Macabre stories

1. What is the story of the P&P about?
A man is in a room without light. He attempts to figure out his rooms shape, and ends up almost falling down a pit. Later he is drugged by the food the captors give him. He ends up strapped to a table with a big pendulum holding a giant blade that slowly descends. In order to save himself, he takes the beef they allowed him to have as a last meal, and smothers his bindings in their juices, prompting the rats to eat at them. He is released just before the blade would have killed him, only to have the walls move towards the center pit. He would have fallen in if a man did not grab his arm. That man is an officer in charge of releasing all the prisoners at the end of the Inquisition.