Answer: The French army takes over the city.
In "The Pit and the Pendulum," a man has been tried by the Spanish Inquisition and found to be guilty. He is now imprisoned in a cell, and in the middle of the cell, there is a pit. After almost falling into it, we later find the character tied to a wooden board, with a sharp pendulum hanging over him. The speaker is eventually liberated when the French Army take over the city of Toledo.
