<span>The story begins with the narrator receiving a death sentence from the court of the Inquisition for an unknown crime. He describes the implacable horror of the judges as they announce their decrees, although the narrator himself is too overwhelmed with fear to understand their words and falls into a faint while longing for death. He awakens in darkness, wondering how much of what he remembers was a dream and how much was reality. At first, he swings between terror and confusion, but he then tries to remember the events of the past few days before opening his eyes. Realizing that he is unbound and in a dark dungeon, he reasons that he must not have been at an auto-da-fe, the typical manner of execution for those who ran afoul of the Inquisition. Instead of the public prayer and ceremonies that would have led to an auto-da-fe execution, he has been probably been placed in one of the dungeons of Toledo, a place known for particularly cruel tortures and punishments.</span>
