed at Fort Independence) of a sword dual between Lieutenant Robert Massie and Lieutenant Gustavus Drane because of a dispute in a card game. Lieutenant Massie killed Lieutenant Drane. Friends of Lieutenant Drane’s chained Massie to a vault in the inner walls of this cellar… imprisoning him by building a secondary wall.
The legend is not true.
The sword fight did happen on Christmas Day 1817. . Massie was court-martialed and acquitted of all charges. Massie death is record it have happened in 1846.
Written for Friday Fictioneers.
It's All in Finding the Right Words 
such a fine inside literary scoop
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Thanks. I just found out about this today…
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