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The sentence—the dread sentence of death—was the last of distinct accentuation which reached my ears. After that, the sound of the inquisitorial voices seemed merged in one dreamy indeterminate hum. It conveyed to my soul the idea of revolution,—perhaps from its association in fancy with the burr of a mill-wheel.
This quotation comes near the beginning of the story, just as the narrator is given his death sentence. The inquisitors here enact their despotic power over life and death: the force of tyranny. However, when the narrator blurs the voices in his mind, he thinks of revolution. We can read this moment as the narrator wanting to revolt against the tyranny of the inquisitorial voices, changing their pronouncement of death to “the burr of a mill-wheel,” signifying industry and progress.
There was a loud blast as of many trumpets! There was a discordant hum of human voices! There was a harsh grating as of a thousand thunders! The fiery walls rushed back! An outstretched arm caught my own as I fell fainting into the abyss.
Just before the narrator is forced into the pit by the closing walls, the trumpets announce the arrival of the French general Lasalle, cementing the narrator’s liberation. France styled itself as a republic that privileged the ideals of the European Enlightenment. Hence, this moment signifies the freedom of humanist ideals over the tyranny of the Inquisition’s superstition. In addition, the “discordant hum of human voices” here contrasts with the “indeterminate hum” of the inquisitors. Whereas the inquisitors speak as one, despotic sound, the French are discordant, suggesting individuals speaking their minds freely.
